Semper Paratus, “Always Ready,” Motto of the U.S. Coast Guard

(WHTM) — In the early years of the United States, tariffs, aka custom duties, provided as much as 90% of federal revenue. And then, as now, there were those who tried to duck out of paying taxes — in this case, smugglers.

On Aug. 4, 1790, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, to construct 10 ships, “revenue cutters,” to enforce tariff laws and hunt down smugglers. This force would be known officially as the Revenue Marine or Revenue Cutter Service until 1915.

  • One of the first revenue cutters, probably USRC Massachusetts Courtesy: USCG Historian Office
  • USCGC Perry, date unknown Courtesy: USCG Historian Office
  • Pea Island Lifeboat Service Courtesy USCG Historian Office
  • Surfacing after a depth charge attack, this Nazi submarine, which tried to sneak into the midst of an Atlantic Convoy, has its conning tower blasted open by gunfire from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spencer on June 1, 1943. (AP Photo)
  • A German crewman who was wounded when his U-boat was sunk is hoisted aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter that sank his vessel, July 20, 1943. (AP Photo)
  • U.S. Coast Guard cutter Iris assists in fighting fire at the Monsanto Chemical Company refineries and oil storage tanks that exploded in the waterfront area in Texas City, Texas, on April 16, 1947. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
  • A group of cuban rafters float next to the 110-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Drummond about 40 miles south of Key West, Fla., on Aug. 23, 1994. (AP Photo/Enrique Valentin)
  • A large section of debris from the space shuttle Challenger is unloaded from U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas near the Kennedy Space Center in Port Canaveral, Fla., late Thursday night, Jan. 31, 1986. The debris was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff on Jan. 28. (AP Photo/Joe Skipper)
  • The U.S. Navy coast guard cutter Dallas passes through Dardanelles Strait, Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008. The U.S. coast guard Dallas is the second U. S. Navy ship to carry supplies such as blankets, hygiene kits and baby food to Georgia via the Turkish Straits, Dardanelles and Bosporus, to help the country following its war with Russia over the breakway republic of South Ossetia.(AP Photo)
  • The United States Coast Guard cutter Bertholf is seen moored Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, in Alameda, Calif. The Northrop Grumman Corporation-built National Security Cutter is the service’s most capable and technologically-advanced maritime asset in its 218-year existence. Bertholf is named to honor Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf, the first commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship is 418 feet long, with a 54-foot beam. Powered by a twin-screw combined diesel and gas turbine power propulsion plant, the NSC is designed to travel at 28 knots maximum speed. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
  • A Coast Guard Station Grand Isle 45-foot Respone Boat-Medium boatcrew heads toward a capsized 175-foot commercial lift boat Tuesday, April 13, 2021, searching for people in the water 8 miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana. The Coast Guard and multiple other boats rescued six people onboard a commercial lift boat that capsized off the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday night and were searching for more, the agency said.(U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard Cutter Glenn Harris via AP)
  • In this Monday Sept. 14, 2020 photo, From back left, Coast Guard Academy Cadets Henry Smith, Branyelle Carillo, Mia Haskovec, Jordan Park, and Tyler Huynh, pose for a photograph at the Seamanship Sailing Center at the United State Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. A group of Coast Guard cadets spent part of their summer filling in on a critical national security mission after a case of COVID-19 sidelined crew members on a cutter being sent to patrol the US-Russia border. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
  • Curtesy USCG Historian Office
  • Courtesy USCG Historian Office
  • This May 17, 2019 photo provide by the U.S. Coast Guard shows U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) crew members aboard the cutter’s 35-foot Long Range Interceptor small boat supervising the intentional sinking of suspected drug-smuggling boats, following the seizure of cocaine from the boats during an at-sea interdiction while Munro’s crew patrolled international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Due to the distance from land, inadequate tow points and flooding in the engine rooms of the boats, the boats were sunk as a hazard to navigation. (Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Masaschi/U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
  • This June 19, 2019 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) crew members inspecting a self-propelled semi-submersible in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Coast Guard crews seized more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and 933 pounds of marijuana, worth a combined estimated $569 million, through 14 separate suspected drug smuggling interdictions and disruptions off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America by three Coast Guard cutters between May and July 2019. (Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Masaschi/U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
  • In this Nov. 4, 2019 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) boarding teams interdict a low-profile go-fast vessel while patrolling international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, seizing more than 3,100 pounds of suspected cocaine. An estimated $312 million worth of cocaine seized from smugglers in the eastern Pacific Ocean has been brought to San Diego. About 18,000 pounds (8,165 kilograms) of the drug was offloaded Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, from the Coast Guard cutter Bertholf. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Paul Krug/U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
  • The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle makes its way toward Boston, Friday, July 9, 2004. The Eagle, a square-rigger sailing ship, serves as a seagoing training platform for Coast Guard officer candidates and cadets of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)
  • U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle makes its way through Boston Harbor, Friday, Aug. 11, 2006 toward the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command in Boston. The square-rigged sailing vessel and training ship will offer free public tours on Friday and Saturday. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)
  • This May 17, 2019 photo provide by the U.S. Coast Guard shows U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) crew members aboard the cutter’s 35-foot Long Range Interceptor small boat supervising the intentional sinking of suspected drug-smuggling boats, following the seizure of cocaine from the boats during an at-sea interdiction while Munro’s crew patrolled international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Due to the distance from land, inadequate tow points and flooding in the engine rooms of the boats, the boats were sunk as a hazard to navigation. (Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Masaschi/U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
  • The U. S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, right, works in thick ice to break out the freighter Edwin Gott in Whitefish Bay of Lake Superior, Friday, March 27, 2015. The shipping season began three days earlier, but heavy ice in the eastern end of the lake has a fleet of icebreakers working to open shipping channels for shipping. (AP Photo/John L. Russell)

The Revenue Cutter Service’s initial duties included boarding incoming and outgoing vessels and checking their papers; making sure all cargoes were documented properly; sealing cargo holds on incoming vessels; and seizing ships that violated the law.

Along the way, they picked up some Additional Duties. They enforced quarantine restrictions established by the federal, state or local governments, charted local coastlines, and carried supplies to lighthouse stations.

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For eight years the Revenue Marine was the country’s only armed maritime force. There was no navy. The Continental Navy effectively went out of existence in 1785, when the last ship was sold to help with the national debt, and the U.S. Navy wasn’t established or re-established, depending on your point of view, until 1798.

In 1914 The Revenue Marine took on an important new duty. Following the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, a Convention for Safety at Sea met in London in 1914. There a treaty was signed creating the International Ice Patrol to patrol the North Atlantic. Tasked with doing the actual patrolling-the Revenue Cutter Service.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the government had three other water-related services operating independently of the Revenue Marine-U.S. Life Saving Service, the Lighthouse Service, and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.

In 1915, the Coast Guard became the Coast Guard, when Congress merged the Revenue Marine and Life Saving Services. The Lighthouse Service became part of the Coast Guard in 1939, and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was added in 1946.

The Coast Guard’s duties as a law enforcement agency make it unique among American military services. For one thing, it’s the only branch of the armed forces exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for law enforcement. In times of peace, it’s administered by a civilian agency. (From 1967 until 2003 it was part of the Department of Transportation.) In 2003, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

During times of war, the Coast Guard transfers its flag to the Department of Defense and becomes part of the Navy. (Interesting fact: the only surviving ship from the attack on Pearl Harbor is the Coast Guard Cutter Taney, now on display at Inner Harbor in Baltimore.)