“Semper Paratus”
A treatise on the Coast Guard is considered fitting at this time due to the fact that the Coast Guard “shall operate under the Treasury Department in time of peace and operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, in time of war, or when the President shall so direct.” Should we be forced into war or should an executive order become necessary in the interests of national defense, the Coast Guard, in keeping with its motto “Semper Paratus,” is ready. A brief summary of the historical background of the Coast Guard, its duties and a few of its accomplishments, its vessels and its facilities, its personnel and their experiences in specialties in relation to their value in naval assignments, and other assets valuable to the Navy should serve to refresh the memories of naval men and familiarize them with the vessels and men with whom they would be required and bound to work side by side in many instances. Even if the Coast Guard would function as an integral unit of the Navy (which would be an excellent tribute to it), it would be so much closer to the Navy with which it already has so much in common, that naval officers in understanding it even better than they do now would consequently be better prepared to “operate the Coast Guard” in places where they did not actually work side by side with it.
The United States Coast Guard as it stands today is a good-sized navy of its own (having often been unofficially referred to until very recently as the world’s seventh navy) and is the nation’s third military service, taking precedence immediately after the regular Army and Navy. In normal times it operates under the Treasury Department due to the fact that its normal peace-time duties have more in common with that department than with any other single one. It is now made up of a complete combination of what were once three separate federal services, two of which are over 150 years old. These services were:
(1) The U. S. Revenue Cutter Service, which is the basic service of the Coast Guard, was organized as a military service on August 4, 1790, mainly as a result of the efforts of Alexander Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury, to suppress smuggling along the Atlantic seaboard. In 1791 ten small vessels, costing $1,000 each, were commissioned to “assist in the enforcement of the collection of customs duties and tonnage taxes.” The first actual naval duties of this service commenced in 1797 when the cutters were assigned by Congress “to defend the seacoast.” It acted as the sole naval force of the country prior to the war with France in 1798 and served with the newly organized Navy during that war, and it has creditably acted as a part of the Navy in every war since then. The service gradually and continuously expanded, in men, ships, and duties, keeping pace with the nation, until 1915 when it had merged with it the
(2) U. S. Lifesaving Service which dates back to 1848 when Congress appropriated funds for eight stations to be located at strategic points on the Atlantic coast for the purpose of assisting wrecked vessels or vessels in distress along the coast, and saving the lives of their crews or others who were in peril. This service also expanded in men, stations, and duties until the 1915 merger with the Revenue Cutter Service, at which time the names of both services were dropped and the name United States Coast Guard was born. This service expanded rapidly in men, ships, stations, and duties and on July 1, 1939, in accordance with Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 2 it absorbed the
(3) U. S. Lighthouse Service which was organized on August 7, 1789, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining aids to marine navigation along our coasts, but which function really dates back to 1716 (not as U. S. of course) when the first lighthouse was built at Boston by the British. This service also expanded continuously, in personnel, units, and aids, keeping pace with shipping expansion and requirements of the nation’s commerce, until the merger with the Coast Guard in 1939, at which time its name was dropped and the name U. S. Coast Guard automatically became the name of the combined three services. And the Coast Guard has been rapidly expanding since that recent merger.
The net result of these mergers and expansions is that we now have a combined service, perfectly united, of which the nation is justly proud and which is, without fear of contradiction, the largest and most efficient organization of its kind in the world. It is headed by a Commandant, an Assistant Commandant and Operations Officer, and an Engineer in Chief, all of whom are rear admirals. All ranks, rates, pay, general routine and regulations are patterned after the regular Navy, although due to the nature of the Coast Guard’s peace-time duties it is necessary to deviate in places. The three separate services, each of which started in life with a handful of men, a few units and one major duty, combined and grew until today the Coast Guard performs a score of major duties plus numerous minor ones, practically each of which would have been considered a major duty by any one of the services at its inception. In place of the 3 handfuls of men, 10 small sailing craft, 8 stations and a few lighthouses, an inventory of the Coast Guard today shows that regardless of whether or not it would function as an integral unit, the Navy would immediately be augmented by a service now made up as follows:
Organization2
(1) Headquarters at Washington, D. C., with the Commandant, all departmental heads, and the main communication center located there.
(2) Fifteen Districts, each under a District Commander (in most cases a Captain), providing for direct and effective control over all Coast Guard activities from Headquarters and within the respective districts, which makes for more efficient organization. Each district has its own depot and repair base (or suitable arrangements with adjacent districts) for maintaining its units, including the aids to navigation, and ten districts are also communication centers. These district headquarters are located strategically at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Cleveland, Chicago, San Juan, P. R., St. Louis, Honolulu, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Ketchikan, Alaska. Most of these districts dovetail nicely with the operations of the naval districts in the identical area concerned and one of the advantages is that mobilization and merger could take place with a minimum of effort and delay.
