USS Bancroft (1892)

The Bancroft, photographed by William H. Rau circa 1898
History
United States
Name:	Bancroft
Namesake:	George Bancroft, 17th Secretary of the Navy
Builder:	Samuel L. Moore & Sons, Elizabethport, New Jersey
Laid down:	1891
Launched:	30 April 1892
Commissioned:	3 March 1893
Decommissioned:	1905
Struck:	30 June 1906
Fate:	Transferred to Revenue Cutter Service
United States
Name:	Itasca
Namesake:	Itasca was named for a lake located in central Minnesota.
Acquired:	30 June 1906
Commissioned:	17 July 1907
Decommissioned:	11 May 1922
Fate:	Sold in Baltimore, Maryland for $8250.00
General characteristics
Type:	Gunboat
Displacement:	839 long tons (852 t)
Length:	189 ft 5 in (57.73 m)
Beam:	32 ft (9.8 m)
Draft:	12 ft 11 in (3.94 m)
Propulsion:	2 x triple expansion steam engine, twin screw
Speed:	14.3 kn (16.5 mph; 26.5 km/h)
Complement:	130 (U.S. Navy) 8 officers 64 enlisted (U.S. Revenue Cutter Service)
Armament:	4 × 4 in (100 mm) guns 2 × 6 pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) guns 2 × 3 pounder (47 mm (1.85 in)) guns 1 × 1 pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) gun, 1 × 37-mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon 1 × Gatling gun.

USS Bancroft was a United States Navy steel gunboat, was laid down in 1891 at Elizabethport, New Jersey by Samuel L. Moore & Sons Shipyard and launched on 30 April 1892. She was commissioned on 3 March 1893 at the New York Navy Yard with Miss Mary Frances Moore as sponsor.

Bancroft was designated as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy midshipmen and stationed at Annapolis, Maryland. Similar in shape to a small gunboat, the ship had a steel hull and a relatively heavy armament, ranging from 4-inch rapid-fire guns to a Gatling gun and a torpedo tube, to give midshipmen experience on the Navy's latest weaponry. Between 1893 and 1896, she cruised along the east coast visiting various shipyards with groups of midshipmen embarked. Naval expansion brought a corresponding increase on the Naval Academy's enrollment, and the Bancroft quickly proved to be too small. After the practice cruise of 1896 it was converted to a conventional gunboat with a reduced armament and the original three-masted barkentine rig cut down to the two masts of a brigantine.

On 15 September 1896, she sailed to join the European Squadron and for the next 15 months protected American interests in the eastern Mediterranean. Called home when Congress declared war upon Spain, Bancroft reached Boston, Massachusetts, on 4 April 1898 and served with the North Atlantic Squadron from 9 May–9 August. She convoyed troop transports to Cuba and was on blockade duty at Havana and the Isle of Pines. On 28 July, Bancroft seized the small schooner Ensenada de Cortez but returned the boat to her owner the next day because it was essentially valueless.