Apache II (Coast Guard Cutter)
An American Indian tribe that inhabited the southwestern portion of the United States.
II
The second Apache, a cutter built in 1891 at Baltimore, Md., by Reeder & Sons, was commissioned in the Revenue Cutter Service as Gaiveston on 22 August 1891.
After temporary duty at Wilmington, N.C., Gaiveston moved on to her permanent assignment along the gulf coast in October. During the Spanish-American War, the revenue cutter was not transferred to the Navy; but instead was ordered to New Orleans to cooperate with the military authorities there in the defense of the city. After hostilities ended in the summer of 1898, the cutter resumed her former duties enforcing customs laws and providing assistance to ships in distress and to victims of natural disasters such as the hurricane and high tide that struck Gaiveston, Tex., between 27 August and 8 September 1900. Gaiveston operated in the Gulf of Mexico until the summer of 1906. During that time, on 30 December 1900, her name was changed to Apache.
In July 1906, the cutter was reassigned to the Chesapeake Bay area. Steaming via Key West, Fla., Apache arrived in Baltimore on 21 July 1906 and spent the rest of her government service operating in the Chesapeake water system. When the United States entered World War I, the Coast Guard, established in 1916 with the amalgamation of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service, was transferred to Navy jurisdiction; and Apache was assigned to the 5th Naval District. She continued to patrol the waters of Chesapeake Bay through the end of the war. Jurisdiction over the Coast Guard was returned to the Treasury Department on 28 August 1919. The cutter remained active with the Coast Guard until some time in the mid-1930's.
