USRC Massachusetts (1791)
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USRC ''Massachusetts'' was one of the first ten cutters operated by the
Revenue-Marine ) , colors= , colors_label= , march= , mascot= , equipment= , equipment_label= , battles= , anniversaries=4 August , decorations= , battle_honours= , battle_honours_label= , disbanded=28 January 1915 , flying_hours= , website= , commander1= , co ...
(later to become the
US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...
). She was built in
Newburyport, Massachusetts Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...
and served out of
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. ''Massachusetts'' by tradition is held to be the first revenue cutter to enter active service. She was also the first to be decommissioned, having a very short service life of only about 15 months before being sold.


Description

A contemporary description, provided by the Collector of Customs at Boston, Mr.
Benjamin Lincoln Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 ( O.S. January 13, 1733) – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrender ...
to the
Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
,
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
, noted:
Agreeably to your orders I here send you a description of the Cutter Massachusetts built at Newbury port in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the year 1791. She has on ic: onedeck, two masts her length is sixty feet above her upper deck her depth is seven feet Eight inches, breadth seventeen feet eight inches she measures seventy tons 43/95. She is a square-stern schooner, has quarter badges, an Indian's head for figurehead. She has a long quarter deck and a deep waist."Evans, pp 13–14Kern, p 3
Dr. John Tilley noted that "the Massachusetts was a two-masted schooner of 70 43/95 tons burden, 60 ' in length, with a beam of 17' 8" and depth of hold of 7' 8". The ship had a long quarterdeck, deep bulwarks, and an armament of either four of six swivel guns. The contract signed by Searle and Tyler called for two boats and seven sails: mainsail, foresail, jib, flying jib, fore topsail, main topsail, and squaresail.""Massachusetts, 1791", Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard-Manned Army & Navy Vessels, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office The cutter ended up being larger than originally authorized as her first master, John Foster Williams, ordered an increase in her size without first seeking departmental approval. Her cost was therefore considerably over the original estimate. Nevertheless, the government accepted her as built.


Operational service

Although she was launched later than a number of other cutters, by tradition she is considered to be the first to actually enter active service.Chapelle, p 181 There are a number of surviving documents regarding her history. A journal, kept by second mate Nathaniel Nichols, has turned up and gives a glimpse of what life was like on this cutter. He faithfully recorded his thoughts and actions from 31 October 1791 through 16 June 1793.
"No Revenue Cutter in Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's 'system of cutters' saw shorter Federal service than the first
utter named In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written langu ...
''Massachusetts'', a 70-ton schooner built in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1791. One of the first ten armed vessels of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
ordered to patrol the
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Coast to protect the revenue, she was too costly to please Alexander Hamilton, too expensive to operate to please General Benjamin Lincoln, and too slow to please her Master, Captain
John Foster Williams John Foster Williams (12 October 1743 – 24 June 1814) was an American mariner who served as an officer in the Massachusetts State Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later an officer in the Revenue-Marine. Career Williams was c ...
. They sold her in October 1792 and replaced her the following spring with a smaller, livelier cutter, the sloop ."Kern, p 1


Original officers

John Foster Williams,
Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
; 1791-1792
Hezekiah Welch,
First Mate A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship ...
;
Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...

Nathaniel Nichols, Second Mate,
Cohasset, Massachusetts Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,381. History Cohasset was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization, from whom English c ...

Sylvanus Coleman, Third Mate,
Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...


Notes


Footnotes


Citations


References cited

* * * *Chapelle, Howard I. (1935): ''The History of American Sailing Ships'', New York: Bonanza Books. *Dixon, Robert Jr. (1966): ''Captain Gross's Arms and Stores.'' Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association ''The Bulletin'' (April–May 1966), pp. 95–100. * * Kern, Florence, 1976: ''John Foster Williams' U.S. Revenue Cutter Massachusetts, 1791-1792 "To Stand the Trials."'' Washington, D.C.: Alised Enterprises. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Massachusetts (1791) First ten Revenue Service cutters 1791 ships