USRC Apache

History
United States
Name	Apache
Namesake	The Apache, the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans originally from the American Southwest (previous name retained)
Builder	Reeder and Sons, Baltimore, Maryland
Cost	US$95,650[1]
Completed	1891
Acquired	1917 (U.S. Navy)
Commissioned	22 August 1891 (as USRC Galveston)
Decommissioned	31 December 1937
Fate	Returned to United States Coast Guard 28 August 1919
Notes	Served as United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter USRC Galveston 1891–1904 and as USRC Apache 1904–1915; served in U.S. Coast Guard as cutter USCGC Apache 1915–1917 and 1919–1937; U.S. Army during World War II; scrapped 1950
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Displacement	708 long tons (719 t)
Length	185 ft 3 in (56.46 m)
Beam	29 ft (8.8 m)
Draft	9 ft 3 in (2.82 m) (mean)
Speed	12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Complement	58
Armament	1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun 2 × machine guns 1 × Y-gun depth charge projector (added in 1918)

USRC Apache was a United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 6 April 1917 to 28 August 1919.^[2][3] During the time she served with the Navy she was known as USS Apache. She was built in 1891 as the United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter USRC Galveston by Reeder and Sons at Baltimore, Maryland. On 30 December 1904, her name was changed to USRC Apache and, upon the creation of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, she became USCGC Apache.^[1][4]

As Galveston she was constructed as an iron-hulled twin-screw vessel powered by a compound-expansion steam engine with one screw per cylinder. In 1904, during a yard availability, she was re-powered with a triple-expansion steam engine and converted to a single screw.^{[Note 1]} Her original clipper bow was changed to a plumb stem during her rebuilding.^[4]

Apache was placed in commission on 22 August 1891 and ordered to Wilmington, North Carolina for temporary duty. On 2 October she was ordered to report to Galveston, Texas as a permanent assignment, arriving 20 October. Her assigned cruising area was from Port Eads, Louisiana to the Rio Grande River. In October 1897, Apache was quarantined at Sabine Pass, Texas because of an outbreak of yellow fever along the Texas coast including Galveston.^[1] On 22 April 1898 as a result of the declaration of war on Spain by the United States, Apache was ordered to New Orleans to assist with the defense of the city. She remained there until 30 July when she was relieved, arriving 7 August at Galveston. On 13 July 1899 she was ordered to assist flood sufferers in the Brazos River area as a result of Tropical Storm One^[1] On 30 April 1907 she struck the anchored barge C. T. Rowland in fog in Chesapeake Bay at the lower end of the Craighill Channel.^[6]

Apache entered U.S. Navy service after the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917 and the Coast Guard came under U.S. Navy control for the duration of the war. Coast Guardsmen from Apache and USRC Algonquin assisted U.S. Marshals in seizing 3 German steamships; 11,440-ton Bulgaria, 10,058-ton Rhein, and 9,835-ton Necker which were interned at Baltimore, Maryland after the Declaration of war on Germany^[7] She was assigned to the 5th Naval District and patrolled Chesapeake Bay until the end of the war. In December 1918 she was fitted out as a minesweeper and assigned a homeport at Charleston, South Carolina.^[8] Additional duties assigned to Apache during her assignment at Charleston was as a training ship for newly commissioned U.S. Navy ensigns, giving them operational experience with minesweeping evolutions as well as the occasional duty to aid vessels in distress.^[9]

Apache returned to U.S. Coast Guard control when the Coast Guard was returned to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on 28 August 1919.^[1] She remained active in the Coast Guard until 1937, then saw service with the United States Army as a radio Transmitter ship in the Pacific during World War II.^[4] In October 1944, Apache broadcast General Douglas MacArthur's "I have returned" speech. She was scrapped in 1950.^[4]

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Annual report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat Inspection Service to the Secretary of Commerce for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1908. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1908. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
• "Apache, 1891; ex-Galveston". Browse by Topic. U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
• "Record of Movements, Vessels of the United States Coast Guard, 1790–December 31, 1933" (PDF). Historic Documents. U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
• Larzelere, Alex (2003). The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-55750-476-0.
• Canney, Donald L. (1995). U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790–1935. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-55750-101-1.