Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 16, 1888 CGS (Canadian Government Ship) Stanley, which is widely considered to be Canada’s first fully functional icebreaker, was launched at the shipyard of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (Fairfields) in the burgh of Govan (now part of Glasgow) in Scotland. This steamship was named after Frederick Arthur Stanley (1841-1908), 16h Earl of Derby,... 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 →
August 7, 1943 With World War II being waged across the globe, the U.S. Navy ship USS Chattanooga (PF-65) was launched at the shipyard of the Leathem B. Smith Shipbuilding Company in the city of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. This ship was named after one of Tennessee’s largest cities, and the christening duties at the vessel’s... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1953 A pilot cutter was launched in the town and civil parish of Dartmouth in southwestern England. The vessel was built by the Dartmouth-area shipbuilder Philip and Son for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) -- now called the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company -- for use on the section of the... Continue Reading →
June 25, 1916 Paul H. Kreibohm, who had been captain of the Red Star ocean liner SS Kroonland, received the American Cross of Honor for the heroism that he and that vessel’s crew and officers demonstrated at sea more than two-and-half years earlier. The now-defunct medal was awarded by the American Cross of Honor Society,... Continue Reading →
In 1980, Ming Chang was promoted to U.S. Navy rear admiral and in the process became the first naturalized Asian American to reach flag rank in that U.S. military branch. He was born on April 20, 1932, in Shanghai. His father, Yu Chin Chang, was a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy. When he... Continue Reading →
In December 2010, Shanti Sethi achieved a notable milestone when she became the first woman of Indian descent to command a major. U.S. Navy combat ship. This vessel was USS Decatur (DDG-73), and Sethi served as her commanding officer until May 2012. Sethi started out life in the city of Reno, Nevada. Her father... Continue Reading →
December 26, 1859 At eleven o’clock on a Monday morning, the pilot boat John D. Jones, No. 15, was launched into a section of the East River within the ward of Williamsburg in the city of Brooklyn (now one of New York City’s five boroughs). J.D. Jones had been built by J.B & J.D. Van... Continue Reading →
Harold Tantaquidgeon was born on June 18. 1904, in the Mohegan Indian Reservation in southeastern Connecticut’s village of Uncasville. He was the fourth of the seven children of John and Harriet Tantaquidgeon. Harold was a direct descendant of Uncas, a 17th century sachem (chief) of the Mohegans and the person for whom Uncasville was named.... Continue Reading →
October 21, 1856 The steamship USS Arctic, the first of five U.S. Navy vessels named after the polar region in the northernmost section of Earth, was decommissioned in New York City. This original version of Arctic had been built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and commissioned only the year before. On June 4, 1855, Arctic... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 