Toucey (Isaac Toucey), 1857
Builder: Merry and Gay, Milan, OH
Cost: Unknown
Rig: Schooner
Length: 57' 6"
Beam: 17' 6"
Draft: 5' 10"
Displacement: 50 tons
Keel Laid: Unknown
Launched: Unknown
Completed: June-July 1857
Decommissioned: Unknown
Disposition: Sold on 21 June 1869
Complement: Unknown
Armament: 1 6-pdr.
Design History:
Bids were taken for six shallow-draft cutters in 1856. Merry and Gay of Milan, OH, bid $4,050 for each and received the contract. Captain William C. Pease supervised the construction; the design was based on a reduced scale of a 140-ton model furnished by the Revenue Service. Construction was delayed by winter weather and a controversy over Ohio versus Long Island locust. In the end there was a cost overrun and lien against the builders.
The vessels were of white oak, yellow pine, and locust, with copper fastenings. They were provided with centerboards and named for members of the President James Buchanan's cabinet.
Cutter History:
Named for the Secretary of the Navy in Buchanan's cabinet, she was stationed at Michilimackinac, Michigan until ordered east in 1861. As with the others, she was laid up for the winter when Captain Douglas Ottinger arrived to take her east. She was swiftly rigged and fitted out for the passage. She arrived in Boston in December and was eventually placed in service at Castine, Maine.
In 1857 she was repaired at New Haven, CT and sold them two years later for $1,550.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis: 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).