USRC Richard Rush (1874)

USRC Richard Rush was a Dexter-class cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service which served in the coastal waters of the western United States and the Department of Alaska. With a displacement of 179 tons, the vessel was 140 feet long, 23 feet in beam, and drew 8' 10". Propulsion was provided by both a 400 h.p. steam engine driving a single propellor, and a schooner-rig of sail.

Rush was built by the Atlantic Iron Works in East Boston, Massachusetts, launched 14 March 1874, and commissioned 21 July of that year. Fitting-out was completed in New York, and on 15 September the cutter sailed for San Francisco, arriving there in early 1875 after rounding Cape Horn.

From 1877 through 1881 Rush completed four cruises in Alaskan waters. Thereafter the cutter was based in Port Townsend, Washington. In 1882 Rush was at San Francisco where the Royal Navy corvette HMS Comus took aboard the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, and his spouse the Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, for their trip to Victoria, British Columbia. An anonymous note threatened the British ship with destruction when the couple boarded, but a search yielded nothing, and Comus was escorted out to sea by the American cutter.

In 1885 the cutter was decommissioned and the hull and other fittings sold. The machinery was used in a new, larger vessel of the same name.