History

Capt. Commandant Ellsworth P. Bertholf

first commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard · active 1915–1919

Career Revenue-Cutter Service officer who became the first Captain Commandant of the United States Coast Guard on its creation by the act of 28 January 1915, and who signed the service's first annual report on 10 August 1915. He is the officer under whom Ocean City's life-saving station — federal since 1878 — became a Coast Guard station, its keeper a warrant officer and its surfmen enlisted men.

In the record (1)

  1. 1915 · 1915-01-28

    On 28 January 1915 Congress abolished the U.S. Life-Saving Service and folded Ocean City's station into the new U.S. Coast Guard — the keeper became a warrant officer, the No. 1 surfman a petty officer, and the rest of the crew enlisted men.

    The Coast Guard act of 28 January 1915 established "in lieu of the existing Revenue-Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service ... the Coast Guard, which shall constitute a part of the military forces of the United States and which shall operate under the Treasury Department in time of peace and operate as a part of the Navy ... in time of war." The first Annual Report of the United States Coast Guard, for the fiscal year ended 30 June 1915, states plainly what that meant at a beach station: "The transfer of the personnel of the former Life-Saving Service to the Coast Guard was accomplished by issuing appointments as commissioned officers, warrant officers, and petty officers to the district superintendents, keepers, and No. 1 surfmen, respectively, and regularly enlisting the surfmen." The report adds that "the military system of the former Revenue-Cutter Service has been utilized as a basis for the organization of the Coast Guard", which "has necessitated many changes in matters affecting the status and discipline of that portion of the Coast Guard which was formerly the Life-Saving Service." Promotion to No. 1 surfman was thereafter by selection from the surfmen and promotion to keeper by selection from the No. 1 surfmen, with a six-month probation and a written mental examination for the keeper's warrant. Two things the old service never had came with the change: longevity pay (the FY1915 deficiency appropriation covers longevity pay for 274 keepers and 262 No. 1 surfmen) and retirement (125 men were retired in the first five months, among them 41 keepers). Sumner I. Kimball, general superintendent of the Life-Saving Service since 1878 and a name in this registry since Ocean City's station opened, appears in the same volume as general superintendent of the Coast Guard under Capt. Commandant Ellsworth P. Bertholf. The Ocean City station itself — in the campaign's record since 1878 — changed hands without a word of local notice: nothing in the Worcester County press marks the day.

    Ocean City Life-Saving Station MuseumUnited States Life-Saving ServiceUnited States Coast GuardSumner Increase Kimball

    Source · checked 2026-08-06