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The seal of the United States Revenue Cutter Service
1790 - 1915

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Please Visit our Home Page to learn more about the Spanish American War

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Click here to read the biography of 3rd Lt. (later Captain) Charles Satterlee

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Ship Info.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON ||| ALGONQUIN ||| BOUTWELL ||| CALUMET ||| CHIPPEWA ||| COMMODORE PERRY
CORWIN ||| DEXTER |||GALVESTON ||| GRESHAM ||| HUDSON ||| HUGH McCULLOCH ||| JAMES GUTHRIE
LEVI WOODBURY ||| LOUIS McLANE ||| MANNING ||| MORRILL ||| ONONDAGA ||| RICHARD RUSH
ULYSSES S. GRANT ||| WILLIAM WINDOM ||| WINONA

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The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, fore-runner of the modern U.S. Coast Guard, saw action during the Spanish American War. The vessels served "In cooperation" with  the U.S. Navy during the conflict.

History of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service:

At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War the first Secretary of the Treasury of the newly formed United States of America, Alexander Hamilton, was immediately tasked to put in order the finances of the new Republic.

This was not an easy undertaking, the government was struggling financially and also trying to come to grips with the ongoing maritime smuggling of goods into the country, which had been considered a patriotic duty prior to and during the Revolutionary War with the English, but was now considered detrimental to her very survival.

Hamilton quickly realized that collecting tariffs on imported goods would be the means for generating the critical revenue that the country’s treasury so desperately needed. At the same time, he also realized the smugglers would resist and actively attempt to circumvent the government’s collection efforts.

He proposed the construction of 10 manned and armed cutters to collect and safeguard the revenue. From the beginning, Secretary Hamilton insisted that the officers of the new service were to be appointed, commissioned , and provided with military naval ranking.

On the 4th of August 1790, Congress authorized the purchase of the cutters along with the formation of a "Revenue Marine". Between 1790 and and 1798 the Revenue Marine's Revenue Cutter Service would be the only armed maritime service deployed by the United States. Vessels of the Revenue Marine were designated "United States Revenue Cutter" (U.S.R.C). By an Act of Congress on 31 July 1894, the Revenue Marine was officially designated the "Revenue Cutter Service" and her vessels continued to be designated U.S.R.C

During the Quasi-War with France in 1798-1801 the United States Navy was founded and the Revenue Cutter Service would fight alongside the Navy capturing, or helping to capture, 20 French ships (ten of those would be captured by RCS Pickering). This was the precedent that would temporarily transfer the Revenue Cutter Service to the Secretary of the Navy and her cutters to serve under the command of the United States Navy in time of war.

On July 31, 1876 Congress established the first School of Instruction to train officers for the Revenue Cutter Service at New Bedford, Massachusetts. In May of 1877, the first nine cadets arrived to begin their two-year program of instruction. In 1914 the academy’s name was changed to Revenue Cutter School of Instruction and in 1915, the school would be renamed United States Coast Guard Academy. In 1932, the academy was relocated to New London, Connecticut.

For 177 years the Revenue Cutter Service (later renamed Coast Guard) would operate under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury.

The Revenue Cutter Service in the Spanish-American War of 1898:

 After the United States declared war with Spain on 21 April 1898, President McKinley directed the temporary transfer of the Revenue Cutter Service  to the direction of the Secretary of the Navy and directed that all RCS cutters cooperate with the U.S. Navy as part of the Auxiliary Naval force (note that in data below "date of transfer" refers to the date the vessel was placed under the direction of Secretary of the Navy). The Auxiliary Naval Force was made up of vessels and personnel from the various states’ naval militias, the U.S. Light House Service, U.S. Fish Commission, etc.

The Revenue Cutter service had 13 of its cutters (mounting 61 guns and aggregating 98 officers and 562 enlisted men) working in cooperation with the U.S. navy. Eight of the vessels served with the North Atlantic Squadron (43 guns, 58 officers, 339 enlisted men). One vessel, the HUGH McCULLOCH (6 guns; 10 officers, 95 enlisted men) served in Admiral Dewey's Asiatic Squadron.  Four vessels - apparently the CORWIN, GRANT, PERRY and RUSH  - patrolled the U.S. west coast from San Francisco to Alaska "in order to protect the treasure-laden vessels from the Klondike gold fields." These vessels mounted 12 guns, 30 officers, and 128 enlisted men.

The most well-known actions involving the vessels of the Revenue Cutter Service are the actions of the HUGH McCULLOCH and the HUDSON.

On 17 April 1898 the RCS HUGH McCULLOCH, commanded by Captain Daniel B. Hodgson, U.S.R.C.S., lightly armed and on a round-the-world shakedown cruise, joined the ships of the Asiatic Station at Hong Kong and was placed under the command of Admiral George Dewey.

HUGH McCULLOCH’s first notable act was less that conspicuous. As Asiatic Squadron attempted to enter Manila Bay unobserved, flames momentarily issued from the HUGH McCULLOCH’s funnel betraying the blacked-out. squadron, though it was probably already spotted.

On 1 May 1898, she would participate in the Battle of Manila Bay, Philippines, guarding the supply vessels ZAFIRO and NANSHAN. The HUGH McCULLOCH also carried the first reports of the battle to Hong Kong for communication with the outside world, and carried Filipino leader (and eventual U.S. adversary) Aguinaldo to the Philippines. Also, significantly, when conditions deteriorated between the U.S. and German naval forces following the Battle of Manila Bay, the HUGH McCULLOCH fired a shot across the bow of the German warship CORMORAN when she broke the U.S. blockade of Manila. The HUGH McCULLOCH also captured the Spanish gunboat LEYTE.

On the 21st of April the U.S. Navy blockade of Cuba began with eight RCS cutters assigned to Admiral Sampson’s fleet. On May 11, 1898 at the Battle of Cardenas, RCS HUDSON, commanded by Lieutenant Frank Hamilton Newcomb, USRCS, would successfully rescue the disabled Navy torpedo boat U.S.S. WINSLOW while both were under a galling Spanish fire.

Following the conflict, it was stated that:

“The Revenue-Cutter Service, through the efforts of it present efficient head, is to-day prepared to act as an auxiliary to the Navy in any scheme of defense. Its vessels are armed and its officers and men organized, instructed and drilled very much as in the naval service. In future wars, this Service will perform its proper duties – those of a coast-guard navy – and be supplemented by an auxiliary coast defense fleet.”

Post-War service:

On January 28, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Act to Create the Coast Guard. As a result of the Act the United States Revenue Service and Lifesaving Service were consolidated to form the United States Coast Guard. On April 1, 1967 the United States Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of Transportation.

As a result of Islamic extremist terrorist attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001, the President signed into law the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which created the new Department of Homeland Security. Under the legislation, the United States Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of Transportation to the new Department on March 1, 2003.

United States Revenue Service vessels that served in the Spanish-American War:

ALEXANDER HAMILTON (a.k.a. HAMILTON)