USS McCulloch ( 1897 ) Built by William Cramp & Sons , Philadelphia , USS " McCulloch " commissioned 12 December 1897 as a cruising cutter of the Revenue Cutter Service , Capt . D . B . Hogsdon , RCS , in command . As the Spanish American War was about to commence , the new cutter was steaming via the Suez Canal and the Far East to her first station at San Francisco . Upon her arrival in Singapore on 8 April 1898 , two full weeks before war was declared , orders directed " McCulloch " to report to Commodore Dewey on the Asiatic station . Dewey ’ s squadron was composed of cruisers " Olympia " , " Boston " , " Baltimore " , and " Raleigh " ; gunboats " Concord " and " Petrel " ; and cutter " McCulloch " , with her charges , the valuable store ships " Nanshan " and " Zafire " . The squadron stood out of Mirs Bay , China , on 27 April 1898 , and entered Manila Bay the evening of 30 April 1898 . By midnight " Olympia " had stealthily passed into the harbor . Successive ships followed in close order . Just as " McCulloch " brought El Fraile Rock abaft the starboard beam . the block stillness was broken . Soot in the cutter ’ s stack caught fire and sent up a column of fire like a signal light . Immediately thereafter a battery on El Fraile took " McCulloch " under fire . " Boston " , in column just ahead of the cutter , answered the battery , as did " McCulloch " , and the Spanish gun emplacement was silenced . As the rock fell astern , Dewey reduced speed to 4 knots so as to reach the head of the Bay in time to join action with the Spanish Fleet at daybreak . His order of battle required " McCulloch " to guard the precious store ships from enemy gunboats . She was also to protect the ships in line of battle from surprise attack , to tow any disabled ship out of range of gunfire , and to take her place in the line . Americans present off Cavite that day , long recalled , with satisfaction , that McCulloch found no need to tow any warship out of the battle line . During five firing runs , made at close range , the accurate gunners of Dewey ’ s squadron wrought devastation upon the Spaniards . The battle , which began at 05 : 40 , was over in 7 hours . All of the Spanish warships were destroyed , and 381 Spanish seamen were killed . No American warship was seriously damaged , and only eight American sailors were wounded . In a message to Secretary of the Navy John D . Long , Dewey commended Captain Hogsdon for the efficiency and readiness of his ship . After the battle , because of her speed , " McCulloch " was dispatched to the closest cable facility , that at Hong Kong , bearing the first dispatches of the great naval victory . According to Samuel Eliot Morison , the United States wrested an American empire from Spain after 10 weeks ’ fighting , and “ it was control of the ocean that did it . ” On May 17 , the McCulloch left Hong Kong with Emilio Aguinaldo on board , the Philippine revolutionary who will lead the Philippine forces in the Philippine - American War , arriving in Cavite in Manila Bay on May 19 . " McCulloch " arrived at San Francisco on 10 January 1899 and operated on patrol out of that port , cruising from the Mexican border to Cape Blanco . Designated to enforce fur seal regulations 9 August 1906 , she operated in the vicinity of the Pribilof Islands until 1912 . During these years of service in the Bering Sea patrol , she was especially well known because of her services as a floating court to the Alaskan towns . Upon return to San Francisco in 1912 , McCulloch resumed patrol operations in her regular West Coast cruising district . Transferred to the U . S . Navy on 6 April 1917 , she continued patrol operations along the Pacific coast . She sank on 13 June 1917 , three miles northwest of Point Conception , California , after colliding with the Pacific Steamship Company ’ s steamer " Governor " .