Customs Services
The term cutter is also used for any seaworthy vessel used in the law enforcement duties of Great Britain's HM Customs and Excise, the United States Coast Guard (Revenue Cutter Service) or the customs services of other countries.
In America, customs cutters were commonly schooners or brigs. In Britain, they were usually rigged as defined under Sailing (above). The British Board of Customs also used other vessels as hulks, which were moored in places such as tidal creeks. Customs officers worked from the hulks in smaller boats.
In the UK, the UK Border Agency (successor to HM Customs and Excise) currently operates a fleet of 42 m Corvette-type vessels throughout UK territorial waters as border cutters, inspecting vessels for illicit cargoes.
Read more about this topic: Cutter (boat)
Famous quotes containing the words customs and/or services:
“No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“Those services which the community will most readily pay for, it is most disagreeable to render.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)