A Brief Coast Guard History

The U.S. Coast Guard’s official history began Aug. 4, 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. Known variously through the 19th and early 20th centuries as the Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew.

The service received its present name in 1915 under an act of Congress that merged the Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service, thereby providing the nation with a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation’s maritime laws. The Coast Guard began to maintain the country’s aids to maritime navigation, including operating the nation’s lighthouses, when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the transfer of the Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard in 1939.

In 1946, Congress permanently transferred the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard, thereby placing merchant marine licensing and merchant vessel safety under its purview.

The Coast Guard adopted its trademark racing stripe design in 1967 as a result of a recommendation made to President John F. Kennedy in the spring of 1963 by the industrial design firm of Raymond Loewy/William Snaith Inc.

The Coast Guard is one of the oldest organizations of the federal government, and until Congress established the Navy Department in 1798, it served as the nation’s only armed force afloat. The Coast Guard protected the nation throughout its long history, and its members served proudly in every one of the nation’s conflicts.

Since 2003, the Coast Guard has operated as part of the Department of Homeland Security, serving as the nation’s frontline agency for enforcing the nation’s laws at sea, protecting the marine environment and the nation’s vast coastline and ports, and saving life. In times of war, or at the direction of the president, the Coast Guard serves under the Department of the Navy.