USRC SEMINOLE, a 188-foot, 845-ton steamer, was constructed by the Columbian Iron Works in Baltimore, Maryland for $41,000. She was commissioned in 1900 and saw service through 1934, when she was transferred to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. She was first based out of Boston and transferred to Wilmington, North Carolina, in late 1904. She then patrolled along the southeastern coast, including winter cruises from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina and even down through Key West, Florida. Her duties included derelict destruction, attending local ceremonies, patrolling regattas, and rendering assistance when needed. With the outbreak of World War I, she enforced the neutrality laws of the United States until the United States entered the war. She then served under the Navy and patrolled off the Carolinas. In 1923 she was detached to Puerto Rico where she served as an independent unit and returned to her permanent station of Wilmington later that year. In 1929 transferred for service on the Great Lakes where she was stationed at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan until she was decommissioned in 1934. Ownership was transferred to a co-operative organization, Copper Country Industries as part of a work relief program. She carried passengers to Isle Royale twice a week and also made moonlight cruises on Portage Lake. Most members of the initial crew were men with experience in marine work who otherwise would have been on relief. The steamship SEMINOLE was only in service for two years before competition and economic conditions forced her early retirement. Ownership reverted to the Federal Treasury, and she was promptly sold for scrap to J.H. Green Company of Ripley, Michigan.
From the description of S.S. Seminole Records, 1935. (Michigan Technological University). WorldCat record id: 703882088
