The Coast Guard Birthday and Coast Guard Day are not the same thing, and there is a good reason for the distinction.
The Coast Guard’s Birthday is Tuesday, as it was officially born on January 28, 1915. This will be the Coast Guard’s 110th birthday, however, “Coast Guard Day” is celebrated every year on August 4. (This past August 4 of 2024 marked the 234th celebration.)
So, where did the August 4, 1790, date come from?
We love to think about our country starting on July 4, 1776. However, that was only our declaring it to be so. The United States of America only officially became a country on January 14, 1784. We also love to think of George Washington as our first President. But George Washington’s first term as the first President of the United States didn’t begin until April 30, 1789.
The difference between the 1784 date, (when we became a country), and the 1789 date (George Washington’s first term), is explained by the fact that our first national government was actually a confederation – a loose alliance of individual state governments that lasted five years – and it failed. Then we formed a new federation, or a strong central government that remains today.
At that point, we were much better organized, but there was still one enormous problem: we were still broke, especially from the huge expenses from the American Revolution.
President Washington turned to his young, brilliant Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. His immediate answer to the President was to create an American maritime fleet of vessels to patrol our waters and collect the revenues from taxes and tariffs. He called it the “Revenue Marine” for obvious reasons, and it was founded on August 4, 1790.
Later, the name was changed to the more familiar U. S. Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS). The USRCS also aided shipwreck victims when they could, but were not trained or equipped to do so.
Still, shipwrecks were claiming lives and property at an alarming rate. Starter attempts for national life-saving organizations in 1848 and 1871 were failures. The total transformation of the 1878 United States Life-Saving Service was one of the most successful and unprecedented political happenings in American history. It was largely because of one man: Sumner I. Kimball
Now the evolution has begun. In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service (1790 -1915) was merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service (1871 -1915). This is the official birthday, as the new organization was renamed “United States Coast Guard,” and it became the fifth member of the U.S. Armed Forces.
More mergers followed. The Lighthouse Service (1789 -1939) joined the Coast Guard in 1939, followed in 1946 by the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection. Then in 1967, after 177 years in the Treasury Department, the Coast Guard was transferred to a newly formed Department of Transportation.
Finally, on March 1, 2003, the Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security. Typically, it has the largest community celebrations of a branch of the Armed Forces in the nation (some above information taken from https://afd.defense.gov/History/Coast-Guard-Day/).
From its beginnings, this Service was largely a maritime force and it largely remains so today. Therefore, it is only natural for the United States Coast Guard to trace its origin to August 4, 1790.
Now, it has two days to celebrate.
Keeper James Presentations TM is a series of live programs presented by local historians, historical interpreters and performers Keeper JamesTM Charlet and Linda Molloy. Each program about the U.S. Life-Saving Service consists of vignettes of true, exciting, highly dramatic Outer Banks stories of ‘America’s Forgotten HeroesTM.’ For more information, see www.KeeperJames.com/programs.
