Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 1943, James Joseph “Jim” Leftwich became the youngest known enlistee in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Leftwich, a member of the Chickasaw Nation (a federally recognized tribe), was only 14 at the time. In a 1968 interview with Baltimore Sun reporter Alan Z. Forman, Leftwich addressed how -- despite being younger than the legal... Continue Reading →
September 5, 2015 The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) achieved a major transportation milestone when she became the first American surface vessel to reach the North Pole unaccompanied. Healy had been commissioned in 1999. She was named after Michael A. Healy (1839-1904), a career officer with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (a predecessor... Continue Reading →
April 21, 1906 The coastal passenger steamship SS Governor Cobb was launched at Roach’s Shipyard in the city of Chester, Pennsylvania. This vessel was the first ship built in the United States to be powered by steam turbines. That turbine technology was provided for the Governor Cobb by the New Jersey-based marine engineering firm W. &... Continue Reading →
For two decades, Sally Snowman served as the keeper of Boston Light on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. When she retired from the position on December 30, 2023, Snowman – 72 years old at the time – had the distinction of being the last official lighthouse keeper in the United States.... Continue Reading →
Jeanine Menze made U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) history as that uniformed service’s first black female aviator. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She and her family eventually moved to Canada and then relocated to Florida. In 1997, Menze graduated from Miami Killian High School in the Sunshine State’s community of Kendall. Menze subsequently studied at... Continue Reading →
Throughout much of World War II, Sadie Carrie Owney Horton worked for the U.S. Merchant Marine on a barge (a flat-bottomed boat used for transporting freight) that operated along the eastern coasts of the United States and Canada. Horton’s service ultimately earned her the distinction of being the first documented female to serve on a... Continue Reading →
March 7, 2003 The U.S. Coast Guard cutter (USCGC) Oak (WLB 211) was officially commissioned as a seagoing buoy tender. This type of Coast Guard vessel is primarily used to maintain navigational floating aids. USCGC Oak made history as the first Coast Guard vessel to be commissioned after this federal uniformed service was incorporated into... Continue Reading →
Charles Robinson, who had a longtime career with life-saving stations in his home state of Michigan, was born on May 5, 1874, in the city of Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and in the west-central section of the Wolverine State’s Lower Peninsula. Robinson was partly of Odawa ancestry. The Odawa --... Continue Reading →
During World War II, Mildred Cleghorn Womack became one of six Native American women from Oklahoma to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Women’s Reserve. This unit, which was best known as the SPARS (the acronym for “Semper Paratus – Always Ready”), was established in 1942 as the women’s branch of the USCG Reserve.... 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 →
Transportation History 