Original Item. Only One Available. The United States Coast Guard was founded in 1915, through the dissolution and merging of the U.S. Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service. In Early April 1917, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred from the Treasury Department to the U.S. Navy, placing the branch on a wartime footing. The Coast Guard conducted port security and several other very important duties during World War I.

This very rare cap bears the bullion insignia of the U.S. Coast Guard, an American Eagle with shield holding an anchor in its talons. The gold striped band around the cap indicates the rank of Admiral. The gilt chinstrap is held in place by a button and a screw as shown on one side. This may be a period repair or could’ve been done a few years later. The interior sweatband is absent, and the cloth at the interior is splitting in many spots as shown. It seems to be about a size 7 1/4, but that is without a sweatband.

The hat is still in good condition overall and makes for a fantastic Pre-WWI display. We haven’t had an example of this before and we likely won’t again for a long time. Don’t miss out!

The U.S. Coast Guard in World War I

In early April 1917, the United States entered World War I, the U.S. Navy communications center in Arlington, Virginia, transmitted the code words “Plan One, Acknowledge” to Coast Guard cutters, units, and bases throughout the U.S. This coded message initiated the service’s transfer from the Treasury Department to the Navy placing the U.S. Coast Guard on a wartime footing.

“Plan One” was developed in secret, laying out the transfer of the Coast Guard to the Navy. In March 1917, in anticipation of the declaration of war, Commandant Bertholf had issued a confidential booklet that laid out Plan One and the assignments of cutters to various Naval Districts. When the U.S. declared war against Germany on Friday, April 6th, Bertholf authorized transmission of Plan One in an “ALCUT” (all cutters) message, a coded dispatch transmitted by radio and telegraph, to every cutter and shore station in the Coast Guard.

With the declaration of war and “Plan One” dispatch, the Coast Guard had joined the fight. The Treasury Department transferred officers and enlisted men, cutters, and units to the operational control of the Navy Department. The service augmented the Navy with 223 commissioned officers and 4,500 enlisted personnel. The latter number included the first women to don Coast Guard uniforms and the first significant number of minority Coast Guardsmen to serve.

One of the service’s first important missions was port security. The wartime increase in munitions shipments required manpower and assets to oversee this vital mission. Never before had the threat of massive destruction from explosives been so great. This was born out by an explosion that rocked New York City on July 31, 1916. The munitions terminal on Black Tom Island, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, was a primary staging area for ordnance shipped to the war in Europe. Set off by German saboteurs, the blast killed several people and caused property damage amounting to $1 Billion in today’s currency.

In June 1917, after the Black Tom explosion, Congress passed the Espionage Act shifting responsibility for safety and movement of vessels in U.S. harbors from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of the Treasury. Treasury bestowed on the Coast Guard the power to protect merchant shipping from sabotage, safeguard waterfront property, supervise vessel movements, establish anchorages and restricted areas, and regulate the loading and shipment of hazardous cargoes. It also gave the Coast Guard the right to control and remove people deemed security risks from ships. As a result, the service arrested merchant seamen aboard foreign merchant vessels interned in U.S. ports.