Charles F . Shoemaker Charles Frederick Shoemaker ( 27 March 1841 – 11 July 1913 ) was a captain in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and was appointed in 1895 by Secretary of the Treasury John G . Carlisle to be Chief of the Revenue Marine Division of the Department of the Treasury . Shoemaker was noted for his leadership in gaining improvements in the retirement system for officers in the Revenue Cutter Service and for leading the service at a time when there were many engineering improvements made in the construction of vessels used by the service . During his tenure he worked successfully with three different Secretaries of the Treasury as an appointee to improve the personnel standards and the vessels used by the service . Although he was never formally known as Commandant , he is recognized today as the second Commandant of the Coast Guard . Early life and career . Shoemaker was born in Iowa Territory on 27 March 1841 . His father , William R . Shoemaker was an officer in the ordnance department of the U . S . Army and moved his family from one post to another many times during his army career . As a child , Charles Shoemaker was educated at home by members of his family and he became adept at mathematics . At 17 , Shoemaker received an appointment to the U . S . Naval Academy from Miguel Otero , the congressional delegate from New Mexico Territory . At the end of three years , he resigned from the academy and was commissioned as a third lieutenant in the Revenue Cutter Service on 20 November 1860 . His first assignment was aboard the USRC " Lewis Cass " stationed at Mobile , Alabama . In the days leading up to the Civil War his commanding officer , Captain James J . Morrison , resigned his commission , turned the cutter over to Alabama state authorities and left Shoemaker to lead his officers and men back to Union territory . He served on several revenue cutters guarding the Port Of New York until 4 April 1864 when he resigned his commission to go into private business . Shoemaker was re - commissioned a third lieutenant on 25 June 1868 and promoted to a second lieutenant on 12 March 1872 serving at various stations on the Atlantic coast . In 1875 he was serving on , homeported at New Bedford , Massachusetts until he was assigned the duties of assistant inspector of the U . S . Life - Saving Service at New York City . In 1876 he was appointed assistant inspector of the Third Life Saving District of the U . S . Life - Saving Service and while serving in that billet was promoted to first lieutenant on 25 March 1878 . In 1878 , Shoemaker was transferred to the office of Sumner I . Kimball , then the Chief of the Revenue Marine Bureau and was assigned investigating duties and heard complaints against keepers at all Life - Saving Service stations . In 1880 , he was assigned to investigate the sinking of the British barque " M & S Henderson " near the Pea Island Life - Saving Station . After taking statements from the station crew and survivors of the shipwreck , Shoemaker concluded that the surfman on watch had been negligent as a lookout and that the station ' s keeper had lied under oath . Both were dismissed and Shoemaker appointed Richard Etheridge , a black surfman as the new keeper . Etheridge was permitted to have an all black crew on the recommendation of Shoemaker ; a situation that lasted until 1947 when the station was disestablished . Shoemaker was assigned as executive officer on the USRC " Seward " in 1882 which at the time patrolled the Gulf Coast and was homeported at Bay Saint Louis , Mississippi . In 1885 he was once again detailed to the USLSS , first as an assistant inspector of the Third District and later as inspector of all districts except the Twelfth district on the Pacific coast . During this assignment , he located and obtained sites for stations , conducted 300 investigations and brought serious charges against four assistant superintendents of the service . In April 1891 he was assigned as commanding officer of USRC " Washington " at the Port of New York . After shifting " Washington " to Philadelphia in 1893 , he assumed command of the newly commissioned USRC " Hudson " in Philadelphia and returned to New York for harbor patrol duty . Chief of Revenue Cutter Service . On 19 March 1895 , Secretary of the Treasury , John Griffin Carlisle appointed Shoemaker to replace Leonard G . Shepard as Chief of the Revenue Cutter Division and promoted him to senior captain . Improvements in service retirement . As a result of Secretary Carlisle ' s and predecessor Shepard ' s efforts , legislation passed during March 1895 allowed Shoemaker to place 39 disabled officers that had been on active duty since the Civil War on a retired list , thus giving younger officers a chance at promotion . Since retirement practices of the period were non - existent , so many long serving officers were kept on active duty status well beyond their ability to actually serve effectively because of age and health related issues . Because the number of officers in the RCS was limited by Congressional legislation , this caused senior officers to serve in multiple billets and junior officers oftentimes had to serve in billets that required a senior officer , but they couldn ' t be promoted or paid the senior officer ' s pay . The legislation of March 1895 allowed the Chief of the Revenue Cutter Division to take steps to retire the disabled officers at half pay ; in turn opening the ranks to younger qualified officers . This helped officer morale of the Revenue Cutter Service . Unfortunately it only affected those officers that were on active duty and incapacitated at the time the legislation was enacted so it was not a permanent solution . Both Shoemaker and Carlisle continued to push for retirement reforms for officer corps , asking Congress to approve retirement at three - quarters pay any officer that had reached the age of 64 or had served for thirty years and declared physically or mentally disqualified for duty by a medical officer . Lyman Gage , who succeeded Carlisle as Secretary of the Treasury , called for enlisted men injured in the line of duty to be included on a pension list ; Shoemaker endorsed this reform also . Congress didn ' t take action on legislation allowing this to occur until the Overland Relief Expedition of 1897 – 1898 and the Spanish - American War brought public attention to the Revenue Cutter Service . By 1901 , the service faced a shortage of qualified officers once more because of the temporary nature of the 1895 retirement law ; the officer ranks were again filled with the aged and infirm and lieutenants had to fill billets that would have normally been reserved for a captain . Finally , at the urging of both Gage and Shoemaker , Congress passed Senate Bill 1025 on 12 April 1902 that recognized the discrepancies in the treatment of Revenue Cutter Service officers versus officers in the other services : By 30 June 1902 , the service had retired , under the new law , nine captains , and five chief engineers because of age and one chief engineer , one third lieutenant and two assistant engineers because of disability ; thus opening up opportunities for promotion for the lower ranks . New cutter construction . Building on the foundation laid by Shepard , Shoemaker oversaw the acquisition of new steel hulled cutters and increased the number of cutters in service including five cutters over 200 feet in length . Older cutters dating back to before the Civil War were retired and newer cutters replaced them , all were designed with steam propulsion . Changes in the RCS School of Instruction . Shoemaker was responsible as the new Chief of the Revenue Cutter Service in enlarging the school ' s training cutter , USRC " Salmon P . Chase " so that it could accommodate more cadets . The training cutter had no specific homeport and put in to various ports to only to re - provision and get mail . During his tenure , Shoemaker acquired the land for " Chase " to use as a homeport and for repairs at Arundel Cove in Curtis Bay , Maryland . A small two - story building was built for the school as well as a 400 foot pier for the " Chase " . This site eventually became the service ' s vessel construction and overhaul facility and today is known as the United States Coast Guard Yard . Retirement and death . Upon reaching the statutory retirement age of 64 , Shoemaker was placed the Retired List on 27 March 1905 . He was succeeded by Captain Worth G . Ross . On 8 May 1908 , Shoemaker was promoted to the rank of Captain - Commandant on the Revenue Cutter Service Retired List by Act of Congress . He died at his home in Woodstock , Virginia on 11 July 1913 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery