USRC Manning (1898)

USRC Manning was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service that served from 1898 to 1930, and saw service in the U.S. Navy in the Spanish-American War and World War I.

Commissioning
Designed as a cruising cutter, Manning was built by Atlantic Works, East Boston, Massachusetts, for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. She was accepted by Captain R.M Clark for the USRCS Aug 11, 1897. She commissioned on 8 January 1898 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 USRC Gresham, USRC McCulloch, USRC Algonquin, and USRC Onondago were the last cutters ever rigged for sail. 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.

Service history
Ordered to serve during the Spanish-American War with the U.S. Navy during the period 24 March 1898 to 17 August 1898, Manning operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, as a coastal patrol vessel. She also served a four month war deployment, from May 1898 through August 1898, on blockade and escort duty off Cuba. On 12 May 1898, she joined armed yacht USS Wasp and unarmored cruiser USS Dolphin first in landing, then in providing gunfire support for the evacuation of a force of U.S. Army soldiers at Cabañas, Cuba.

After the cessation of hostilities with Spain, Manning returned to the operational control of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Her patrol duties took her along both the East Coast from Boston to Key West and included a patrol to Cuba and Puerto Rico. On 2 January 1900 Manning was ordered report to San Francisco by way of the Straits of Magellan for duties with the Bering Sea Patrol. During the years of 1900 through 1916 she patrolled the Bering Sea enforcing sealing treaties and performing search and rescue duties missing only the years 1904, 1906 and 1908. During 1904 she performed patrol duties along the West Coast. On 13 December 1905 Manning was assigned patrol duties in Hawaii where she remained until 8 May 1907 when she departed for the Bering Sea. Patrol work was cut short during the 1907 season when Manning struck an uncharted rock in Prince William Sound 15 August. Temporary repairs were made and she made for Bremerton Navy Yard for drydocking and permanent reairs in September. During 1908 Manning patrolled the Pacific Coast and assisted in several search and rescue cases. When the Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Lifesaving Service combined in 1915 to form the new United States Coast Guard, Manning became part of the new service and was thereafter known as USCGC Manning.

Manning received orders to report to the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland 26 January 1917 and departed soon thereafter arriving at the Yard 7 March. On 6 April 1917 Manning once again became part of the U.S. Navy for service in World War I and served as one of the components of Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Based at Gibraltar, the six U.S. 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 Sea. These duties continued until 28 August 1919.

After World War I, the Coast Guard returned to the control of the Department of the Treasury, and in the spring of 1919 the International Ice Patrol, which had been suspended during World War I, was reinaugurated. The annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1921 noted that in the winter of 1920-1921 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 on 22 May 1930. On 6 December 1930 she was sold for $2200.02 to Charles L. Jording of Baltimore, Maryland.