United States Coast Guard Academy - History

History

The roots of the academy lie in the School of Instruction of the Revenue Cutter Service, the school of the Revenue Cutter Service. Established near New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1876, the School of Instruction used the USRC Dobbin for its exercises. Captain John Henriques served as superintendent from the founding until 1883. The one civilian instructor was Professor Edwin Emery, who taught mathematics, astronomy, English composition, French, physics, theoretical steam engineering, history, international law, and revenue law, among other subjects. The School was, in essence, a two-year apprenticeship, supplemented by minimal classroom work. The student body averaged five to ten cadets per class. With changes to new training vessels, the school moved to Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1900 and then again in 1910 to Fort Trumbull, a Revolutionary War–era Army installation near New London, Connecticut. In 1914 the school became the Revenue Cutter Academy, and with the 1915 merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service, it became the Coast Guard Academy.

The town of New London donated its current location above the west bank of the Thames River in 1932. In 1947, the academy received as a war reparation from Germany; the barque Horst Wessel, a 295-foot tall ship which was renamed the USCGC Eagle. It remains the main training vessel for cadets at the academy as well as for officer candidates as the Coast Guard's Officer Candidate School, which is located on the grounds of the USCGA.

The academy was racially integrated in 1962, at the behest of President Kennedy.