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Naval History and Heritage Command

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Manning I (RC)

(RC: dp. 1,155; l. 205'; b. 32'; dr. 13'9"; sp. 15 k.; a. 2 3", 2 6‑pdr.)

The first Manning retained her Revenue Cutter Service name. The second was named for Milburn A. Manning, born 16 February 1920 in Howell Township, Mo., who enlisted in the Navy in 1939. As aviation machinist's mate third class, Manning was stationed at Kaneohe Naval Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where he died 7 December 1941 during the Japanese air attack against Pearl Harbor. He blasted away at attacking planes until cut down by enemy fire, and for his prompt action in an effort to repel the aerial assault Manning was cited posthumously by the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet.

I

Designed as a cruising cutter, Manning was built by Atlantic Works, East Boston, Mass., for the Revenue Cutter Service. She commissioned 8 January 1898 and was assigned cruising grounds along the New England coast. Her lines were those of ancestral clipper‑cutters, but with a plumb bow instead of the more graceful clipper stem. She and her sister ships Gresham, McCulloch, Algonquits, and Onondago were the last cutters ever rigged for sail. They also carried the first electric generators installed in cutters. As a class, they were suitable for scouting, for rendering assistance, and for cruising at moderately long range. So successful was the design that these cutters furnished the general pattern for cutter construction for the ensuing 20 years.

Ordered to serve with the Navy during the period 24 March to 17 August 1898, Manning operated out of Norfolk as a coastal patrol vessel. She also served a 4‑month war deployment, May through August, on blockade and escort duty off Cuba. With the cessation of hostilities with Spain, her patrol duties took her along both coasts and into the Bering Sea.

On 6 April 1917 Manning once again became part of the Navy and served as one of the components of Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Based at Gibraltar, the six Coast Guard cutters of the squadron immediately assumed wartime duties escorting trade convoys between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, and conducting antisubmarine patrols in the Mediterranean. These duties continued until 28 August 1919.

The return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department inaugurated the full resumption of the duties of the former Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service. Although the amalgamation of these two services into the Coast Guard had taken place 2 years before World War I, there had been little opportunity to develop operating techniques for the new organization. In the spring of 1919 the International Ice Patrol was reinaugurated. The annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1921 noted that in the winter of 1920‑21 winter patrols had been reestablished with eight vessels, one of which was Manning.

Much of Manning's duty during her final years was out of Norfolk, where she decommissioned 22 May 1930. The following December she was sold to Charles L. Jording of Baltimore.

Published: Wed Aug 05 14:15:23 EDT 2015