 Gresham circa 1901
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Gresham |
| Namesake | Walter Q. Gresham (1832–1895), United States Secretary of State (1893-1895) |
| Operator |
|
| Awarded | 27 June 1895[2] |
| Builder | Globe Iron Works, Cleveland |
| Cost | US$147,800[2] |
| Launched | 12 September 1896[1] |
| Completed | 10 February 1897 |
| Commissioned | 30 May 1897 |
| Decommissioned | 7 April 1944 |
| Homeport | Milwaukee |
| Fate | Acquired by Israel 1947, scrapped 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 1,090 long tons (1,110 t) |
| Length | 205 ft 6 in (62.64 m) |
| Beam | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draft | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) |
| Installed power | Triple-expansion steam engine |
| Speed | 18 knots (design) |
| Complement | 9 officers, 63 men |
| Armament | 2 × 6-pounder, 1 × 1-pounder, 3 × 0.50-cal. machine gun, 1 bow torpedo tube |
USRC Gresham was a cruising cutter and auxiliary gunboat built for the United States Revenue Cutter Service to patrol the Great Lakes. She was one of a series of cutters named for former U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury. Her namesake Walter Q. Gresham served as the 35th Secretary of the Treasury in 1884 and died in 1895 while serving as the 33rd U.S. Secretary of State. She became part of the newly created United States Coast Guard in 1915, and also served as a coastal convoy escort and patrol boat under United States Navy control during both World War I and World War II. After being decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1944, she eventually came under Israeli control in 1947. She carried Jewish refugees from Italy to Palestine and later served in the fledgling Israeli Navy until 1951.[1]