USS Windom (1896)
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Windom |
| Namesake: | William Windom |
| Builder: | Iowa Iron Works, Dubuque, Iowa |
| Acquired: | 11 May 1896 |
| Commissioned: | 30 June 1896 |
| Decommissioned: | 31 July 1930 |
| Renamed: | Comanche, 13 December 1915 |
| Fate: | Sold, 13 November 1930 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Revenue cutter |
| Displacement: | 535 long tons (544 t) |
| Length: | 170 ft 8 in (52.02 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 800 hp (597 kW) inverted cylinder, triple-expansion, direct acting steam engines, 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 49 |
| Armament: |
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USS Windom was a revenue cutter, which served in the United States Navy and was later named Comanche. She was named for William Windom.
Windom was completed in 1896 at the Iowa Iron Works in Dubuque, Iowa and was accepted by the Treasury Department on 11 May 1896. Partially incomplete, she was moved from Dubuque—via Cairo, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana—to Baltimore, Maryland, where she was completed and placed in commission on 30 June 1896. For the next 17 months, she operated out of Baltimore making an annual winter cruise of the fishing grounds between the Virginia Capes and Cape Hatteras.
In March 1898, with war against Spain looming just over the horizon, President William McKinley began the process of preparing for the fight. On the 24th, he issued the executive order instructing the Revenue Cutter Service to cooperate with the Navy for the duration of the crisis. Two days later, she received orders to report at Norfolk, Virginia, and there she found herself on 25 April when Congress passed the resolution recognizing that a state of war existed between the United States and Spain.
Five days later, Windom departed Hampton Roads on her way to the blockade off Cuba. She stopped at Key West, Florida, for four days and arrived off the Cuban coast on 8 May. She patrolled the southern coast of Cuba near Cienfuegos until the 13th. During that time, she cut the Cienfuegos cable, the Spanish colonial government's only link with the outside world; and, on 12 May, she helped to cover the withdrawal of a Navy boat expedition. At a critical point in that action, the cutter closed the enemy shore and silenced the Spanish battery and briefly dispersed their infantry allowing the harassed boats to reach safety. The following day, she withdrew from the area to return to Key West—probably for fuel and provisions. She again got underway for the combat zone on 27 May and took up station off Havana on the 28th. For the remainder of the Spanish–American War, Windom participated in the blockade of Havana, returning to Key West on two occasions—once during the last two weeks of June and again during the first week in August.
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