Lt. Walter R. Gherardi

On 16 December 1907, Yankton departed Hampton Roads to accompany the "Great White Fleet" on its round-the-world cruise under Lt. Walter R. Gherardi. Prior to the fleet visit to Puget Sound from San Francisco, Yankton was placed under Lt. Commander Charles B. McVay. She visited Trinidad in the British West Indies and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on her way around Cape Horn. During the passage up the western coast of South America, she made six stops in Chilean ports-most notably Punta Arenas and Valparaiso and one at Callao, Peru. After a short side trip to the Galapagos Islands during the first week in March and stops at Acapulco and Magdalena Bay in Mexico, she reached San Diego, California, on the 31st. She remained on the west coast until 30 June, when the fleet departed San Francisco, bound for Honolulu, Hawaii. From there, the yacht moved on to Tutuila, Samoa and thence to New Zealand. After a visit to Auckland from 10 to 16 August, she steamed on to Australia where she made stops at Sydney and at Thursday Island.

On 9 September, Yankton set a course for the Philippine Islands, reached Manila Bay on the 18th and remained in the Philippines through the first week in October. While there, the yacht visited Cavite, Manila and Olongapo several times each. On 9 October, she cleared Olongapo and joined the rest of the Fleet for the voyage to Japan. On 18 October, she arrived in Yokohama and provided services to the Fleet during a nine-day goodwill visit to Japan. After that, the Fleet returned to the Philippines for a month. On 29 November, she departed the Philippines to return to the United States via the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. En route, she stopped at Singapore and Colombo, Ceylon, before transiting the Suez Canal early in January 1909. During her passage through the Mediterranean, the yacht stopped at Messina, Sicily, from 9 to 14 January, to assist the victims of an earthquake that had recently struck that island. From there, the ship continued her voyage-via Villefranche, France; Gibraltar; and Funchal in the Madeira Islands-and arrived at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on 17 February 1909.