Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
January 5, 1892 A notable milestone for Undine, a sternwheel-driven steamboat operating on rivers in Oregon, took place when she played a pivotal role in rescuing people who had been on board a vessel that sank in the Willamette River. (A major tributary of the Columbia River, the Willamette River is located entirely within the... Continue Reading →
October 17, 1989 In the aftermath of a major earthquake that hit northern California, the fireboat Phoenix – under the command of pilot Arvid Havneras -- proved to be pivotal in combatting a fire that endangered San Francisco’s Marina District neighborhood. The Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, rumbled through the region... Continue Reading →
September 11, 2001 The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in the southernmost part of New York City’s borough of Manhattan; the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; and – where a hijacked... Continue Reading →
April 4, 1985 A vessel named Samuel Risley was officially commissioned as a Canadian Coast Guard ship (CCGS). This vessel, measuring 229.8 feet (69.7 meters) in length, had been built by Vito Steel Boat & Barge Limited and was launched in 1984 at that company’s shipyard in the British Columbia city of Delta. CCGS Samuel... Continue Reading →
On January 15, 2009, New York Waterway ferry captain and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reservist Brittany Catanzaro and her crew played a crucial lifesaving role for the passengers of an Airbus A320 after that plane had made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. This landing was made necessary because the aircraft (US Airways Flight... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 