USRC Wissahickon (1904)

From SpottingWorld, the Hub for the SpottingWorld network...
Career (United States) 100x35px
Namesake: Wissahickon Creek
Builder: Spedden Company, Baltimore, Maryland
Cost: $69,800
Launched: 11 June 1904
Commissioned: 3 December 1904
Decommissioned: 8 May 1935
Fate: Sold
Notes: As USCGC Wissahickon after 30 January 1915
General characteristics
Class and type: Winnisimmet-class
Type: harbor tug
Displacement: 182 tons
Length: 96' 6"
Beam: 20" 6"
Draft: 9'
Installed power: Babcock & Wilcox water boiler, steam engine, 500 SHP
Propulsion: 1 screw
Complement: 11
Armament: none

USRC Wissahickon was one of two Winnisimmet-class harbor tugs constructed for the Revenue Cutter Service in 1904 and stationed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was named for Wissahickon Creek. Ellsworth P. Bertholf served as captain of her from November 1906 to September 1907 in his first tour as a commanding officer. Bertholf would later serve as the fourth Commandant of the Coast Guard.[1] In 1916, she was transferred to Baltimore, Maryland. The Navy assumed control of her from 6 April 1917 to 28 August 1919 during World War I. On 1 January 1923 she was transferred from Baltimore to New York City, where she remained in service until being decommissioned on 8 May 1935.[2] After the U.S. Coast Guard was formed in 1915, she was known as the USCGC Wissahickon.

References

  1. C. Douglas Kroll, Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard, Naval Institute Press, 2002 ISBN 1-55750-474-1
  2. Donald Canney, U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935, Naval Institute Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-101-7