Personnel
(1) 605 Commissioned Officers.
(2) 269 Cadets.
(3) 758 Chief Warrant and Warrant Officers.
(4) 12,188 enlisted men, rapidly being increased by 5,000.
(5) 5,000 civilian employees (mostly men of the former Lighthouse Service who are being inducted into the military service as rapidly as possible).
The 5,000 recruits mentioned are in addition to the 5,000 civilian employees mentioned. When the enlistment and induction job has been completed it will give us a service of approximately 25,000 officers and men.
Vessels, Stations, and Planes
(1) 485 cutters, including:
(a) 36 cruising cutters all but a few of which are ideal for convoy duty. Seven of these are 327 feet long with a 41-foot beam, displace 2,216 tons, have a speed of 21 knots with a cruising range of 12,300 miles at 11 knots, are heavily armed and carry a plane. The other 29 cruising cutters are along the same general lines but are not quite as large, or as modern, depending on their age. This includes six cutters designed to work in heavy ice.
(b) 115 patrol boats all but 3 of which are 75 feet in length or over; 17 of which are 165 foot and 32 of which are 125 foot, steel hull, Diesel driven craft excellently suited for coastal patrol work (a duty which they have been performing for years).
(c) 56 harbor craft including 13 large tugs, 8 of which are Diesel electric drive type, 110 feet long with a 12-knot speed for harbor patrol and boarding work. Four of these eight are only a year old and are excellent icebreakers and in addition one 120-foot steam tug is an excellent icebreaker.
(d) 12 auxiliary craft including the American Seaman, a 410-foot vessel of 7,038 tons gross used in connection with the Maritime Service Training program.
(e) 65 tenders, ranging up to 201-foot vessels of 1,370 tons displacement. These, however, have no direct naval value as combatants and are used almost exclusively in maintaining aids to marine navigation.
(f) 201 miscellaneous craft that are over 26 feet in length and have a specified commanding officer.
(2) 3,300 small craft of various sizes and types, many over 26 feet in length but attached to a vessel or station, including self-righting, self-bailing motor lifeboats.
(3) 39 lightships which serve on 30 lightship stations (9 being relief lightships).
(4) 3 large vessels under construction with plans for more.
(5) 11 decommissioned vessels of all classes.
(6) 177 active lifeboat stations.
(7) 47 inactive lifeboat stations which can be placed in full active status on very short notice.
(8) 55 aircraft, mostly amphibians.
(9) 10 air stations.
Communications
(1) 4,400 circuit miles of land and cable lines are maintained for intercommunication throughout the service. The 166-foot, 621-ton Pequot is the Coast Guard’s own cable ship.
(2) A complete network of teletype machines has been organized and is being maintained, mostly by rental from private sources, which co-ordinates communication centers with radio stations, navy lines, police, intelligence offices, etc.
(3) 758 telephones are in use, linking practically all units not afloat.
(4) 594 radio equipped units, divided as follows:
(a) 32 powerful shore radio stations, 12 of which broadcast weather and marine information.
(b) 114 shore units, mostly lifeboat stations.
(c) 374 vessels of all classes, many of which have very modern and powerful equipment.
(d) 55 planes.
(e) 9 communication trucks which can be moved from place to place at will.
Aids to Navigation
30,420 aids to marine navigation are being maintained, mostly lighthouses, automatic lights and buoys, including 1,500 fog signals and 145 radio beacons.
Coast Guard Reserve3
3,000 yachtsmen, most of whom are excellent seamen and navigators, are enrolled.
2,700 privately owned craft, mostly small motorboats and yachts, are enrolled and are grouped into 150 flotillas.
This, however, is a voluntary, nonmilitary organization and use of the craft can only take place, under present law, when such craft are volunteered for duty. But it is listed as an asset because it is felt certain that many of the craft would be volunteered for duty if called upon, let alone the fact that emergency laws could probably legalize commandeering any private craft necessary for national defense.
Miscellaneous Assets
(1) The Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut, is the Coast Guard’s “Annapolis.”
(2) The Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland, is the Coast Guard’s own “navy yard.”
(3) The main Coast Guard Training Station for enlisted men, located at Ellis Island, New York, but being moved to Algiers, Louisiana, can accommodate 600 recruits at one time.
