Description
A contemporary description, provided by the Collector of Customs at Boston, Mr.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 3Dr. 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 firstutter 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 theUnited 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 theAtlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...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, CaptainJohn 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,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