| The first Revenue Marine cutter, topsail schooner
Massachusetts, was built in 1791, From the beginning, the term "cutter"
was to be associated with the Revenue Marine and later with the Coast Guard.
Originally signifying a specific type of fast, agile, single-masted sailing
ship introduced by the Royal Navy about 1760 for antismuggling patrol, it
then came to be applied to the larger schooner-types used by the Revenue
Marine for the same general purpose. As the Navy progressed from sail to
steam, wood to iron to steel, and paddle wheel to screw propeller, so did
the Revenue Marine. |
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