USRC Rush was a Revenue Cutter

United States Coast Guard Cutter

Cutter is the term used by the United States Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. A Cutter is or greater in length, has a permanently assigned crew, and has accommodations for the crew to live aboard...

 named for Richard Rush

Richard Rush

Richard Rush was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son of Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Julia Rush. He entered the College of New Jersey at the age of 14, and graduated in 1797 as the youngest member of his class...

, eighth Secretary of the Treasury. She was a replacement for the USRC Rush (1874) and was much larger, but re-used the engine from the first Rush. She was completed in November 1885. In January 1886, soon after commissioning, she was assigned to search for the whaler Amethyst, last seen in the Bering Sea the previous October.

The Rush spent her entire career on the Pacific ranging from the Bering Sea to Hawaii and San Diego, California performing customs duties, search and rescue, and law enforcement, including hosting judicial functions in furtherance of her enforcement of revenue and conservation laws. During the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

 in 1898 she was detached for duty with the United States Navy in the defense of the west coast, but returned to her duties with the Revenue Service later that year.

In 1899 she towed the newly commissioned river cutter USRC Nunivak to Alaska. She was decommissioned 30 September 1912 and sold on 22 January 1913 to the Alaska Junk Company for $8,500.

Sources

• Canney, Donald L. (1885), U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935, Naval Institute Press ISBN 1-55750-101-7

External links

• Teacher's Resource for U.S. Coast Guard History pp. 20–21