USRC William H. Seward (1864)

History
United States
Name	USRC William H. Seward
Namesake	William H. Seward
Builder	unknown, built at Wilmington, Delaware
Cost	$34,600
Completed	unknown
Commissioned	April 1864
Decommissioned	10 June 1901
Fate	Sold 7 June 1901 for $1,015
Notes	became merchant barge Eugenia
General characteristics
Type	Schooner
Displacement	240 tons
Length	137'
Beam	22'
Draft	7'
Complement	30
Armament	2 guns of unknown caliber

USRC William H. Seward was a Revenue Cutter Service schooner built in Wilmington, Delaware and purchased in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for $34,600 in April 1864. Initially ordered to New York for temporary duty, she was then assigned to Wilmington, North Carolina in July 1864. In 1874, she was moved to Key West, Florida and transferred to Galveston, Texas the following year.

On 7 April 1880, Seward was assigned to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi where she primarily patrolled from Mobile Bay to Port Eads. She was also ordered to "cruise to New Orleans occasionally." On 30 September 1885, her patrol area was extended into the Mississippi River, as far south as "Port Eads and the Passes." On 13 July 1895 her cruising grounds were "from Mobile, Alabama to West End, Lake Pontchartrain, with occasional visits into the Mississippi River to the Head of the Passes."

On 12 June 1897, she was ordered to Ship Island to aid in quarantine duty with the Marine Hospital Service ship MH Surgeon. She was then repaired and fumigated at Pensacola, Florida in September 1897. In February 1898, she was ordered to Mobile for the Mardi Gras Carnival. On 12 April 1898 she was ordered to be laid up at Mobile, where she remained until recommissioned on 1 July. On 20 May 1901 she was ordered sold and was decommissioned a final time on 10 June 1901 at Mobile. She was sold for $1,015 to Lee Kimball, who renamed her Eugenia and refitted her as a merchant barge.

References[]

• Canney, Donald (1995). U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-101-7
• "William H. Seward, 1864". United States Coast Guard Historians Office. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 23 September 2016.