USRC Onondaga (1898)

USRC Onondaga, ca. 1914
History
United States
Name:	USRC Onondaga
Namesake:	Lake Onondaga, New York
Operator:	U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1898–1915 U.S. Coast Guard, 1915–1923
Awarded:	30 March 1897
Builder:	Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio,
Cost:	US$193,800
Yard number:	72
Completed:	13 August 1898
Commissioned:	24 October 1898
Decommissioned:	1 January 1923
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 16 September 1924
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,190 long tons (1,210 t)
Length:	205 ft 6 in (62.64 m)
Beam:	32 ft (9.8 m)
Draft:	13 ft 2 in (4.01 m)
Installed power:	Triple-expansion steam engine
Speed:	16 knots (max)
Complement:	73
Armament:	4 × 6-pounder rapid-fire guns (1915)

USRC Onondaga was an Algonquin-class cutter built for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service for service on the Great Lakes. Because of the Spanish–American War, she was cut in half shortly before completion and transported to Ogdensburg, New York for service on the Atlantic coast although the war ended before she could be put into service. After the formation of the United States Coast Guard in 1915 she became USCGC Onondaga. She served as a patrol vessel at various Atlantic coast ports before World War I and unlike most Coast Guard cutters during World War I, she remained under the control of the Commandant of the Coast Guard. After the war she patrolled for a brief time based at New London, Connecticut before being de-commissioned in 1923.

The United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter Onondaga was built at Cleveland, Ohio in 1898 by the Globe Iron Works. She was a steel-hulled vessel equipped with a triple-expansion steam engine, Scotch boilers, and a single screw. She was one of the first RCS cutters built with electric generators to supply current for lights and call bells. Before Onondaga could be completed, she was transferred to U.S. Navy control because of the outbreak of the Spanish–American War on 24 March 1898 and the contractor was directed to cut the ship in half for transport to Ogdensburg, New York. She was reassembled and was finally accepted for service by the government 13 August and returned to Department of the Treasury control on 17 August at the conclusion of hostilities. She was placed in commission 24 October at Ogdensburg and ordered to report for duty at Boston, Massachusetts.