USS Onondaga (1917)

The second USS Onondaga was a Coast Guard cutter that served in the United States Navy in 1917 and 1918 during World War I.

The United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter USRC Onondaga was built at Cleveland, Ohio in 1898. Upon the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service with the United States Lifesaving Service to create the United States Coast Guard in 1915, Onondaga became a United States Coast Guard Cutter. Until 1917 she was listed as an independent vessel operating out of Savannah, Georgia. Her assigned cruising district extended from Cape Romain, South Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Transferred to the United States Navy on 9 April 1917 by Executive Order for World War I service, she continued to perform patrol, escort, and rescue operations out of Savannah.

The highlight of her naval service occurred on 20 February 1918, when she rescued the entire crew of the British steamship SS Veturia after she foundered on Diamond Shoals off the North Carolina coast. For acting in the best tradition of the seagoing services, Captain Frederick C. Billard, USCG, commanding officer of the cutter—together with the entire crew—received a commendation on 20 May from the British Admiralty.

At the end of hostilities, Onondaga was returned to the United States Department of the Treasury to resume her Coast Guard service. She resumed patrol and rescue operations out of New London, Connecticut, until 1920, at which time she transferred to Baltimore, Maryland. She continued to operate out of Baltimore until 1923, when she decommissioned and was sold for scrap.