(4) The Coast Guard Institute, completely equipped for correspondence course work. This unit, which has already graded close to half a million lesson papers, is located at New London, Connecticut, independent of the Coast Guard Academy.
(5) Five Maritime Service training stations are in commission, plus the training ship American Seaman, with a combined total accommodation of approximately 150 licensed, 700 unlicensed and 500 inexperienced men, and a combined total annual output of close to 5,000 men.
(6) Schools available for personnel include 10 Coast Guard service schools, 3 navy schools, and 3 civilian schools.
(7) Two major supply bases, known as the New York Store and the San Francisco Store, take care of the service’s requisition for general supplies.
(8) Inspection forces located at Washington, New York, Cleveland, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
(9) Ten recruiting offices, strategically located about the country.
“Hidden” Assets
Some hidden assets of the Coast Guard are the experience of its personnel in the performance of their duties which differs from the experience of the average naval man in the performance of his regular duties, and which, when added to the special experience of naval men which the Coast Guard lacks, give us a perfect combination for almost any condition.
Not the least of these hidden assets is the thorough knowledge of every inch of our coast line by the Coast Guard’s officers and many of its men. The absence of accidents, groundings, etc., of Coast Guard craft, operating in and out of every one of our entrances, hard ones and easy ones, day and night, thick and clear, gale and calm, often with waterlogged and/or disabled tows, is sufficient evidence of this. The record is the more creditable in view of the fact that the Coast Guard goes to sea in comparatively small craft (the largest being the seven 2,216-ton cutters, American Seaman excepted) when 10,000-ton ships are in distress.
During the years of prohibition the Coast Guard, only interested in the prevention of the smuggling of anything, be it alcohol, soap, or peanuts, had the thankless task of assisting in enforcing an unpopular law and as a result it received much undeserved criticism. But the Coast Guard profited greatly by this experience, and the Navy will reap a part of the dividends. For during those years the Coast Guard was at “war” continuously with what became a very large and well-organized “enemy.” Histories of million dollar rum-running syndicates will prove this. It was a battle of wits and for years the Coast Guard has been actually putting into practice the common basic principle of naval security of “keeping your own plans from the enemy and discovering his plans in order to circumvent him.” Running darkened ship month after month, and then year after year, became such a routine to the vessels of the Coast Guard that whether it were an offshore cutter trailing a “rummy” (also very often darkened) at sea or a smaller patrol or picket boat dashing at full speed through shallow, confined, unmarked, and very often dangerous waters, the duty was performed as efficiently as navigating in a wide channel in broad daylight. In addition to that the Coast Guard Intelligence service was taxed to the limit and it was called upon in so many ways, especially in code, cipher, and general radio work, that today it stands at its peak of size and efficiency, and has some excellent cryptographers on its staff.
If merchant vessels are taken over the Coast Guard personnel will be ready to do their share. Experience in Maritime Service training and in general boarding of merchant vessels and private craft of all description (32,655 were boarded during the fiscal year 1939) has qualified many of its men as authorities along certain lines. As an example, in the first 16 months of this war, in New York Harbor alone over 655 inspections of armed merchant vessels of belligerent nations, mostly British, were made and their armament was thoroughly inspected, photographed, and recorded by Coast Guard officers and men. This inspection is in compliance with international law and it establishes the fact, with documentary and photographic proof, that the vessels are “defensively” armed and as such are not limited to a normal 24 hours in port as a man-o’-war would be. Some of these vessels have been boarded 11 times, a little over a month apart each time, meaning that they had successfully completed 11 trips to Britain and return, and many changes have taken place in their armament since the first trip. It is seeing the complete cycle of these changes, and knowing the reasons for them, that makes this experience valuable and could prevent our making similar mistakes in the event we are compelled to arm our own merchant ships. The details of the experience itself, however, cannot be divulged for obvious reasons.
