USRC Massachusetts (1791)

A Revenue Marine cutter, possibly Massachusetts
History
United States
Name:	Massachusetts
Operator:	Revenue Cutter Service
Builder:	Searle & Tyler, Newburyport, Massachusetts
Cost:	US$2,050
Launched:	23 July 1791
Commissioned:	1791
Decommissioned:	1792
Fate:	Sold 9 Oct 1792
General characteristics
Class and type:	Schooner
Displacement:	70 & 43/95 tons
Length:	60 ft (18 m)
Beam:	17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)
Draft:	7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	4 officers
Crew:	4 crewmen, 2 boys
Armament:	4-6 swivel guns

USRC Massachusetts was one of the first ten cutters operated by the Revenue-Marine (later to become the US Coast Guard). She was built in Newburyport, Massachusetts and served out of Boston. Massachusetts by tradition is held to be the first revenue cutter to enter active service. She was also the first to be decommissioned, having a very short service life of only about 15 months before being sold.

A contemporary description, provided by the Collector of Customs at Boston, Mr. Benjamin Lincoln to the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, noted:

Agreeably to your orders I here send you a description of the Cutter Massachusetts built at Newbury port in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the year 1791. She has on [sic: one] deck, two masts her length is sixty feet above her upper deck her depth is seven feet Eight inches, breadth seventeen feet eight inches she measures seventy tons 43/95. She is a square-stern schooner, has quarter badges, an Indian's head for figurehead. She has a long quarter deck and a deep waist."

Dr. John Tilley noted that "the Massachusetts was a two-masted schooner of 70 43/95 tons burden, 60 ' in length, with a beam of 17' 8" and depth of hold of 7' 8". The ship had a long quarterdeck, deep bulwarks, and an armament of either four of six swivel guns. The contract signed by Searle and Tyler called for two boats and seven sails: mainsail, foresail, jib, flying jib, fore topsail, main topsail, and squaresail." The cutter ended up being larger than originally authorized as her first master, John Foster Williams, ordered an increase in her size without first seeking departmental approval. Her cost was therefore considerably over the original estimate. Nevertheless, the government accepted her as built.

Although she was launched later than a number of other cutters, by tradition she is considered to be the first to actually enter active service.

There are a number of surviving documents regarding her history. A journal, kept by second mate Nathaniel Nichols, has turned up and gives a glimpse of what life was like on this cutter. He faithfully recorded his thoughts and actions from 31 October 1791 through 16 June 1793.