In 1922, Itasca was determined to be too small for the cadet corps, and was decommissioned and scrapped. She was then replaced by the three-masted barquentine Alexander Hamilton, a former Navy gunboat from the Spanish–American War.[16] Alexander Hamilton was in service at the Coast Guard Academy until 1930; after her decommissioning in 1944, Alexander Hamilton's mainmast was returned to New London and served as the Academy's flagpole until 1954.[17] During the 1930s, the Academy did not have a resident sailing vessel for cadet training.