USS McCulloch, previously USRC McCulloch and USCGC McCulloch, was a ship that served as a United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter from 1897 to 1915, as a United States Coast Guard Cutter from 1915 to 1917, and as a United States Navy patrol vessel in 1917. She saw combat during the Spanish–American War during the Battle of Manila Bay and patrolled off the United States West Coast during World War I. In peacetime, she saw extensive service in the waters off the U.S. West Coast. She sank in 1917 after colliding with another steamer.
Construction and commissioning
William Cramp & Sons built McCulloch at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a three-masted cruising cutter for the United States Revenue Cutter Service at a cost of $196,500 and launched her in 1896. She was of composite construction, with a hull made of wood planks mounted on a steel frame. She had a single triple-expansion steam engine and a barkentine rig that allowed her to extend her range by operating under sail power. Her four guns were mounted in sponsons on her forward and aft quarters, and her single torpedo tube was molded into her bow stem. At the time, she was the largest cutter ever built for the Revenue Cutter Service, and she remained the largest cutter in the Revenue Cutter Service – and later the United States Coast Guard – fleet throughout her service life.
The ship was commissioned into service with the Revenue Cutter Service as USRC McCulloch on 12 December 1897. Captain D. B. Hodgsdon, USRCS, was her first commanding officer, who later commanded McCulloch at the Battle of Manila Bay.
Namesake
McCulloch was named for Hugh McCulloch (1808–1895), an American statesman who served as the 27th United States Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson from 9 March 1865 to 3 March 1869 and as the 36th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland from 31 October 1884 to 7 March 1885. She was the third Revenue Cutter Service ship to bear the name McCulloch or Hugh McCulloch.
Operational history
Spanish–American War
As the Spanish–American War was about to commence in early 1898, McCulloch was on her shakedown cruise, a voyage from Philadelphia via the Suez Canal and the Far East to her first duty station at San Francisco, California. Upon her arrival at Singapore on 8 April 1898, two full weeks before the United States declared war on Spain, McCulloch received orders directing her to report for duty with the United States Navy′s Asiatic Squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey.
Dewey's squadron was composed of the protected cruisers , , , and , the gunboats and , the store ships and , and McCulloch. The squadron stood out of Mirs Bay, China, on 27 April 1898, and entered Manila Bay off Luzon in the Philippines on the evening of 30 April 1898. By midnight Olympia had passed stealthily into the harbor. Successive ships followed in close order.
Just as McCulloch brought El Fraile Rock abaft the starboard beam, soot in her funnel caught fire and sent up a column of fire like a signal light, breaking the black stillness. Immediately thereafter, a Spanish battery on El Fraile took McCulloch under fire. Boston, in column just ahead of McCulloch, answered the battery, as did McCulloch with her starboard guns, and the Spanish gun emplacement was silenced. McCullochs chief engineer, Frank B. Randall, died of overexertion and heat exhaustion while trying to extinguish the soot fire in the funnel.
As the rock fell astern, Dewey reduced speed to so as to reach the head of Manila Bay in time to join action with the Spanish Navy squadron off Cavite at daybreak on 1 May 1898. His orders required McCulloch to guard the two store ships from Spanish gunboats. She was also to protect the ships in the line of battle from surprise attack, tow any disabled ship out of range of Spanish gunfire, and take her place in the line.