USRC Active (1791)

USRC Active (1791) was one of the original ten cutters[a] built and used by the United States Revenue Cutter Service.[b][3] It was commissioned in 1792 and remained in service until 1800.

Ensign (flag) of the USRCS flown from cutters c. 1798

History

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Active was built by the shipwright David Stodder in Baltimore, Maryland.[4] She was designed as a schooner.[5] She was rigged with fore-and-aft sails on two masts. She was launched on April 9, 1791 and was based in Baltimore.[4] USRC Active was used to patrol the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.[3]

Her first master was Simon Gross.[3] Her first mate was Isaac Roach and her second mate was Benjamin Rue.[6] Goss resigned in 1792 and President George Washington promoted the former first mate, David Porter, as master.[7] The 1791-built cutter named Active was sold in 1800.[3]

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  1. The term cutter came from the boats used by Great Britain's Royal Customs Service.[1] Modern Coast Guard cutters are any larger ship no matter what the type.[1]
  2. Also called the Revenue Marine. Together with the United States Life-Saving Service, the United States Revenue Cutter Service formed the United States Coast Guard on 28 January 1915.[2]

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 "Eighteenth, Nineteenth & Early Twentieth Century Revenue Cutters". United States Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  2. Robert Scheina. "The Coast Guard At War". United States Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "The First Ten Cutters; The first commissioned U.S. Revenue cutters". United States Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Paul H. Silverstone, The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854 (London; New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 77
  5. Horatio Davis Smith, Early History of the United States Revenue Marine Service, ed. Elliot Snow (Washington, DC: Coast Guard Bicentennial Publication, 1989), p. 34
  6. H.D. Smith, 'The United States Revenue Cutter Service', The United Service; A Monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs, New Series, Vol. II, No. 5 (November, 1889), p. 463
  7. Alexander Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. XII, ed. Harold C. Syrett (New York; Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 199

Other websites

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