Haitian gunboat La Liberté

This article is about Haitian gunboat. For the French battleship named Liberté, see French battleship Liberté.

La Liberté, possibly under his Earl King name before its acquisition by the Haitian government
History
United States
Name	Earl King
Laid down	1909
Launched	1910
Decommissioned	1910
Fate	Acquired by Haitian Navy in same year.
Haiti
Name	La Liberté
Namesake	Liberty
Acquired	1910
Decommissioned	1911
Homeport	Port-au-Prince
Fate	Destroyed by explosion
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship Gunboat
Displacement	500 t
Length	196 ft (60 m)
Beam	26 ft (7.9 m)
Draft	13 ft (4.0 m)
Propulsion	steam engine, single screw
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Armament	2 x 1 - 57/40 Hotchkiss 2 x 1 - 47/40 Hotchkiss 2 x 1 - 37/20 Hotchkiss

La Liberté (trans: Liberty) was a gunboat of the Haitian Navy, which was in service from its acquisition in 1910 until 1911, when it suffered an explosion.

Service history

The vessel was originally launched as a cargo ship under the name of SS Earl King which was modified into a gunboat in 1911 during the Revolution in Haiti.^[1] La Liberté, while in the port of Port-au-Prince, suffered an explosion from which only 23 crew members survived. The ship was declared a total loss.^[2]

References

1. "Record of Current Events". The American Monthly Review of Reviews: 287–290. March 1911.
2. "Haitian Mutineers: To die Twenty-three survivors of gunboat Liberté". The New York Times. 1911. Retrieved 2 May 2022.