Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Vessels named USCGC LOUISIANA

USCGC LOUISIANA

Three vessels which served in the Revenue Cutter Service, now known as the U.S. Coast Guard, had the honor of bearing the name of LOUISIANA, the 18^th state admitted to the Union.

The First LOUISIANA (1804 ~ 1812):

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the federal government needed a cutter to serve in New Orleans, Louisiana.  On June 18, 1804, the Collector at Baltimore, Maryland, was authorized to build a cutter of about sixty tons and six draft for service at New Orleans.  After being completed, the cutter—named LOUISIANA—set sail for New Orleans on December 16, 1804, making the voyage in only twenty days.

LOUISIANA's first commander, Revenue Captain Joseph Newcomb, ignored the orders of the Collector of Revenue at New Orleans during the cutter's first voyage out of her new homeport.  Rather than patrolling, Newcomb took LOUISIANA to Pascagoula (still considered disputed territory and still occupied by Spanish forces) and confiscated a large quantity of coffee.  To avoid a diplomatic incident, the Collector ordered the coffee returned.

On April 16, 1805, LOUISIANA recaptured the schooner FELICITY from privateers.  The cutter remained the only federal armed ship in the Louisiana Territory until June 17, 1806, when Gunboat 13 and Gunboat 14 arrived and were placed under the command of Captain John Shaw, USN.  The cutter was severely damaged in a storm in September of 1807.  In 1810, she was sought by the U.S. Navy to carry troops.

On April 17, 1812, the commanding officer of LOUISIANA, Revenue Captain Angus O. Frazer, wrote that his cutter had engaged two pirate vessels that had outfitted in the port of New Orleans in which "twenty shots were exchanged, but by their superior sailing and night coming on, they made their escape."

In August of 1812, LOUISIANA was sunk by a powerful hurricane which struck New Orleans.  After her guns were removed, the cutter was placed out of commission and auctioned in her sunken state.  Her new owner had her raised and placed in mercantile service.

Ship's Statistics

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The Second LOUISIANA (1819 ~ 1824):

The second LOUISIANA, an Alabama-class topsail schooner, was built by Christian Bergh of New York at a cost of $4,500.  She was assigned to the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and quickly saw action.

On August 31, 1819, LOUISIANA and her sistership ALABAMA encountered and fought the pirate vessel BRAVO.  A volley of musketry wounded the first officer and three men aboard LOUISIANA. Her commander, Captain Jarvis Loomis, ordered boarders to take BRAVO.  The cuttermen sank the pirate ship with cannon fire.

BRAVO was commanded by Jean Lafarge.  Lafarge was one of the lieutenants of the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte who had come to the aid of General Andrew Jackson and the United States four years earlier during the Battle of New Orleans.  As a result, Lafitte and his band of pirates were granted pardons for previous crimes.  However, the flamboyant Lafitte continued his piracy in the aftermath of the war, with New Orleans and the south Louisiana bayous and bays serving as a base of operations.

On April 19, 1820, LOUISIANA and ALABAMA—still operating together—raided Patterson's Town on Breton Island where the pirates rested after their pillage.  Twenty-five "well-armed" cuttermen landed at one end of the island and quietly made their way to the stronghold where they attacked and destroyed the hideout.  This effectively crushed and subdued the pirates in the Gulf of Mexico, although some piracy continued.  Lafitte would move his operations westward, out of U.S. territorial waters, to the Galveston area which at that time was part of northern Mexico.

Revenue Captain Jairus, then commanding LOUISIANA, reported on July 10, 1820, that he had captured four pirate vessels off the coast of Belize.  On November 02, 1822, it was reported that LOUISIANA, along with the British schooner SPEEDWELL and the USS PEACOCK, had captured five pirate vessels near Havanna, Cuba.

On March 24, 1924, the Collector at New Orleans ordered that the cutter be sold at auction.

Ship's Statistics

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The Third LOUISIANA (c. 1825 ~ 1830):

The third LOUISIANA was built in New York and stationed at New Orleans under the command of Revenue Captain John Jackson.  There is very little known about the cutter other than what occurred in 1827, when she captured the three-gun Columbian privateer BOLIVIA after that vessel had seized the U.S. flagged schooner ANTOINETTE.  The June 02, 1827, issue of the Niles Weekly Register noted:

"The Revenue Cutter stationed at the port of New Orleans, under the command of Captain John Jackson, recently brought to the City a pirate captured at the Southwest Pass.  She had been inshore and fired on the American schooner ISABELLA, from Vera Cruz, with specie and passengers on board.  The pirate was lying at Southwest Pass and had sent his boat with 13 men around to intercept the ISABELLA at the upper end of the Pass.  The Cutter captured the boat likewise, making altogether 30 men and officers."

LOUISIANA was sold in New Orleans in 1830 for $1,089.

Ship's Statistics

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All information on USCGC LOUISIANA courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.  Additional information on USCGC LOUISIANA (1804~1812) from "Fighting Privateers off Louisiana" by Anthony A. Fernandez Jr. which appeared in Naval History in March/April of 1999.
All photos courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard unless otherwise noted.

**Copyright 1997-2007 by Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission**