By 1775, the tenuous relationship between the British and the American colonies was at a breaking point.  The colonists were enraged by what they saw as unfair treatment at the hands of the British government.  The British boasted the most superior naval force in the world, and the colonists faced the daunting challenge of asserting American independence without a centralized naval fighting force.  On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, voted to outfit two seafaring vessels.  The vessels were to be armed with ten carriage guns, swivel guns and a total crew of just fewer than two hundred men; their mission would be to intercept British naval ships carrying supplies and munitions to the British army in America.  These two ships would be the first of the United States Navy.

The debate over establishing the United States Navy was long and arduous.  Many felt that the endeavor was a fruitless waste of funds; they believed that the British Navy was far too superior for the United States to even compete.  Others, including John Adams of Massachusetts, were fervent supporters of the development of an American naval force.  It was not until the Congress received intelligence that two British ships were on their way from England to Quebec, unarmed and without a protection convoy that the pro-naval advocates began to gain support.  The vulnerability of the two British ships seemed too good an opportunity to allow pass.  Within only a few days of receiving the information, the Congress authorized the outfitting of the two American vessels.

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As an alum of the graduate business school at Tulane, I followed the events in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.  Three years later, it’s not just the weather that seems to have improved.  Last Thursday, Tulane cancelled classes for this week and ordered an evacuation of the campus on Saturday, with students who were unable to obtain a flight home from New Orleans being evacuated to Jackson State University in Mississippi.  The Tulane website has included a daily announcement from President Scott Cowen entitled “The Scott Report“, a “New Wave” column that includes items such as photos of the facilities crew cleaning up the post-hurricane debris, and a daily live chat.  Tulane’s executive team traveled to Nashville and has been in communication with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin throughout the crisis.

The press reports that since Katrina the levees haven’t been secured in New Orleans to survive a Category 3 Hurricane.  Fortunately, Gustav’s landfall was west of New Orleans with winds down to the levels of a  Category 2/Category 1 by the time of landing.  Regardless of the levee situation, which I hope the Army Corps of Engineers is able to resolve, it appears that there have been some lessons learned from Katrina and communication and evacuation plans at the municipal, state, federal, and university levels worked well this time.

On August 4, 1790, Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to “enforce tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling.”  Organized as the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard is the oldest continuous seagoing service in the United States.  In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to become the modern Coast Guard.  In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Coast Guard and in 1946, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard.  In 2003, the U.S.C.G. was made a division of the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

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