Kingsport 1844: Revenue Marine & Life-Saving Station

31) Revenue Marine & Life-Saving Station
Northeast of Beacon Road. Est. 1791/1837

Keeper’s Note: The Revenue Marine is a location in “Kingsport 1844,” and was written for the White Leviathan campaign. It can be adapted to any nineteenth-century campaign set in Essex County. It contains minor spoilers for anyone intending to play the campaign.

A) The Revenue Marine
Established by Alexander Hamilton’s Treasury Department in 1790, the United States Revenue Marine created a “system of cutters” by which ten swift ships were stationed at various ports along the East Coast. Originally founded to suppress smuggling and piracy, the Revenue Marine fought alongside the Navy during the Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812. In the 1830s, their duties expanded to include maritime rescue. The Revenue Marine has its own flag, and while its officers do not share equivalent Navy rank, their uniforms are quite similar. This has been the subject of more than one tavern brawl! 

Argus Blaine
Kingsport’s contribution to the Revenue Marine is the Argus Blaine, a three-masted cutter stationed along the South Shore. During the time the player characters are in Kingsport, the Argus Blaine is moored at the Revenue Marine, having just undergone renovations at the Illsley shipyard. (Its Minuteman figurehead is being restored at Erasmus Doppler & Sons. See Encounter 8 for details.) The cutter is scheduled to return to duty on November 5.

B) The Kingsport Life-Saving Station
Located on the South Shore next to the Revenue Marine, the Kingsport Life-Saving Station was established in 1837 by the Massachusetts Humane Society, and is dedicated to servicing troubled mariners within the range of Kingsport Harbor. Consisting of a wooden station house, three sheds for lifesaving equipment, and several small lifeboats, the station is manned by local volunteers. Although it is not officially associated with the Revenue Marine, many volunteers are drawn from the Treasury service, and the two stations operate in conjunction more often than not.

Kingsport Note: The Revenue Marine is the precursor of the twentieth-century Coast Guard Station described in Chaosium’s “Kingsport: The City In the Mists.” In 1848 the U.S. government will formally fund Kingsport’s Life-Saving Station through the Revenue Marine, and the two outfits will effectively merge. In 1894 the Revenue Marine will be renamed the Revenue Cutter Service, and in 1915 it merges with the United States Life-Saving Service to form the United States Coast Guard. As for the Argus Blaine, in 1846 it will be successfully deployed during the Mexican-American War. Unfortunately, the cutter is destined to be captured by the Confederacy during the Civil War, and subsequently sunk by a Union ironclad ironically named the USS Kingsport!

C) Programmed Events
The player character Adventure Hook “Mr. Coffin’s Dream Date” begins at the Revenue Marine Station. Aside from giving Mr. Coffin the chance to observe the Argus Blaine being repainted, there’s little to see here, and Lt. Costello immediately sets sail for Ross Island. See Encounter 43 for details.

White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 30, Masonic Lodge | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 32, Orchard Rise]

Author: A. Buell Ruch (based on the work of Kevin A. Ross)
Last Modified: 26 November 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]

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