The coast guard at war part I 

By: Lewis Lowe

In 1790 a predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard was established by the First Congress of the United States. This newly formed maritime force did not have an official name. Rather, it was referred to simply as "the cutters" or "the system of cutters." This small force was to enforce national laws, in particular, those dealing with tariffs. At the time, these cutters were the only maritime force available to the new government under the Constitution. After all, the Continental Navy had been disbanded in 1785. Thus, between 1790 and 1798, there was no United States Navy and the cutters were the only warships protecting the coast, trade, and maritime interests of the new republic.

he officers of the early cutters were appointed largely from among those who had served in the disbanded Continental Navy. The first commission to command one of the new cutters was issued by President George Washington to Captain Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire. The Act of 4 August 1790, creating the Service, provided that the commander of a cutter should have the subsistence of a captain in the Army. In addition the ship’s other officers should have the subsistence of an Army lieutenant and each enlisted man should have the same ration as a soldier. These measures were based, of course, on those of the Army because the U.S. Navy had not yet been established.

Cutters soon became involved in military affairs. In 1793 the cutter Diligence drove a pirate ashore in the Chesapeake Bay. In 1794 the cutter Virginia arrested Unicorn which was being fitted-out as a privateer by supporters of the French republic. On more than one occasion a cutter intervened to enforce American neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars.

Between 1797 and 1799 laws were passed which formalized the military role of the cutters. The act of 1 July 1797 authorized the President to employ the cutters to defend the seacoasts and to repel any hostility to the vessels and commerce of the United States. The law also made provisions for assigning Marines to cutters. The Act of 2 February 1799 stated that:

the President of the United States shall be, and is hereby authorized to place on the naval establishment, and employ accordingly, all or any of the vessels, which, as revenue cutters have been increased in force and employed in the defense of the seacoasts...and thereupon, the officers and crews of such vessels, may be allowed, at the discretion of the President of the United States, the pay, subsistence, advantages and compensations, proportionably to the rates of such vessels, and shall be governed by the rules and discipline which are, or which shall be, established for the Navy of the United States.

The act of 2 March 1799, provided that the cutters "shall, whenever the President of the United States shall so direct, cooperate with the Navy of the United States, during which time they shall be under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy…"

Quasi-War with France

During the Quasi-War with France (1797-1801), eight cutters (one sloop, five schooners, and two brigs) operated along the southern coast and among the islands of the West Indies. The two brigs and two of the schooners each carried 14 guns, and 70 men. The sloop and the other schooners each had 10 guns and 34 men. Eighteen of the twenty-two prizes captured by the United States between 1798 and 1799, eighteen were taken by unaided cutters. Revenue cutters also assisted in capturing two others. The cutter Pickering made two cruises to the West Indies and captured 10 prizes, one of which carried 44 guns and was manned by some 200 sailors, more than three times its strength. Although the cutters did not participate in the Barbary Wars (1801-1815), a number of cutter officers transferred to the Navy and fought in the Mediterranean. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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