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Why so much for this Sampson


emccomas
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USRS WIndom, the ship is a scarce one with a single Phase I engagement at Cinfuegos. I do not have the ship's roster but I would wonder if it is an officer's award which would command a higher premium. I'll check Medal Letters for more details

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The medal was obviously rim engraved to a Lt. who I believe was Lt R.O. Crisp, was cited for action at Cienfuegos on May 11, 1898 and was of the US Revenue Cutter Service.

The vessels Captain was S.E. Maquire.

I believe at least 3 other medal associated with this one also sold separately, very unfortunate, one of them probably being his West Indies Campaign medal.

 

DakotaDave

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  • 5 years later...

Awesome medal. Here is the history for the USRS (US Revenue Cutter Service) Cutter Windom:
https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Water/All/Article/2295535/windom-1896-later-comanche/
 

"The Revenue Cutter Service's 1897 Annual Report noted that the cutter Windom, a revenue cutter completed in 1896 at the Iowa Iron Works in Dubuque, Iowa, was one of the first attempts by the Service at constructing a "modern" ship, with a fully watertight hull, longitudinal and transverse bulkheads and a triple-expansion steam propulsion capable of making up to 15 knots.  She was accepted by the Treasury Department on 11 May 1896.  Partially incomplete, she was moved from Dubuque, via Cairo, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana to Baltimore, Maryland where she was completed and placed in commission on 30 June 1896.

For the next 17 months, she operated out of Baltimore making an annual winter cruise of the fishing grounds between the Virginia capes and Cape Hatteras.  In March 1898, with war against Spain looming just over the horizon, President William McKinley began to prepare for war.  On the 24th, he issued the executive order instructing the Revenue Cutter Service to cooperate with the Navy for the duration of the crisis.  Two days later, Windom received orders to report at Norfolk, and there she found herself on 25 April when Congress passed the resolution recognizing that a state of war existed between the United States and Spain.

Five days later, Windom departed Hampton Roads on her way to the blockade off Cuba.  She stopped at Key West, Florida, for four days and arrived off the Cuban coast on 8 May.  She patrolled the southern coast of Cuba near Cienfuegos until the 13th.  During that time, she cut the Cienfuegos cable, the Spanish colonial government's only link with the outside world; and, on 12 May, she helped to cover the withdrawal of an ill-starred Navy boat expedition.  At a critical point in that action, the cutter closed the enemy shore and silenced the Spanish battery and briefly dispersed their infantry allowing the harassed boats to reach safety.  The following day, she withdrew from the area to return to Key West -- probably for fuel and provisions.  She again got underway for the combat zone on 27 May and took up station off Havana on the 28th. For the remainder of the Spanish-American War, Windom participated in the blockade of Havana, returning to Key West on two occasions -- once during the last two weeks of June and again during the first week in August.

Hostilities ended on 13 August; Windom reverted to Treasury Department control on the 17th; and she returned to Norfolk on the 22d.  She remained there until 3 October at which time she headed for New York where she transferred most of her armament to Gresham before resuming duty at Baltimore with the Revenue Cutter Service on the 13th.  From the fall of 1898 to the summer of 1906, Windom operated out of Baltimore, cruising the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and occasionally venturing out into the Atlantic in the vicinity of the Virginia capes.  On 13 July 1906, the cutter departed Arundel Cove, Maryland, to sail -- via Key West, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama -- to her new base of operations at Galveston, Texas.  She arrived there on 6 August and began duty patrolling the gulf coast of the United States.  That assignment lasted for five years."

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Note on this Sampson Medal for the Cutter Morrill, it says "USRC Morrill." 
Images from Worth Point. 
In the description, it says "The medal for the [USRC] Morrill was not authorized until "Phase II" in 1906."
I'm not a big Sampson medal expert, but I would think the "USRS Windom" marked medal came out first in 1901, and then maybe the designation for the Revenue Cutter Service was changed on the medals to show "USRC"???
Just an interesting comparison I noticed. 
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sampson-medal-revenue-cutter-morrill-1891842002

474808058_sampsonmedalusrcMorrillworthpoint1.jpg.ea8d9e5a004b7eb3940c946fc3246b14.jpg

 

487809050_sampsonmedalusrcMorrillworthpoint2.jpg.8351316f188603a3fc65bb37500a5aec.jpg

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For anyone interested, here is a thread discussing the use of "USRS" and "USRC". It seems it stood for both US Receiving Ship and US Revenue Steamer (maybe even US Revenue [Cutter] Service) at different times. 
 

 

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I was the purchaser of 3 of Crisp's 4- medals, including the Sampson when they sold in four separate ebay auctions several years ago.  Crisp's West Indies #1143 is owned by a forum member.   He and I communicated back when the auctions occurred and he is aware that I am open to a purchase or trade that would reunite the entire group to one of us.    Here's an old posting of the group.

 

 

This is a photo of RADM Crisp (1861-1951) as a US Revenue Service School cadet circa 1885. A graduate of both the US Naval Academy (Class of 1884) and the Revenue Service School, at the time of his death in 1951 at 90, he was the oldest living Coast Guard commissioned officer. During the Spanish American War he was gun captain of a 4" gun on the USRS Cutter Windom that destroyed a Spanish lighthouse at Cienfuegos, Cuba on May 11, 1898. He commanded 15 ships during his 40 year career from 1885 to 1925, and was captain of the US Revenue Service Cutter Tahoma when she hit an uncharted ice floe off Alaska in 1914 and sank, fortunately with all hands surviving. Following the First World War, he wrote an exhaustive history of the Coast Guard's service during that war, which the Coast Guard has yet to make available to the public.

Crisp R O (1) Box 9 Folder 8.jpg

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