holes worked or bound with silver
twist or lace, side-arms, and cocked hats with cockades, and the
buttons set on the coat three and three, the breeches and waistcoats
as usual:

"For the undress, the same as at present.

"For the mates, the addition of lappels, the buttons set on two and
two, and cocked hats with cockades."

The Board consented to these alterations with the exception of the
epaulettes, "the adoption of which we do not approve, lest the same
should interfere with His Majesty's Naval Service." Now in reading
this, it is important to bear in mind that between the Revenue and
Navy there was a great deal of jealousy.[12] It went so far, at least
on one occasion, as to cause a Naval officer to go on board a Revenue
cutter and haul the latter's flag down. The reason these epaulettes
were disallowed may be explained by the fact that it was only nine
years before the above date that epaulettes had become uniform in the
Navy, for notwithstanding that epaulettes had been worn by officers
since 1780, yet they were not uniform until 1795, although they were
already uniform in the French and Spanish navies.[13] Since,
therefore, these adornments had been so recently introduced into the
Navy, it was but natural that with so much jealousy existing this
feature should not be introduced into the Revenue service. Just what
"the undress, the same as at present" was I have not been able to
discover, but in the Royal Navy of that time the undress uniform for a
captain of three years' post consisted of a blue coat, which was
white-lined, with blue lappels and cuffs, a fall-down collar,
gold-laced button-holes, square at both ends, arranged regularly on
the lappels. For a captain under three years the uniform was the same,
except that the nine buttons were arranged on the lappels in threes.
For master or commander it was the same, except that the button-holes
were arranged by twos.[14]

It was in January 1807 that the Customs Board took into consideration
the appointment of several Revenue cruisers and the expediency of one
general system for manning them according to the tonnage and
construction of the vessel, the service and station on which she was
to be employed. They therefore distinctly classed the different
cruisers according to their tonnage, description, and number of men
originally allowed and since added, whether furnished with letters of
marque or not. And believing that it would be beneficial to the
service