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Gunboat Photo Archive

USCGC Itasca



Call sign (1912):
Rush - Cast - Item

USRC Itasca



Call sign (1919):
Nan - Rush - Nan

USS Bancroft

Bancroft served both the U. S. Navy and the Revenue Cutter Service

Gunboat:

  • Laid down in February 1891 by Samuel L. Moore and Sons, Elizabethport, NJ
  • Launched 30 April 1892
  • Commissioned USS Bancroft 3 March 1893
  • Decommissioned 30 September 1898 at the Boston Navy Yard
  • Recommissioned 14 August 1900
  • Decommissioned 25 May 1901 at the Boston Navy Yard
  • Recommissioned 6 October 1902
  • Decommissioned 2 March 1905
  • Transferred to the Revenue Cutter Service 30 June 1906 and commissioned USRC Itasca
  • Sold for scrap 11 May 1922 to Charles A. Jarding of Baltimore, MD for $8,250.00.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 839 t.
  • Length 187' 6"
  • Beam 32'
  • Draft 12' 2"
  • Speed 14.5 kts.
  • Complement 123
  • Armament: Four 4"/50 gun mounts, two 6-pounders, two 3-pounders and one 18" torpedo tube
    1903 - Four 4"/50 mounts and eight 3-pounders
    1918 - Two 3"/50 mounts and two 6-pounders
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox cylinderical boilers, two 1,200ihp vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Bancroft
    Bancroft 231k U.S. Navy photo Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    Bancroft 113 Photographed in 1893 soon after completion
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 56333    		 Mike Green
    Bancroft 153k At anchor, at New York, during the Columbian Naval Parade, 27 April 1893
    Photo courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University    		 Robert Hurst
    Bancroft 244k Left to right; USS Portsmouth with USS Constellation, USS Bancroft and USS Saratoga
    Painting by Fred S. Cozzens, 1893. Copied from Our Navy: Its Growth and Achievements, copyright 1897, American Publishing Co., Hartford, CT
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 442
    Bancroft 77k Dressed with flags, circa 1893-98
    Halftone photograph, published in Uncle Sam's Navy, 1898
    U.S. Navy photo NH 56334    		 Navy Historical Center
    Bancroft 102k Firing a salute in 1898
    U.S. Navy photo NH 56338
    Bancroft 100 Underway off Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 October 1902. Modified with a reduced rig for gunboat duty in 1896, she had just recommissioned on 6 October 1902 for service in the Caribbean
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 56337    		 Mike Green
    Bancroft 166k c. 1905
    Pensacola, Florida
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 56335
    Bancroft 331k c. March 1905
    Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA
    In Stone Dry Dock preparing for turn over to the Revenue Cutter Service
    Detroit Publishing Co. photo 018396 from the Library of Congress    		 Michael Mohl
    USRC Itasca
    Bancroft 336k U.S. Coast Guard photo Mike Green
    Bancroft 150k The Itasca in Naples, Italy on a cadet training cruise
    U.S. Coast Guard photo
    Bancroft 114k U.S. Coast Guard photo
    Bancroft 434k
    Bancroft 589 Ink drawing by unknown artist Tommy Trampp
    Bancroft 162k c. 1909
    Oberly and Shipley on the forecastle
    Photo courtesy of the Coffin family    		 Tommy Trampp
    Bancroft 166k c. 1909
    Forecastle
    Photo courtesy of the Coffin family
    Bancroft 160k c. 1909
    Foremast
    Photo courtesy of the Coffin family
    Bancroft 121k c. 1917
    Probably while under Navy control during World War I. She has been rearmed, visible guns including two smaller ones in the former port side sponsons and a larger one on the forecastle. In late 1918 she was listed with two 3"/50 mounts and two 6-pounders
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 53281    		 Mike Green
    Bancroft 66k Photo from the 1919 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships Robert Hurst
    Bancroft
    120990120    		 35k Revenue Cutter Service cadets aboard their training vessel USRC Itasca. Photographer unknown. Date/location unknown. Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Asa Walker, USN3 March 1893
    02CDR Richardson Clover, USN - USNA Class of 1867
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		May 1898 - September 1898
    03LCDR Abraham E. Culver, USN6 October 1902
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Bancroft
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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