South Carolina

South Carolina I

(Sch.: t. 187; cpl. 50; a. 12 guns)

The first South Carolina was a schooner built for the Revenue Cutter Service in 1797 and 1798 at Charleston, S.C., during the Quasi War with France. While she was being fitted out, South Carolina was placed under jurisdiction of the Navy for operation. On 13 December 1798, Captain of a Galley James Payne was ordered to assume command of the schooner, and she cruised in the West Indies—principally off Cuba and Haiti—until the summer of 1799. She was returned to the Treasury Department in August, and she was commissioned in the Revenue Cutter Service on 29 August 1799 and remained in that service until 1803.