This Day in U.S Coast Guard History - July 7
1798- Hostilities began in the Quasi-War with France. The Revenue Cutters Pickering, Virginia,Scammel, South Carolina, Governor, Jay, Eagle, General Greene, and Diligence were the first to be placed under Naval orders, comprising about one-third of the U .S. Fleet.
1801- In a cost saving measure, the Treasury Department sent circulars to the various Collectors looking toward reducing the size of the cutters and their crews.
1838- Under the authority of an Act of Congress passed this date, the President divided the Atlantic coast into six, and the Great Lakes coast into two, lighthouse districts. A naval officer was detailed to each lighthouse district, a revenue cutter or a hired vessel was placed at his disposal, and he was instructed to inspect all aids to navigation, report on their conditions, and recommend future courses of action.
1838- On 7 July Congress passed the first legislation "to provide better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam." (5 Stat.L., 304) The Act specified that the program would be administered by the Justice Department whereby U.S. District court judges were to appoint engineers to inspect merchant steamboats. This Act laid the groundwork for what later became the Steamboat Inspection Service.
1884- Congress directed that cutters be used exclusively for public service and "in no way for private purposes."
1911- Convention signed between United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia prohibiting taking of fur seals and sea otters in North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, north of 300 latitude, except for food and clothing.
1939- On this date, "the Lighthouse Bureau went out of existence and its personnel moved themselves and their equipment to Coast Guard Headquarters from the Commerce Department building. Thus did lighthouses return to the Treasury Department from the Department of Commerce.
Source: USCG Historian’s Office
