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Revenue Cutter Photo Archive

USCGC Gresham (WPG 85)
ex-USCGC Gresham (CG 1)



Call sign (1919):
George - Vice - Fox - Dog

ex-USS Gresham
ex-USRC Gresham



Call sign (1912):
Rush - Cast - George

ex-USRC Walter Q. Gresham

Gresham served the Revenue Cutter Service, the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard.

Revenue Cutter:

  • Built in 1896 by the Globe Iron Works Co., Cleveland, OH
  • Launched 12 September 1896
  • Commissioned USRC Walter Q. Gresham 30 May 1897
  • Transferred to the Navy 24 March 1898
  • Returned to the Treasury Department 17 August 1898
  • Name shortened to Gresham in 1904
  • Designated CG-1
  • Transferred to the Navy 6 April 1917
  • Returned to the Treasury Department 28 August 1919
  • Decommissioned 19 January 1935 and sold for scrap
  • Reacquired by the Coast Guard in March 1943
  • Commissioned USCGC Gresham (WPG 85), 23 May 1943 and converted for wartime use by the General Ship Repair Co. of Baltimore, MD
  • Decommissioned 7 April 1944 and sold for scrap
  • Acquired in 1946 by Nicholas D. Allen of Teaneck, NJ, converted to a tug and renamed T. V. McAllister
  • Sold in 1947 to the Weston Trading Co. of Honduras and renamed Trade Winds
  • Acquired by Israel in 1949, renamed Hatikva (The Hope) and used for carrying refugees from Italy to Palestine
  • Scrapped in 1951 at Shemen Beach, Haifa, Israel.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,090 t.
  • Length 205' 6"
  • Beam 32'
  • Draft 12' 6"
    1919 - 17' 11"
  • Speed 14.5 kts.
  • Complement 103
    1919 - 71
  • Armament: Two 6-pounders, one 1-pounder, three .50 cal. machine guns and one bow torpedo tube
    1917 - Four 3"/50 mounts and two machine guns
    1943 - Two 3"/50 mounts, four 20mm mounts, two depth charge tracks and four depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Four single ended boilers, one 2,250hp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Walter Q. Gresham
    Gresham 106k Launching at the Globe Iron Works Company Yard, at Cleveland, OH on 12 September 1896
    Coast Guard History website photo    		 Robert Hurst
    USRC Walter Q. Gresham
    Gresham 112k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Gresham 164k c. 1898
    Cut in two so that she could pass through the locks controlling access to the Great Lakes in order to serve in the Spanish-American War. She never returned to the Great Lakes
    Photo from "U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II" by Robert L. Scheina    		 Robert Hurst
    Gresham 115k Flagship of the patrol fleet, America’s Cup races, underway in 1901
    Detroit Photographic Co. photo 021667 from the Library of Congress (Photo LC-D4-21667)    		 Mike Green
    Gresham 114k c. 1901
    Flagship of the patrol fleet
    Library of Congress photo LC-D4-32599
    Gresham 63k c. 1902
    Photo by A. Loeffler, Tompkinsville, NY from the Coast Guard History website    		 Robert Hurst
    USCGC Gresham (CG 1)
    Gresham 109k c. 1909
    Baltimore, MD
    Photo courtesy of the Coffin family collection    		 Tommy Trampp
    Gresham 63k Photo from the 1924 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships Robert Hurst
    USCGC Gresham (WPG 85)
    Gresham 104k c. 1943
    Photo from "U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II" by Robert L. Scheina    		 Robert Hurst
    SS Hatikva
    Gresham 285k Photo from "The Jews' Secret Fleet" by Murray S. Greenfield and Joseph M. Hochstein, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem and New York Robert Hurst
    Gresham 44k c. May 1947
    Hatikva loaded with Jewish refugees
    Algerine Associates photo from Paul Silverstone's Aliyah Bet Project
    Commanding Officers
    01CAPT Benjamin M. Chiswell, USCG - School of Instruction of the Revenue Cutter Service Class of 1896
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Appointed in 1929 as the first Assistant Commandant of the Coast Guard
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Grisham
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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