Serving Many Masters

Created to end smuggling, as a disciplined coastal force the Preventive Water Guard quickly acquired extra duties. In the 1820s officers were instructed to take responsibility at shipwrecks to safeguard cargoes and vessels from looters. In addition boatmen were to train with life saving equipment, supplied by the Board of Ordnance.

In 1816 the Preventive Water Guard had been withdrawn from part of Kent in favour of shore based naval crews. The Admiralty favoured this Coast Blockade as a reserve of trained seamen, and later extended it from the Isle of Sheppey to Seaford, Sussex.

In 1821 a Committee of Enquiry examined every aspect of the Customs service. It recognised the Preventive Water Guard as a major force against smuggling and recommended that it be again controlled by the Board of Customs along with the Riding officers and Revenue cruisers. On 15 January 1822 the Treasury accepted the proposal noting that the new force would be called the Coast Guard. The words Coastguard were linked in the twentieth century.

When, in 1831, it was decided that the Board of Customs Coastguard should replace the Coast Blockade on the whole coast the Admiralty made its own proposal. It won the right to appoint Coastguard officers and to select boatmen from paid off naval crews, so setting the scene for the Coastguard as a naval reserve and recruiting agency.

Within a decade Coastguard vigilance was praised for greatly reducing smuggling, though lower taxes helped end illegal trade. The Admiralty was already re-styling the Coastguard with naval style uniform and drill, and training on large guns for coast defence. The Coastguard continued to take charge at wrecks and to save lives. The Board of Trade issued life saving apparatus to Coastguard stations, thus fulfilling its responsibility for safety at sea imposed by the 1854 Merchant Shipping Act.

The role of naval reserve and coast defence force was sealed when the Coast Guard Act (1856) passed control from the Board of Customs to the Admiralty. Though still available for revenue protection, Coastguards trained to supplement naval crews. By 1900 advancing technology in ships and arms had outmoded this style of naval reserve and the Admiralty proposed reducing the Coastguard. This was opposed by the public, the Board of Customs and the Board of Trade who championed the need for life saving and revenue protection.

An enquiry in 1921 found that the Coastguard had become the eyes and ears of many organisations with coastal interests. For the Admiralty they provided visual signalling and telegraphy, reported fleet movements, rendered mines safe, undertook recruitment, and reported changes in navigation marks to the Hydrographer. For the Board of Customs and Excise they searched vessels, supervised discharge of cargoes, collected dues from coastal vessels, kept shipping statistics, and patrolled the coast. For the Board of Trade they assisted ships in distress, acted as Receiver of Wreck, and operated life saving apparatus. In addition Coastguards: assisted the Post Office and Lloyds with telegraphy and wireless; provided the Fishery Department with statistics; enforced quarantine regulations for Agricultural Departments; made meteorological reports to the Air Ministry; passed distress calls to the RNLI; and reported faulty navigation aids to Trinity House.