USS Resolute (1894)

The second USS Resolute was an auxiliary cruiser and transport that served in the United States Navy in 1898-1899. She served during the Spanish-American War.

Construction, acquisition, and commissioning
Resolute was launched on 10 February 1894 as the iron-hulled passenger ship SS Yorktown by Delaware River Shipbuilding and Engine Works at Chester, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Navy purchased her from her owner, the Old Dominion Steamship Company, on 21 April 1898 for service during the Spanish-American War and commissioned her as USS Resolute on 11 May 1898 with Commander Joseph G. Eaton in command.

United States Navy service, 1898-1899
Departing New York City on 25 May 1898, Resolute's first assignment was to cruise between St. Nicholas Mole, Haiti, and Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, in search of the Spanish Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete. After calling at Key West, Florida, on 8 June, Resolute returned to the southeast Cuban coast to assist the U.S. fleet in scouting, relying on her high speed for protection. She was present on 3 July at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, steaming eastward to warn United States Army transports of the Spanish squadron's emergence from the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Subsequently, Resolute transported Spanish prisoners-of-war to the United States, departing the Cuban coast on 8 July for Charleston, South Carolina; Newport News, Virginia; Tompkinsville, New York; and New York City.

Resolute returned to the Cuban war zone late in July. She engaged Spanish shore batteries at Manzanillo, Cuba, on 13 August, but sailed for the United States carrying returning Marines from the First Battalion who had made the first assault landing at Guantánamo Bay. The ship reached New York on 23 August and after inspection continued to Portsmouth Harbor the next day, where the First Marine Battalion was disembarked.

In October, Resolute embarked the Evacuation Commission at Nuevitas, Cuba, for transportation to Havana, Cuba, and Key West, and again to Havana. Then she returned American troops home to the U.S.

Resolute was out of service until December, while being fumigated following an outbreak of yellow fever on board. She then steamed between Havana and Key West on transport missions through March 1899. Her final service was as a marker vessel for the steam trials of the new battleship USS Kearsarge (BB-5) at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from May-September 1899.

Resolute arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 2 October, and was decommissioned there on 15 December 1899 at League Island Navy Yard.

Later career, 1900-1928
Resolute was transferred to the United States Department of War on 22 January 1900 for service as the United States Army Transport USAT Rawlins. Returned to mercantile service in 1902, she operated under the names SS Powhatan, SS Cuba, and SS Seneca until 1926, when she burned and sank at New York City. She was refloated on 2 September 1928 and subsequently scrapped.