USRC Scammel (1791)
| History | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Name: | Scammel |
| Operator: | Revenue Cutter Service |
| Launched: | 24 August 1791 |
| Commissioned: | 1791 |
| Decommissioned: | 1798 |
| Fate: | Sold 16 August 1798 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 51 85/95 tons |
| Length: | 57.6 ft |
| Beam: | 15.8 ft |
| Draft: | 6.5 ft |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 4 officers |
| Crew: | 4 crewmen, 2 boys |
| Armament: | 10 muskets, 20 pistols |
USRC Scammel was one of the first ten cutters operated by the United States' Revenue Cutter Service (later to become the US Coast Guard).
Scammel was named by Alexander Hamilton for Adjutant General Alexander Scammell of New Hampshire, but one notes that Hamilton was rather careless about spelling - as were many men of letters of that time. This was the second cutter to receive the name of a Revolutionary hero but with an incorrect spelling (the General Green was the first, the correct spelling is Greene).
The surveyor who examined Scammel prior to her entering service noted that "she had two masts, one deck, a short quarter deck, low waists with rails fore and aft, and was schooner rigged."
As in the case of so many of these cutters, the Scammel's monthly journals have been lost. Nevertheless, some information has survived. She cruised from Nantucket to Passamaquoddy and on occasion did sail in tandem with the cutter Massachusetts. Scammel seized the Lucy of Stamford for "illegal registration" which was eventually condemned and sold, along with her cargo for $750. The money was awarded to Yeaton.
Overall it would seem that Yeaton and his cutter carried out their duties effectively. The local collector, under whose authority Scammel sailed, Joseph Whipple, informed Hamilton that:
The services performed by the Cutter I conceive to have been very important to the safety and preservation of the Revenue. The Coast which is assigned to her, that of New Hampshire and the District of Maine, extending nearly 300 miles, many of which afford convenient places for fraudulent practices which have been checked by the attention and vigilance of the officers of the Scammel. The services for the year past consisted in cruising the aforementioned Coast, in entering and examining the Vessel's papers, instructing the ignorant coasters, and in bringing to justice those who break or evade the laws. Instances of contraventing of the laws have been discovered and prosecuted and some of them failed by the unaccountable determination of the court.
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Wikipedia