Arcata,
1903
A village in Humboldt County, Calif., whose name is an Indian word meaning "sunny spot."
Builder: W. A. Boote & Son, San Francisco
Length: 85'
Beam: 17' 6"
Draft: 10' 4"
Displacement: 138 tons
Propulsion: Compound-expansion steam
Top speed: 11-knots
Complement: 1 officer, 11 crewmen
Armament: 1 x 1-pounder (1930)
CUTTER HISTORY:
Arcata--a wooden-hulled Coast Guard cutter--was built in 1903 at San Francisco, Calif., by W. A. Boote and Son, and reported to her duty station at Port Townsend, Washington in 1903. Over the next few years, Arcata operated in the waters of the Pacific northwest, principally in the Puget Sound area, carrying out such duties as patrolling regattas, looking over fishing grounds, and occasionally working as a boarding vessel. With the outbreak of war in 1914, Arcata conducted patrols to make sure neutrality laws were obeyed.
Transferred to the Navy on 6 April 1917 upon the American entry into World War I, Arcata continued to perform similar duty in Puget Sound through the end of the war. She returned to Coast Guard service on 23 August 1919 and joined in that service's fight to enforce Prohibition.
She played an "active role and engaged is several notable captures: She exchanged gunfire with M-775 in June 1924 and captured the vessel along with contraband alcohol and a Chinese alien." [Canney, p. 60]
She was decommissioned on 31 January 1936.
SOURCES:
Donald Canney, U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995), p. 60.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. I, Part A. p. 348.
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