Corwin, 1925
President Zachary Taylor's death brought Millard Filmore to the presidency. Filmore appointed Thomas Corwin to be the 20th Secretary of the Treasury. His term in office began on July 23, 1850, and he served until March 6, 1853.
Corwin had established himself as "the most captivating and effective political orator the country had ever produced" during his years as a Whig senator from Ohio from 1845 until 1850. Like William M. Meredith, the 19th Secretary of the Treasury, Corwin believed in a protective tariff, but he did not want to make sudden or drastic changes in the free-trade tariff law of 1846. He objected to that law's provisions, which taxed some imported raw materials at a higher rate than the imported manufactured goods made from those materials. Corwin stated in a report to Congress that, "such provisions certainly take from the manufacturer and artisan that encouragement which the present law was intended to afford." As a longtime Whig, however, Corwin was unsuccessful in passing any tariff legislation in a Congress controlled by Democrats.
Thomas Corwin was born in 1794. He died in 1865.
Type/Rig/Class: 100-foot patrol boat
Builder: Defoe Boat & Motor Works, Bay City, Michigan
Dates of Service: 1925 - 1936
Disposition: Sold
Displacement: 210 tons
Length: 99' 8"
Beam: 23'
Draft: 4' 6"
Machinery: 2 Grey Marine diesel engines; 300 BHP; twin propellers
Speed: 12 knots maximum
Complement: 15 (with 1 warrant officer)
Armament: 1 x 3"/23
Cutter History:
The second cutter named Corwin, a 100-foot patrol boat built to combat rum-runners during Prohibition, was one of 13 in her class. These 13 were steel-hulled patrol boats that were capable of close inshore work but were slower than the 75-foot patrol boats. They made up for their slower speed and lack of maneuverability with better accommodations for the crew so that they could stay at sea for longer periods and work well off-shore. They were all built by Defoe Boat & Motor Works of Bay City, Michigan.
The Corwin was stationed at Cape May, New Jersey until 1927 when she was transferred to Mascagoula, Mississippi, where she served until 1933. She was then transferred to Toledo where she served out of until she was decommissioned in February of 1936 and sold.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).