Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 25, 1823 The Royal Suspension Chain Pier in Brighton on England’s southeastern coast was opened. This pier was the first major one to be built at that seaside resort. Widely known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by civil engineer (and Royal Navy veteran) Samuel Brown (1776-1852). Brown was a trailblazer when it... Continue Reading →
September 18, 1929 John Peter Bollons, an acclaimed New Zealand naturalist and ethnographer who also achieved fame as a marine captain, died in Wellington at the age of 66. “HIS LAST VOYAGE, A MARINER’S PASSING,” announced that day’s edition of the Wellington-based Evening Post. Bollons was born on November 10, 1862, in the London-area civil... Continue Reading →
Maria E. Beasley (c. 1836-1913), a pioneering female inventor who was born in North Carolina, is best known for creating machines and other industrial processes for the more efficient production of barrels. She also obtained patents for various other types of inventions, however, and some of those patents involved key improvements to transportation safety. ... Continue Reading →
October 5, 1889 On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a vessel built for oyster dredging in the Chesapeake Bay was launched at Tilghman Island in Talbot County. This still-existing vessel is a “bugeye,” a type of sailboat specifically developed to collect bottom-dwelling oysters in that region of the United States. This particular bugeye was give the name... Continue Reading →
June 27, 1898 Joshua Slocum completed the first solo circumnavigation of the world at 1:00 a.m. when he sailed into the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island, on board his oyster sloop (a type of one-masted sailboat) named the Spray. The Canadian-born Slocum had first set sail in that vessel from Boston on April 25, 1895,... Continue Reading →
April 22, 1969 Robert “Robin” Knox-Johnston was greeted by the cheers of a dockside crowd and the sounds of boat whistles as he arrived at Falmouth, England, to both win the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and complete the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world. “I’m a little overwhelmed by this reception,” said the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 