The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-03-26
REVENUE CUTTER
CHIEF RET|RES.
Captain Shoemaker Entered
Service in 1860.
HIS CAREER DISTINGUISHED
HIS CAREER DISTINGUISHED
Ten Years Head Of the Bureau-Present
M. Efficiency Due to His
Efforts.

Capt, G. F. Shoemaker, the present |
chiet9 of the Revenue Cutter Service |
will tomorrow be placed on the retired !
list, TO be succeeded by Capt. Worth |
Ross, of the revenue cutter Mohawk |
Captain Ross is now in New York. but |
has been ordered by Secretary Shaw to !
be in Washington by April /, to assume |!
his duties.
The retirement OF Captain Shoemaker
Witnesses the severance from the Gov
ernulent service of one of the most
noted; if not the most noted men in
the Revenue Cutter Service. He has a
iongand splendid record as soldier and
officer, aid there are many who regret
that the {. 81 limit has been reached
Captain Shoemaker will be sixty-four
years old tomorrow, and will retire in
acccrdance-'with the law governing the
Revenue Cutter Service He has not
yet decided what business he will enter.
but will certainly take up active work
ot some kind in the near future.
Captain Shoemaker's Service.
Captain Shoemaker has been ut the
head of the Revenue Cutter Service, as
its chief, for ten years, having been pro-
motedsto the grade OF captain on March
IS 1884, and at once assigned as chief OF
the Revenue Cutter Service by direc-
ton Of Grover Cleveland.
The condition of the service when
Captain Shoemaker took charge of it
was anything rather than creditable 1t
had been maintained upon appropria-
tions by Congress, which were not suffi-
cient to insure efficiency: its vessels
were all of obs )lete types-many Of them
Old wooden craft, relics of the civil war,
which had zone service in the navy
6nd were in na.esy cases 50 deteriorated
as to require constant repairs to keep
them in commission.
The task that fell to his hands was
an onerous and vexatious one. How well
he mastered it the record shows. To
day the service is model of efficiency
in every regard: eleven of the old craft
referred to have been condemned ard
sold: nine fine seasoir'g cruisers have
oeen constructed and re placed the old yes
sels sold, while ten able tugs employed on
ha rbor service have been pat in service.
Two additional cruisers have been pro-
vided for by Congress-, one, of which is
now undars construction. and the other
will soon be.
During his administration the great
expedition to and through Arctic Alaska,
executed by Lieuts. D. H. Jarvis and E.
P Bertho1fs and Surgeon S. ]. Call, for
the relief of ice-bound and destitute
whalemen near Point Barrow, in the
winter of 1878, was ordered and car
riedsrp success. -
Part in Late War.
In the Spanish-American war the Rev
cnue Cutter Service bore conspicuous
part, as attested by the naval authori-
ties of the time. AT the breaking out of
the war the service was in such eff
cient state as to discipline and efficiency
of it's personnel, that all that was left
for naval authorities to do was to pro-
vide suitable ornaments for the vessels
and send them to the front.
The service had for nearly a century
been the most exposed hardest worked
and poorest paid of any other under
the Government Appeal after appea
had been made; bin after bill had beer
introduced in Congress, and none me
with fair consideration until in tn,
Fifty-seventh Congress. Then a bill
drawn and presented by Captain Shoe
maker to proper authority. secured ac
ton and eliminated in the enactmen
on April II 1902, of a measure which
placed the commissioned personnel o
service OH tic odihS piebA.S eA>iu 49,
footing with the army. navy and Marin
Corps. as to rank. pay and allowances
The Revenue Cutter Service to1a.
stands without peer among the serv
ices in poirt of value to Governmental
interests and IS at all times ready 70
uny service, in peace or war, al nom
or abroad. that may be reasonably de
nianded Of II.
Entered Service in 1860.
Captain Shoemaker is an old officer
dating, his original entry to the servic
TO November 90 1860. He has, therefore
served under every President and Sec
rotary of the Treasury from Jane
Buchanan and Howell Cobb. to Theodor
Roosevelt and Leslie NJ. Shaw. He bear
commissions under Buchanan, Lincoln
Grant, Hayes. and Cleveland.
He served through the civil war per
iod. until 1864. resigned, and was out o
the service until 1868, when he was re
appointed: since that year he has serve
continuously.
When the Lifc-Saving Service wa
young-namely, in 1S75-he was assigne
70 dSty under that establishment, an
in alleserved thirteen years in that cor
nectioa- He aided materially in the ,,i
building of that service and in secul