USCGC Seneca (1908)
USCGC Seneca, probably circa 1920s
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Class and type: | Cutter |
| Name: |
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| Namesake: | A tribe of the Iroquois Indians |
| Operator: | United States Coast Guard |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding |
| Cost: | US$244,500 |
| Launched: | 18 March 1908 |
| Sponsored by: | Miss Edith E. Hepburn |
| Commissioned: | 12 November 1908 |
| Decommissioned: | 21 March 1936 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1950 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,259 tons |
| Length: | 204 ft (62 m) |
| Beam: | 34 ft (10 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft 3 in (5.26 m) |
| Propulsion: | Triple-expansion steam engine, 20 in (0.51 m), 32 in (0.81 m), 52 in (1.3 m) diameter X 36 in (0.91 m) stroke; two boilers |
| Speed: | 11.2 maximum (1930) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: | 4 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.2 in)) rapid fire guns (1908) |
USCGC Seneca or before 1915, USRC Seneca was a U.S. Coast Guard cutter built and commissioned as a "derelict destroyer" with the specific mission of locating and then destroying abandoned shipwrecks that were still afloat and were a menace to navigation. She was designed with excellent sea-keeping qualities, a long cruising range, good towing capabilities, and by necessity the capacity to store a large amount of munitions. She was one of five Coast Guard cutters serving with the U.S. Navy in European waters during World War I.
Seneca was built as Revenue Cutter 17 by Newport News Shipbuilding, hull number 85 at Newport News, Virginia at a cost of US$244,500 and designed specifically to be used as a derelict destroyer for the Atlantic coast. Floating wrecks, derelicts, were a common menace with international discussions and agreements concerning their elimination and some special cruises made to locate and destroy them. The United States Congress appropriated $250,000 for a vessel to be dedicated exclusively as a "derelict destroyer" equipped and crewed to most effectively eliminate the menace to navigation. Arrangements for vessels spotting derelicts to report them by wireless to the destroyer were planned. As of 1912 the United States was the first nation providing such specialized vessels. As the ship entered service hopes were expressed that her success would inspire other nations to join with such vessels.
She was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine with two Scotch boilers rated at 180 pounds per square inch (1,200 kPa). Seneca was fit with four 6-pounder rapid fire guns and an unusually large ammunition magazine for the express purpose of destroying floating shipwrecks.
Seneca was accepted by the government on 26 June 1908 and was commissioned by the Revenue Cutter Service at the Revenue Cutter Service Depot at Baltimore, Maryland, on 6 November of that year. On 8 November 1908 she proceeded to Tompkinsville, New York, to assume her principal mission as the derelict destroyer for the Atlantic coast. Her cruising district included the Atlantic Ocean to the eastward of the United States bounded by a line from Portland, Maine, to Sable Island, Nova Scotia, thence to the Bermuda Islands, and then to Charleston, South Carolina.
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