The major assets of the Coast Guard in organization, ships, stations, planes, facilities, men, and experience have now been covered. But, in order to obtain annual appropriations to maintain and efficiently operate a military service as large as this the Coast Guard is expected to “produce” accordingly. In order to produce accordingly it naturally has certain duties, responsibilities, and obligations to live up to and these, in a business way, could be termed its “liabilities.” The Navy, in being augmented by the assets of the Coast Guard, would have to expect to “inherit” and assume the responsibility for the liabilities allied with those assets. These duties, as a whole, would no doubt remain undisturbed and, especially if the Coast Guard operates as an integral unit in the Navy Department, those on the receiving end of them, such as the offshore fishermen, would not notice any difference, or very little difference even if the Coast Guard did not operate entirely as an integral unit. Volumes have been written about the accomplishments of the Coast Guard in the performance of its duties but inasmuch as this is an inventory of the Coast Guard for naval purposes only, its assets and liabilities only are covered (except for a few brief clarifying remarks). It must be borne in mind, though, that the moral and sentimental value of these duties, such as the feeling of security that the offshore fishermen—and no doubt countless others—subconsciously have as a result of them, cannot be measured in columns of figures but are “hidden credits” in justifying and balancing this account. The major duties of the Coast Guard, as created by various acts of Congress, Presidential, Departmental, or other proper authority, and effective today, are:
(1) Rendering assistance to vessels in distress and saving life and property. The Coast Guard annually rescues several thousand persons from perilous positions and assists shipping to such an extent that the value of vessels and cargoes assisted, which very often would have been a complete loss, is usually at least double the annual appropriation for the maintenance of the Coast Guard. So that in the performance of this duty alone the Coast Guard more than balances its budget and enters the “no burden to the taxpayer” status, and all of the remainder of its duties (to follow) could be eliminated, not only in this article but actually, and its maintenance would be justified as well worth continuing.
(2) Protection of the customs revenue. This original major duty of the Revenue Cutter Service is still one of the major of the Coast Guard’s law enforcement duties. In addition to its own active part the Coast Guard furnishes transportation in its harbor craft to U. S. Customs, Immigration, and Public Health Service officials as requested in all of our larger ports. In New York Harbor alone, one 110-foot and four 56-foot harbor cutters and six 36- foot picket boats do nothing but this.
(3) Destruction or removal of wrecks, derelicts, or other dangers to navigation. The value of this duty cannot be overestimated. Were it not for their prevention, the number of such accidents would undoubtedly reach serious proportions. Usually they are logged something like this: “0345. Struck unknown submerged object, starboard shaft and propeller bent”—and they end up in dry dock.
(4) Being at all times ready to “act as a part of the Navy in time of war or when so directed by the President.” In addition to naval assets already mentioned, attention is invited to the fact that all hands in the Coast Guard get their small arms training and firing on the rifle range annually, firing standard navy marksman, sharpshooter, and expert courses (rifle, pistol, and machine gun); and all vessels so equipped engage in target practice or short range battle practice annually. The Coast Guard’s excellent small arms and gunnery accomplishments are a matter of record.
(5) A Coast Guard officer is designated as the Captain of the Port in all of our larger ports, his rank and the size of his organization depending upon the size and importance of the port. His primary duty is to supervise the anchoring and movements of all vessels and the handling, loading, and transporting of all explosives and other dangerous articles. New York Harbor alone has 49 separate anchorage areas, many subdivided, for several various purposes. In addition to several routine checks daily to see that vessels anchor in proper anchorages (quarantine, explosive, and general) and do not exceed the time limit (24, 48, and 72 hours, and 30 days) approximately 20,000 small pleasure craft moor within the jurisdiction of the Captain of the Port of New York who issues annual permits for same.
(6) The international service of ice patrol and observation in the North Atlantic is also effective and important. The primary duty of this patrol is to locate and observe the movements of icebergs during the dangerous season and in turn warn shipping, by routine broadcasts, in order that they may stay clear and use the recommended east and west bound tracks. This service was inaugurated in 1914, to prevent a repetition of the Titanic disaster of 1912. Since the Coast Guard began this duty in 1914 it has never relaxed in its execution of it, always has the necessary cutters on “Ice Patrol,” and not a life has been lost due to a collision of a vessel and an iceberg.
(7) Extending medical aid to vessels at sea. This includes the removal of sick or seriously injured persons (by plane when necessary and practicable) and rushing them to shore for hospitalization.
(8) Flood and hurricane relief work of all kinds. The history of the Coast Guard in this connection speaks for itself.
(9) Collecting and disseminating flood, hurricane, storm, and other warnings, weather reports and applicable notices to mariners.
(10) Icebreaking in icebound channels and harbors.
(11) Maintaining aids to marine navigation on over 40,000 miles of coast line on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts of the United States, the United States waters of the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and its navigable tributaries, the waters of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, and Puerto Rico.
(12) Enforcement of neutrality insofar as shipping in our ports is concerned; the indoctrination of masters of arriving belligerent vessels regarding the requirements and duties of their vessels while in port; sealing of radios of belligerent ships; checking armaments; checking on shipyard work being done on belligerent vessels in our ports, etc.
(13) Maintaining the Atlantic weather patrol which consists of two cutters, equipped as floating weather bureaus, continuously stationed between Bermuda and the Azores (about equal distances from each) to assist the weather bureau in preparing forecasts for ocean commerce and especially for transatlantic planes.
