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- Newsgroups: rec.boats
- Path: sparky!uunet!psinntp!adcmail!briang
- From: briang@atlastele.com (Brian Godfrey)
- Subject: Re: Coast Guard user fee repealed!
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.004251.19196@atlastele.com>
- Organization: Atlas Telecom Inc.
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 00:42:51 GMT
- Lines: 22
-
- In article <1h7d0pINNmgs@calvin.NYU.EDU> roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
- >briang@atlastele.com (Brian Godfrey) writes:
- >> The Coast Guard originated as operators of rescue boats.
- >
- > My understanding of the situation is that the Coast Guard originated
- >(in the form of the "Revenue Marine") in the 1700's as a means of combating
- >rum smugglers. All things considered, their current mission of combating
- >drug smugglers is probably not so far removed, in principle, from their
- >original mission. The only difference I can see is that 200 years ago, the
- >mission was not to prevent the importation of an illegal substance, but just
- >to ensure that the tax (user fee?) was paid on it.
-
- Well I thought this sounded like bunk, so I called the Coasties and asked
- about the origins of the Coast Guard. The OOD told me that we were both
- right. There used to be a National Lifesaving Service and the Revenuers
- (don't remember official name for them) and the Coast Guard was formed
- when the two were combined. So I guess hassling people in boats does
- have a long history in the Coast Guard.
-
- --
- --Brian M. Godfrey
- atlastele.com
-