 After his tour at Philadelphia, Woodward was ordered to his first command, , a Civil War vintage wooden-hulled screw gunboat.Under his command, "Yantic"s crew took part in celebrations attending the unveiling of the statue of Admiral David G. Farragut in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 1881, before sailing later that spring to Mexican waters.In June, at Progreso, Yucatán, she investigated the detention of the American bark "Acacia" before returning northward to familiar waters off the eastern seaboard of the United States."