Colfax, 1871

Dec. 7, 2020

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Colfax, 1871

Photo of the Colfax

USRC Colfax was named for Schuyler Colfax, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 17^th Vice President of the U.S.

Built: Dialogue and Wood, Philadelphia, PA

Cost: $60,500

Machinery: 22" diameter x 20" stroke

Length: 140'

Beam: 25'

Draft:8''

Displacement: 250 tons

Launched: 1864

Commissioned : 4 November 1871

Decommissioned: 1 September 1899

Disposition: Sold, 1924

Complement: 7 officers, 33 enlisted

Armament: 3 guns

Cutter History:

Colfax, an iron-framed side-wheel steamer, cost the Revenue Service $60,500. She was first stationed at Baltimore, MD. Her cruising grounds were then extended to Savannah, GA. She underwent major repairs at Wilmington, DE in 1878 and was subsequently assigned to Wilmington, NC.

She moved to Charleston, SC in 1896. She served as a VIP barge for President McKinley off Brunswick, GA in 1899 and became a station ship at Baltimore after her decommissioning.

Images:

Photo of the Colfax

USRC Colfax, no date.

Sources:

Cutter History File.

Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.

U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).