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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

President Woodrow Wilson Executive Order Concerning the Coast Guard

E X E C U T I V E O R D E R.

___________

     Pursuant to the power vested in me by the Act of Congress approved January 28, 1915, it is hereby directed that the Coast Guard shall from this date, until further orders, operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy.1

Woodrow Wilson     

The White House, [Washington, D.C.]

     7 April, 1917.

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517. Numbered at the bottom center of the page: "(No. 2587.)."

Footnote 1: According to a report of 19 March 1920, the Navy absorbed 41 vessels from the Coast Guard. They also took 50 from the Lighthouse Service, 4 from the Coast and Geodetic Survey Service, 2 from the Immigration Service, 1 from the Public Health Service, 4 from the Bureau of Fisheries, 6 from the Panama Canal, and 27 drifters and trawlers loaned by the government of Canada, as well as 1,110 private vessels of various types. Naval Investigation, 1: 1646-47.