The twin-screw torpedo boat Cushing (length 138 feet, beam 15 feet, draught 10 feet, displacement 116 tons; contract speed 22 knots, trial speed 23 knots) built by the Hereshoff Company for the American Government was fitted with two eleven and a quarter inch by 16 inch by 22 inch by (2) 22 inch by 15 inch stroke 800 indicated horsepower quadruple-expansion engines operating on steam supplied by two Thornycroft water-tube boilers built by the Continental Ironworks, Brooklyn, N.Y. The hull was built of steel plate, and divided into eleven watertight compartments. Armament: three 18-inch torpedo tubes and three 6-pounder guns.