Manning, 1898
Builder: Atlantic Works, East Boston, Massachusetts
Cost: $159,951.00
Commissioned: 6 January 1898
Decommissioned: 6 December 1930
Disposition: Sold
Rig: Brigantine (pole masts later)
Displacement: 1,150 tons
Length: 205'
Beam: 32'
Draft: 13' 9"
Machinery: Triple-expansion steam, 2,181 shp
Top Speed: 17 knots
Complement: 10 officers, 65 enlisted men
Armament: 4 x 6-pound rapid fire guns
History:
Designed as a cruising cutter, Manning was built by Atlantic Works, East Boston, Massachusetts, for the Revenue Cutter Service. Her cost was $159,951 and she was accepted for the Revenue Cutter Service by CAPT R. M. Clark, R.C.S. The Manning was commissioned 8 January 1898 under CAPT Clark's command 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 Gresham, McCulloch, Algonquin, and Onondaga were the last cutters ever rigged for sail (except for the later Northland). 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.
Ordered to serve with the Navy during the period 24 March to 17 August 1898, Manning operated out of Norfolk as a coastal patrol vessel. She also served a four-month war deployment, May through August, on blockade and escort duty off Cuba. With the cessation of hostilities with Spain, the Navy returned her to Treasury Department control on 17 August 1898 and her post-war patrol duties took her along both coasts and into the Bering Sea. She lost four crewman and a Public Health Service physician, Assistant Surgeon Jenkins, U.S.P.H.S., when one of her small boats swamped in heavy surf off Sarichef, Unimak, on 10 October 1914.
On 6 April 1917 Manning once again became part of the Navy and served as one of the components of Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Based at Gibraltar, the six 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. These duties continued until 28 August 1919.
The return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department inaugurated the full resumption of the duties of the former Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service. Although the amalgamation of these two services into the Coast Guard had taken place two years before World War I, there had been little opportunity to develop operating techniques for the new organization. In the spring of 1919 the International Ice Patrol was reinaugurated. The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1921 noted that in the winter of 1920--21 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 22 May 1930. The following December she was sold to Charles L. Jording of Baltimore.
USRC Manning; "U.S. Revenue Steamer Manning"; date unknown; photo by C. B. Webster & Co., Boston.
Manning, a brigantine-rigged 205-foot, 1,150-ton steamer, was built by the Atlantic Works Company of East Boston, MA, for a cost of $159,951.
"U.S.S. Manning"; at Unalaska, summer, 1910, Revenue Captain Godfrey L. Carden, commanding. From Carden Collection, ACCN 526.
"USRC Manning's raceboat crew (1902-1904) which used the Corwin's Gig now a classic. Left to right: Seaman "Frenchie" Martinesen, Master-At-Arms Stranberg (Coxswain), Seman Andreas Rynberg, Magnus Jensen, and Franze Rynberg."; no photo number; photographer unknown.
"The best crew in the history of the Bering Sea, Manning, 1901."; no photo number; photographer unknown. Courtesy of University of Alaska Archives.
"May 12 1898, USS MANNING in engagement off Cabanas, Cuba, Property of Lieut. G. L. Carden, R.C.S., Lotos Club, 558 Fifth Ave., New York City."; Photo No. MVF-152 #10, Acc. 526; photographer unknown.
She was commissioned in 1898 and saw immediate service during the Spanish American War as a blockader and escort vessel. She then transferred to the Pacific coast where she was assigned to the Bering Sea fleet.
This is the only photo the Coast Guard Historian's Office has on file showing a cutter in combat during the Spanish American War.
USRC Manning; "Older type cutter, the U.S.S. 'Manning' C.G."; date/photographer unknown.
During World War I she served under the Navy as a convoy escort based out of Gibraltar and then returned to duty out of Norfolk, VA after the war.
She was decommissioned in May, 1930 and sold in December of that same year to Mr. Charles A. Jording of Baltimore for the princely sum of $2,200.02.
"Revenue Cutter Manning," in New York Harbor; circa 1898-1899; photo number illegible; photo by "Hart."
Courtesy of the Naval Historical Center, #NH46627.
“U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning, Unalaska, Aug. 1908.”
Library of Congress Photo, No. 3c30291.
Sources:
Cutter History File, U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Vessels.
Donald L. Canney, U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935, Annapolis, MD, Naval Institute Press, p. 56.