(14) Enforcing whale conservation laws, protecting halibut fisheries, enforcing the sponge fishing law, protecting the game and seal fisheries in Alaska and in general co-operating with the Bureau of Fisheries in those activities. Coast Guard officers have acted as international observers making the 6-month whaling cruises aboard whalers.
(15) Patrolling of regattas and marine parades.
(16) Administering of the Coast Guard Reserve.
(17) Administering of the Maritime Service for the Maritime Commission. Although this is a comparatively new duty and responsibility, being about 2 years old, over 800 licensed, 4,000 unlicensed, and 900 inexperienced men have been enrolled in the regular status in the Maritime Service after having completed the required Coast Guard training.
(18) Maintaining the Bering Sea patrol.
(19) Enforcing all federal marine laws, having practically unlimited authority in same. These duties include, among many others, the suppression of mutinies, enforcement of navigation and merchant shipping laws, inspection of vessels of all types, documents, equipment, etc., enforcement of oil pollution laws, motorboat regulations and the administering of oaths generally in Alaska. The co-operation of local authorities with the Coast Guard, and vice versa, in the enforcement of local laws is a daily occurrence in many of our larger ports and mostly involves the police and fire departments. In its law enforcement duties the Coast Guard is also authorized to “act as agents” of other departments charged with any particular law involved when enforcing all federal maritime laws. As an example of this authority, parts of the law authorizing it are quoted:
Commissioned, warrant, and petty officers of the Coast Guard arc hereby empowered to make inquiries, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon the high seas and navigable waters of the United States ... for the prevention, detection and suppression of violations of laws are authorized at any time to go on board of any vessel ... to address inquiries to those on board, to examine the ship’s documents and papers, and to examine, inspect, and search the vessel and use all necessary force to compel compliance. When from such ... it shall appear that a breach of the laws . . . rendering a person liable to arrest is being or has been committed, such person shall be arrested or, if escaping to shore, shall be pursued and arrested on shore so as to render such vessel, or the merchandise, or any part thereof, on board of, or brought into the United States by, such vessel, liable to forfeiture . . . fine or penalty and if necessary to secure such fine or penalty, such vessel shall be seized. The officers . . . shall (a) be deemed to be acting as agents of the particular executive department or independent establishment . . . and (b) be subject to all the rules and regulations of that . . . with respect to the enforcement of that law. Whoever shall forcibly resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with any person designated in this section . . . shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both, . . . shall use a deadly or dangerous weapon shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
(20) Administering “Merchant Ship Control.” This is one of the most important of Coast Guard duties today. The responsibility of its enforcement falls mostly upon the Captains of the Ports with the central control point located at Coast Guard Headquarters. As an example of the additional authority it carries, Section I, title II, of the Espionage Act approved June 15, 1917, and which by a proclamation issued on June 27, 1940, is now in full effect reads:
Chapter I—Coast Guard. Whenever . . . national emergency to exist by reason of actual or threatened war, insurrection or invasion . . . rules and regulations governing the anchorage and movement of any vessel, foreign or domestic, . . . may inspect such vessel at any time, place guards thereon ... to secure such vessel from damage or injury, or to prevent damage or injury to any harbor or waters of the United States . . . may take, by and with the consent of the President, for such purposes, full possession and control of such vessel and remove therefrom the officers and crew thereof and all other persons not specially authorized by him to go or remain on board thereof.
An attempt has been made to put the gist of the history, the present strength, the duties, the major accomplishments, the activities, and the authority of the Coast Guard into one short essay. It has not been done with a view of presenting this combination as being complex in any degree or with the idea of vaunting the service. Rather, the intent has been to present them clearly in order to facilitate naval understanding of the qualifications of the men and units of the Coast Guard in relation to carrying out their normal peacetime duties and the value of the same as adaptable to potential naval needs. As stated in the beginning, the Coast Guard is ready to carry out its assignment and “operate as a part of the Navy” and the object of this essay was to better prepare the Navy to “operate the Coast Guard” when, and if, the time comes. If this article contributes to making the assigned cooperative task of either or both of these services any easier, then it has served its purpose.
1 This article was submitted in the Prize Essay Contest, 1941.
2 The data have been taken from various unrestricted publications and compiled. The other information contained herein is already public knowledge. No record can be found of the two having ever been combined before, and in view of its source this information is therefore not of a confidential nature. As the dates arc mostly as of July 1, 1940, or prior thereto, the figures should be accepted with reserve with the general understanding that a plus sign could apply in most places.
3 Pending legislation would change this name to the Coast Guard Auxiliary.