Supra Vaider High Shoes The Coast Guard In The Pac

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h the establishment of a new territory and a growing maritime business, there also developed a need for the government to collect customs revenue. The first customs activities were centered at Astoria, Oregon, and then, in 1851, the Puget Sound Collection District was established in Olympia, Washington. The office was moved two years later to Port Townsend, Washington,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], then the largest port on the Sound. The Collector of Customs not only took in revenue, he documented vessels, administered marine hospitals, supervised lighthouses, and even undertook a little steamboat inspection.
The major problem facing the new Collector of Customs in the region was smuggling. The large amount of coves, inlets, and rivers, plus the nearby British territory, made Puget Sound a smuggler鈥檚 dream. The loss of revenue to the United States was put forth as the main reason for sending a revenue cutter to the Pacific Northwest. In addition, it was reasoned, a cutter would help ships in distress and would make an appropriate vessel for government officials to make their rounds. The Treasury Department apparently felt these were valid arguments for it dispatched the cutter Jefferson Davis, which sailed into Puget Sound on September 28, 1854. The cutter marks the first unit of the U. S. Coast Guard to be stationed in the states of Washington and Oregon.
The Jefferson Davis was a topsail schooner, built by J. M. Hood at Sommerset, Massachusetts, in 1852-1853 for $9,000. She was 94 feet, 9 inches in length, 23 feet in breadth, 8 feet 11 1/2 inches in depth, and with a tonnage of 176 1/95. Captain William C. Pease, the youngest Captain in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, commanded a crew made up of three officers and at least thirty-two men. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, in which Pease served was founded, in 1790, by Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to prevent smuggling and the loss of revenue to the new nation. The Service operated under the Treasury Department and is one of the predecessors of the modern day U.S. Coast Guard.
The Jefferson Davis proved her worth. Very shortly after her arrival, Captain Pease and his command were caught up in the unrest between the Native Americans and whites of the region. The cutter found herself being employed as a troop transport, a platform for gunfire missions, and at one point Pease sent Third Lieutenant J. H. Harrison ashore to help command an infantry unit in combat. In the dispute over the San Juan Islands--known as the "Pig War" 鈥� the Jefferson Davis and the cutter Joseph Lane, from Astoria, helped in delivering dispatches. In addition to these combat duties, the small cutter helped mariners in distress. In the days before the telegraph, it was almost impossible to tell when a ship was definitely lost. In the case of sailing vessels, a ship could be overdue without being in trouble. The cutter, therefore, responded to many false alarms. For example, on December 6,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 1854, the Jefferson Davis proceeded to search for the schooner L. P. Foster, whose owner feared she had been driven aground on Vancouver Island. The cutter searched for many days and weathered a strong westerly gale off the west coast of Vancouver Island, only to find that the missing schooner wasn鈥檛 lost in the first place.
When the Jefferson Davis sailed into Puget Sound, she marked the first step in the federal government鈥檚 role in assisting mariners of the region. If trade were to increase in the Pacific Northwest, however,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a system of aids to navigation would be needed to help prevent shipwrecks. The northwest coast of the United States is noted for its rocky headlands, large amounts of precipitation, fog, and strong winds, the traditional enemies of sailors. In 1848, there was not a single lighthouse along the 1,300 miles of rugged coastline stretching from Puget Sound to the California-Mexico border. The Act that created the Oregon Territory did call for lighthouses at Cape Disappointment and New Dungeness, both in the present state of Washington, and th
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