Naval Personnel History? What is a Short Cutter?

Question

My GG Grandfather was on HMS Raleigh 1887-1888. On his records it looks like he was a short cutter..... cannot find any information on searches could someone please tell me if I am reading in correctly and what one did
Many thanks

Answer 1

The fourth HMS Raleigh was a 22-gun iron-built Screw Frigate of 4,780 tons built at Chatham and launched in 1873. In 1878 she took part in the occupation of Cyprus and in 1894 in operations in the West Coast of Africa.

A cutter is any Coast Guard vessel 65 feet in length or more, which has living accommodations for its crew.

The predecessor of the Coast Guard -- the Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service , as it was known variously throughout the late 18th and the 19th centuries -- referred to its ships as cutters. The term is English in origin and refers to a specific type of vessel, namely, "a small, decked ship with one mast and bowsprit, with a gaff mainsail on a boom, a square yard and topsail, and two jibs or a jib and a staysail." (Peter Kemp, editor, The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea; London: Oxford University Press, 1976; pp. 221-222.) (today a cutter is any Coast Guard vessel over 65-feet in length).

The Revenue Cutter Service designated its cutters and craft based on classes. From about 1890 through the formation of the Coast Guard in 1915, the largest cutters were referred to as vessels of the 'First Class." The smaller coastal cutters and larger tugs were vessels of the "Second Class," and the smaller tugs and cutters were designated as vessels of the "Third Class." Finally, the small harbor craft were referred to as "Launches."