USS Cumberland (AG, 1904) Class

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USS Cumberland circa 1907
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Class:        CUMBERLAND
Design:        Sail training bark, 1904
Displacement (tons):        1,800 displ., 1,910 full
Dimensions (feet):        211.6' oa, 176.4' wl x 45.7' x 16.4' mn.
Original Armament:        6-4" 4-6pdr 2-1pdr
Later armaments:        4-6pdr (1914: CUMBERLAND); 4-6pdr 2-1pdr (1914: INTREPID);
none (1917, both)
Complement:        336
Speed (kts.):        --
Propulsion (HP):        --
Machinery:        Sails, bark rig

Construction:

AG	Name	Ord.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
--	CUMBERLAND	1 Sep 03	NYd Boston	21 Jan 04	17 Aug 04	20 Jul 07
--	INTREPID	1 Sep 03	NYd Mare Island	2 Jan 04	8 Oct 04	16 Aug 07

Disposition:

AG	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
--	CUMBERLAND	31 Oct 46	13 Dec 46	22 Jul 47	WSA	7 Jul 47
--	INTREPID	31 Aug 21	--	20 Dec 21	Sold	--

Class Notes:
FY 1904 (Act of 3 Mar 03). In 1902 and 1903 the Navy was using as cruising vessels for apprentices the ESSEX (launched in 1874), HARTFORD (1858), and MONONGAHELA (1862) on the Atlantic coast and the ALERT (1874) on the Pacific coast. With training in sail still considered essential for apprentices, the Navy obtained from Congress in 1903 appropriations for three new sail training ships, including 2 steel-hulled ships with bark rigs to be used in training landsmen and apprentices. One was for use in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. Work was suspended in 1905 until Congress provided additional appropriations for their completion. Their crews in 1911 consisted of 16 officers, 120 men, and 150 apprentice seamen.

The construction period for both ships began on 1 Sep 03 (their probable order date). CUMBERLAND was completed on 29 Sep 06 and was towed from Boston in July 1907 to the Naval Training Station, Newport where she was placed in commission on 20 Jul 07 as an auxiliary to the stationary training ship there, USS CONSTELLATION. Sail training ships were rated "unserviceable" in 1912, at which time they were apparently no longer required for this purpose. She was reassigned in November 1912 as station ship at Guantanamo. Towed to the New York Navy Yard Sep 14 for repairs, she was then assigned as receiving ship at the Naval Training Station at Norfolk. She was ordered to duty at the Naval Academy at Annapolis on 7 Apr 19 and arrived there on 15 May 19 in tow of MOHAWK. There she was used as quarters for the mess attendants who worked in Bancroft Hall. In 1922 Navy file clerks assigned CUMBERLAND the file symbol IX-8, and this symbol became a formal hull number on 17 Feb 41. CNO directed her disposal on 25 Apr 46. She was replaced in 1946 by APL-31, by which time she accommodated around 500 mess attendants in facilities without air conditioning. She was towed to Norfolk, placed out of service 31 Oct 46, and sold by the War Shipping Administration in July 1947.

INTREPID was completed on 1 Nov 06 and placed in commission at the Training Station, San Francisco (Yerba Buena) on 16 Aug 07. Rated "unserviceable" in 1912, she assumed duties as receiving ship at Yerba Buena from 28 Feb 12 to 25 Jan 14. She then served as receiving ship at the Mare Is. Navy Yard until 15 Oct 14, when she was placed out of commission. She was placed in commission in ordinary at Mare Island on 11 Nov 15 for use as a barracks for the men of F-class submarines. Stationed at Mare Island in 1916-1919, she served as receiving ship there from 1920 until she was decommissioned on 31 Aug 21. She was one of a group of ships placed on the sale list by the Secretary of the Navy and the President on 1 Jul 21 due to their age and non-military value, she was ordered sold after removal of naval material on 27 Aug 21, and she was sold on 20 Dec 21.

INTREPID reappears in the historical record when, on 24 Aug 41, the Navy bought her hulk for $1 from the Hawaiian Dredging Co., which had used it as an oil tank and cargo lighter with most equipment and all masting removed and a well deck cut out over much of her length. The Navy took her over with a view to potential future use for local inter-island cargo transport and designated her as a covered lighter, YF-331. Instead she was used inside Pearl Harbor as a floating oil tank for fuel drained from ships damaged in the Japanese attack or swept off the harbor water surface. Her oil capacity was about 153,000 gallons. YF-331 was overhauled and drydocked in April 1945, leading to a Bureau of Ships decision to reclassify her to reflect her actual use, sludge removal. CNO changed her classification to YSR on 7 Aug 45 and BuShips assigned the number YSR-42 on 4 Oct 45. She was stricken on 8 May 46 and again discarded.

Ship Notes:

AG	Name	Notes
--	CUMBERLAND	Designated "Unclassified" 17 Jul 20, given file symbol IX-8 1922. Sold by WSA to Israel Jacobson of Portland, Me., for $2,222.22, to buyer 22 Jul 47.
--	INTREPID	Designated "Unclassified" 17 Jul 20. Sold to M. Parker, San Francisco, for $4,015.00. Reacq. 24 Aug 41 as service craft YF-331, to YSR-42 4 Oct 45, stk. 8 May 46.