Gallatin, 1807
The Gallatin was named for President Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin.
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Cost: Purchased for $9,432.93
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Commissioned: 1807
Decommissioned: N/A
Disposition: Exploded in Charleston Harbor on 1 April 1813.
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Cutter History:
Gallatin was purchased to serve on the Charleston, South Carolina station for $9,432.93. On 24 March 1808 she returned to Charleston Harbor from a cruise to the south. On the 14th she chased a pilot boat schooner flying Danish colors into St. Mary's River after the Danish ship fired two shots at Gallatin.
On 1 August 1812 the brig General Blake, flying Spanish colors and said to have British papers, arrived in Charleston with a prize crew from Gallatin. On September 8th of that same year, she may have seized the British ship Tom Hazzard, on suspicion of having aboard British property (conflicting accounts) and along with the cutter Jefferson captured the British vessels Adrian, Active, and Georgiana as well.
Her magazine "accidentally" exploded in Charleston Harbor on 1 April 1813, completely destroying the cutter and killing at least three of her crew. They were the first documented casualties of the service.
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Sources:
Cutter History File, Coast Guard Historian's Office.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington, DC: USGPO.
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).