Curious SouthCoast: How New Bedford played a role in early Coast Guard history
Fish Island in New Bedford played a key role in the early formation of the modern U.S. military.
It was once home to the training cutter USRC Salmon P. Chase, built in 1878, which followed in the footsteps of the first training ship for the former U.S. Revenue Cutter Service at Fish Island.
Today, the Revenue Cutter Service is known as the United States Coast Guard.
What exactly was the Revenue Cutter Service? It was a branch of marine law enforcement under the Department of the Treasury established in 1790 to collect customs duties, enforce maritime laws and protect against smuggling.
After the Slave Trade Act of 1794 was enacted, their ships began intercepting slave ships illegally importing slaves into the United States. After the War of 1812, due to a resurgence of piracy, the Revenue Cutter Service was dispatched to fight pirates along the Gulf Coast.
Young men who joined that service became cadets at the Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction, serving aboard the Chase, a three-masted barque with a hull length of 106 feet designed for training out of its new home port.
When in New Bedford, the Chase was tied up at the north end of Fish Island, serving as a berthing area for the cadets. She made cadet cruises to Europe, the Azores, the West Indies and along the East Coast.
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New Bedford was a key location in Coast Guard history
On Aug. 6, 1878, the Chase, the last true sailing cutter built for the Revenue Service, was completed at the shipyard of Thomas Brown of Philadelphia, according to the Coast Guard website.
"Barque-rigged, Chase displaced 142 ton and served as a cadet practice vessel for nearly 30 years before being decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Public Health Services,” according to the website.
The Chase was named after Salmon Portland Chase, President Abraham Lincoln’s 24th secretary of the Treasury and the sixth chief justice of the Supreme Court. He was known as an anti-slavery activist.
The Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Lifesaving Service were merged in 1915, creating the Coast Guard. Today, the Coast Guard operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction on Fish Island would become the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, adding to New Bedford's place in maritime history.
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Chasing the original training ship
Congress first authorized the training in July 1876, and the first class consisted of eight cadets.
The Chase followed the original training ship, the topsail schooner the USRC James C. Dobbin built by J. M. Hood in Somerset.
The Dobbin set sail on the first practice cruise on May 25, 1877, and arrived in New Bedford in October 1877. In the summer of 1878, she was replaced as the training cutter by the Chase and was ultimately decommissioned in 1881.
The Chase was decommissioned July 17, 1907.
The Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard Academy moved to New London, Connecticut, in the early 1930s.
Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Coast Guard history: New Bedford once home to Revenue Service training
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