Historical Perspective: From the Quasi-War to CVBGs

Two Hundred Years of USN-USCG Teamwork

By DAVID F. WINKLER

Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.

Close cooperation between the Navy and the Coast Guard has increased significantly in recent years, with Coast Guard cutters deploying overseas with Navy aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBGs) and Navy ships and aircraft assisting the Coast Guard in the war on drugs. This cooperation has historic antecedents dating back to the founding of the Republic.

Among the organizations to which the Coast Guard traces its roots is the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (RCS). As the first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, Alexander Hamilton saw the need to "employ boats for the security of Revenue against contraband." Between 1790 and 1791, 10 schooners--36 to 40 feet in length at their keels--were fitted out with swivel guns and assigned to ports along the eastern seaboard. These schooners proved too small, however, to carry out their antismuggling assignments so, as the decade progressed, they were replaced by larger and more seaworthy vessels.

The arrival of these ships proved fortuitous. With war ongoing in Europe, French privateers had begun attacking American commercial vessels as part of a strategy to discourage American trade with France's enemies. In response, the newly established Department of the Navy commissioned six new frigates, acquired other ships for service, and looked elsewhere to augment its embryonic fleet.

The revenue cutters, manned by experienced seamen, proved invaluable and were placed into naval service. On 10 July 1798, the RCS schooner Governor Jay and sloop General Greene joined up with Commodore John Barry's Navy fleet patrolling between Nantucket, Mass., and Cape Henry, Va. A month later, four revenue cutters joined to screen USS Constitution on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean.

By the spring of 1799, the U.S. naval forces in the Caribbean included two Navy frigates, four Navy sloops of war, the RCS brigs Eagle and Pickering, and the RCS schooners Scammel and Diligence. They later were joined by Commodore Thomas Truxtun in USS Constellation, three additional Navy frigates, and four more Navy sloops of war plus the RCS schooner Virginia. Elsewhere in the region the schooner South Carolina teamed with the USS Ganges to guard the windward passage between Cuba and San Domingo and to patrol off Havana, and the USS Delaware was augmented by the aforementioned Governor Jay and General Greene.

Notable in the Quasi-War with France were victories by the Constellation over L'Insurgente on 9 February 1799 and over La Vengeance on 1 February 1800. However, what really convinced the French of the futility of their effort was the capture of over 80 of their vessels to the loss of just one American ship.

The Revenue Cutter Service vessels played a major role in clearing the seas of the threat to American commerce. For example, the Eagle, under the command of Hugh G. Campbell, captured or assisted in the capture of 22 French vessels that had been preying on American commerce. The Eagle's triumph over the Bon Pere was particularly noteworthy. Because the French ship was a superior vessel, the Treasury Department placed her in commission under the American flag.

Meanwhile, the Pickering, commanded by Edward Preble, captured four French vessels; the legendary Preble also gained fame for his defeat of the French privateer L'Egypte Conquise. Outgunned and outmanned--the French ship carried a crew of 250 to his 70--Preble fought a nine-hour duel that forced his French counterpart to strike his colors.

By the time the treaty of peace was ratified with France on 3 February 1801 there were 17 RCS vessels in service. Thanks to its performance against smugglers and against enemy forces hostile to American commerce, the Revenue Cutter Service established an impressive reputation that continues today in the U.S. Coast Guard. *

Material from Captain Commandant Horatio Davis Smith's Early History of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, Elliot Snow, editor. (Naval Historical Foundation, 1932).