USRC Massachusetts ( 1791 ) USRC " Massachusetts " was one of the first ten cutters operated by the United States ' Revenue Cutter Service ( later to become the US Coast Guard ) . She was built in Newburyport and served out of Boston . " Massachusetts " by tradition is held to be the first revenue cutter to enter active service . She was also the first to be decommissioned , having a very short service life of only about 15 months before being sold . Description . A contemporary description , provided by the Collector of Customs at Boston , Mr . Benjamin Lincoln to the Secretary of the Treasury , Alexander Hamilton , noted : Agreeably to your orders I here send you a description of the Cutter Massachusetts built at Newbury port in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the year 1791 . She has on [ sic : one ] deck , two masts her length is sixty feet above her upper deck her depth is seven feet Eight inches , breadth seventeen feet eight inches she measures seventy tons 43 / 95 . She is a square - stern schooner , has quarter badges , an Indian ' s head for figure - head . She has a long quarter deck and a deep waist . " Dr . John Tilley noted that " the Massachusetts was a two - masted schooner of 70 43 / 95 tons burden , 60 ' in length , with a beam of 17 ' 8 " and depth of hold of 7 ' 8 " . The ship had a long quarterdeck , deep bulwarks , and an armament of either four of six swivel guns . The contract signed by Searle and Tyler called for two boats and seven sails : mainsail , foresail , jib , flying jib , fore topsail , main topsail , and squaresail . " The cutter ended up being larger than originally authorized as her first master , John Foster Williams , ordered an increase in her size without first seeking departmental approval . Her cost was therefore considerably over the original estimate . Nevertheless , the government accepted her as built . Operational service . Although she was launched later than a number of other cutters , by tradition she is considered to be the first to actually enter active service . There are a number of surviving documents regarding her history . A journal , kept by second mate Nathaniel Nichols , has turned up and gives a glimpse of what life was like on this cutter . He faithfully recorded his thoughts and actions from 31 October 1791 through 16 June 1793 . " No Revenue Cutter in Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton ' s ' system of cutters ' saw shorter Federal service than the first [ cutter named ] " Massachusetts " , a 70 ton schooner built in Newburyport , Massachusetts in 1791 . One of the first ten armed vessels of the United States ordered to patrol the Atlantic Coast to protect the revenue , she was too costly to please Alexander Hamilton , too expensive to operate to please General Benjamin Lincoln , and too slow to please her Master , Captain John Foster Williams . They sold her in October 1792 and replaced her the following spring with a smaller , livelier cutter , the sloop " Massachusetts II " . " Commanding officers . Captain John Foster Williams , Master ; 1791 - 1792 . Original Crew : First Mate Hezekiah Welch of Charlestown , MA . < br > Second Mate Nathaniel Nichols of Cohasset , MA . < br > Third Mate Sylvanus Coleman of Nantucket , MA .