Revenue Cutters Was Challenging While Pursuing Pirates and Protecting U.S

Wet, Cold, and Thoroughly Miser able Surviving Aboard Revenue Cutters Was Challenging While Pursuing Pirates and Protecting U.S. Interests at Sea By William R. Wells II he popular historical image of the antebellum U.S. Revenue Cutter Service is one of a fast cutter chasing Tsmugglers, slavers, and other scoundrels. Speed remained an important quality for the cutters. “It is indispensably necessary that the Revenue Cutters in the Service of the United States should be fast sailers, so as to enable them to overhaul any vessels they may fall in with,” Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham noted in an 1830 letter to Boston Collector of Customs David Henshaw about the construction of a 107-ton new cutter. The Revenue Cutter McLane enforces federal tariff laws in Charleston Harbor during the Nullification Crisis of 1832–1833 in a modern painting. Castle Pinckney is in the background. However, the cutters were very small and aboard the cutters became one cause of com- near the end of her career as a revenue cutter. wet in the sense of taking on water from plaint in an 1889 petition submitted by a However, the water tank idea went forward, above and below. Because of tight fiscal fed-up revenue cutter officer corps asking for and the Treasury Department installed four concerns within the Treasury Department, wholesale transfer to the Navy Department. aboard the cutter Van Buren in 1839. The the cutters received little maintenance other House of Representatives Report Number logs of 1841–1842 show as much as 1,850 than what the crew could do. 76 of February 15, 1890, reflects this gallons of water could be carried. Congressional funding for them did not concern: In March 1830, Capt. John Cahoone exist, and any monies expended on them On the other hand, the officer of echoed Dearborn’s space-saving sugges- came out of the duties or tariffs assessed at the Revenue Marine has no settled tion; Cahoone suggested replacing the cut- the individual ports. Minimal expenditures home or habitation; he is, by force of ter Vigilant’s ballast stone on the berth deck were the rule, and most individual collectors circumstances, a nomad; he has two to “make room for the addition of Stores of customs overlooked maintenance of hab- separate and distinct establishments to and crew.” Cahoone wanted clean iron bal- itability for the comfort and health of those maintain—his temporary resting place last because he now had to move his four serving in them. on shipboard and the equally transi- 4-pounder guns and carriages back on deck. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service tory lodgings of his wife and family on Revenue cutters that had little need for (USRCS) was formed in 1790 at the direc- shore; he is confined to cramped and guns—such as Vigilant—commonly used tion of the first treasury secretary, Alexander inconvenient quarters, in which, for the guns and shot for ballast. In 1845, Van Hamilton. The service’s job was to enforce the most part, decent privacy is denied Buren held 289 pieces of kentledge (iron the laws and protect U.S. maritime assets, him; he inhabits, with a half dozen oth- pigs), 384 12-pound shot, and 96 odd pieces such as merchant ships that became targets ers, a room 10 feet by 18 feet—here he of iron for ballast—all of it painted white. for pirates, privateers, and home-grown must eat, sleep, perform his ablutions, shipwreckers. During the War of 1812, the receive and entertain friends, and break Portsmouth’s Officers cutters went to war to fight the British. his daily bread with the congenial and Complain about Quarters In 1915, Congress established the uncongenial alike; his sleeping berth is The below-decks space became more con- U.S. Coast Guard within the Treasury barely big enough to contain his person; stricted with the advent of winter cruising to Department and included the Revenue his comforts are such as he can catch as assist distressed vessels. On December 16, Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service. his life wears on. 1831, Treasury Secretary Louis McLane or- The two bureaus remained as separate in Other captains raised the issue of their dered the collector of customs at Portsmouth, culture and tasks as they had been before crew’s welfare to the local collectors. In 1828, New Hampshire, to have the cutter passage of the law. No complete merger oc- Capt. Samuel Trevett, commanding the cut- Portsmouth “furnished without delay, with curred until after World War II. ter Search at Boston, recommended the in- such quantities of provisions, water, wood, stallation of an iron water tank to replace and other necessary supplies as can be con- Early Cutters Posed the traditional water kegs. Trevett claimed a veniently stowed in the vessel and to cruise Tight Squeeze for Crew tank 70 inches tall with sides of 52 and 40 between Cape Ann and Cape Elizabeth” to Cutters built in the antebellum period inches could hold as much water as 6½ stan- assist vessels as well as fulfill normal duties. were 75 feet long, 20 feet wide, and an aver- dard 30-gallon kegs. The United States and McLane ordered Capt. Thomas Shaw not age of 7 to 8 feet deep—an external, not an British navies used these water tanks and re- to return to “port until forced to do so from internal measurement. The internal depth of ported that the water “keeps sweeter and is stress of weather and want of supplies.” This the hold was measured from the spar deck to more salubrious.” The tank cost $400, held arduous and uncomfortable duty severely the top of the keel, and few measured more a 30-day supply of water, and at one ton, tasked the crew and the 11-year-old cutter, than 6½ feet. The lowest deck—the “berth also served as a substitute for the iron ballast. which had been built as a pilot-boat and pur- deck,” or orlop deck—sat 2 feet above the Henry A. S. Dearborn, collector at chased by Treasury in 1829. keel, making space below deck sparse, dark, Boston, suggested to Treasury Secretary The officers straightaway complained that cold, or hot depending upon the season. Richard Rush that removing the “pig iron” the Portsmouth was too small. There was no A few cutter captains understood the great ballast would make more space for the crew. wardroom, and with a 10-foot draft, it sat discomfort of the narrow confines for officers No record exists of Rush’s approval of the low in the water, making it a “very wet ves- and men alike. The poor living conditions request. Search was then eight years old and sel” in heavy weather and uncomfortable to 38 Prologue Fall 2014 Above: The Revenue Cutter Morris, 1831. Cutters built in the antebellum period were 75 feet long, 20 feet wide, and an average of 7 to 8 feet deep—external, not internal measurements. A few cutter captains understood the great discomfort of the narrow confines for officers and men alike. Below: The midship section of the Joe Lane, built in 1849, illustrates the tight quarters found on revenue cutters of the antebellum period. It was the lowest deck (the “berth deck”), four to five feet in height, with sparse space, and dark, cold, or hot depending upon the season. sail and live aboard. In 1832 Shaw wrote included 6 barrels of beef, 400 pounds of In July 1833, Capt. Andrew Mather com- that the cutter’s small size required him to bread, 6 barrels of water, 50 pounds of candles, plained of the cabin, wardroom, staterooms, “carry all provisions and part of her bal- 10 pounds of tea, and 1 cord of dry hardwood. and the inadequacy for the physical needs of the last,” including four cannon, on the berth These materials provided convenient hid- officers and crews aboard the Wolcott. Mather deck, which measured 3½ feet in height and ing and breeding places for rats, mice, and requested to alter the captain’s cabin and ward- where a crew of at least 12 lived. “With the insects. At least once a year, the captain of room while at New Haven. The Wolcott’s cabin, necessary wood, water, provisions, peoples’ the cutter ordered the holds cleaned out and he wrote, was smaller than those of other cutters dunnage [term for the crew] &c there is lit- the hatches and openings sealed. All officers of the same type, built at the same place and at tle room for much else,” Shaw wrote. and men moved ashore to temporary quar- about the same time. One had a cabin two feet Added to this were the 30 tons of ballast and ters and then for two days used smoke to wider and “somewhat longer,” and another had the additional winter cruising supplies, which remove the vermin. been lengthened “from three to four feet.” Wet, Cold, and Thoroughly Miserable Prologue 39 Wolcott’s cabin, Mather added, had been unknown how Shaw was able to rearrange paint. The paint sealed the canvas and made constructed with no place to hang clothes the old ballast, but cuttermen had learned to for easier cleaning and longer wear. or store books or other items. Therefore, he make do with less or what was given. had drawers made, but the “sharpness” of Officers’ quarters often contained more “Corporeal Punishment” the cutter’s hull was such that these drawers luxurious articles. In 1840, New Haven to Discipline the Crew could not be placed under his bed. Mather’s Collector William H.

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