USRC Manning (1898)

USRC "Manning" was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service that served from 1898 to 1930, and saw service in the U.S. Navy in the Spanish-American War and World War I.

Commissioning

Designed as a cruising cutter, "Manning" was built by Atlantic Works, East Boston, Massachusetts, for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. She commissioned on 8 January 1898 and was assigned cruising grounds along the New England coast. Her lines were those of ancestral clipper­ cutters, but with a plumb bow instead of the more graceful clipper stem. She and her sister ships USRC "Gresham", USRC "McCulloch", USRC "Algonquits", and USRC "Onondago" were the last cutters ever rigged for sail. They also carried the first electric generators installed in cutters. As a class, they were suitable for scouting, for rendering assistance, and for cruising at moderately long range. So successful was the design that these cutters furnished the general pattern for cutter construction for the ensuing 20 years.

ervice history

Ordered to serve during the Spanish-American War with the U.S. Navy during the period 24 March 1898 to 17 August 1898, "Manning" operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, as a coastal patrol vessel. She also served a four­month war deployment, from May 1898 through August 1898, on blockade and escort duty off Cuba. On 12 May 1898, she joined armed yacht USS "Wasp" and unarmored cruiser USS "Dolphin" first in landing, then in providing gunfire support for the evacuation of a force of U.S. Army soldiers at Cabañas, Cuba.

After the cessation of hostilities with Spain, "Manning" returned to the operational control of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Her patrol duties took her along both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States and into the Bering Sea. When the Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Lifesaving Service combined in 1915 to form the new United States Coast Guard, "Manning" became part of the new service.

On 6 April 1917 "Manning" once again became part of the U.S. Navy for service in World War I and served as one of the components of Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Based at Gibraltar, the six U.S. Coast Guard cutters of the squadron immediately assumed wartime duties escorting trade convoys between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, and conducting antisubmarine patrols in the Mediterranean Sea. These duties continued until 28 August 1919.

After World War I, the Coast Guard returned to the control of the Department of the Treasury, and in the spring of 1919 the International Ice Patrol, which had been suspended during World War I, was reinaugurated. The annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1921 noted that in the winter of 1920-19­21 winter patrols had been reestablished with eight vessels, one of which was "Manning".

Much of "Manning's" duty during her final years was out of Norfolk, where she decommissioned on 22 May 1930. In December 1930 she was sold to Charles L. Jording of Baltimore, Maryland.

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