Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
January 29, 1944 With the United States still very much embroiled in World War II, the amphibious dock landing ship USS White Marsh (LSD-8) was first commissioned into the U.S. Navy. This ship was named after an unincorporated community in southeastern Virginia. White Marsh’s biggest claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of... Continue Reading →
January 23, 1942 Nearly six weeks after the United States’ entry into World War II on the side of the Allies, a vessel constructed for the U.S. Navy by Ingalls Shipbuilding was launched. This Friday afternoon event took place at the company’s shipyard in the city of Pascagoula in Jackson County, Mississippi. The new ship... Continue Reading →
January 15, 1884 A steamship built for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) was launched in the ward of Williamsburg in the city of Brooklyn (now one of New York City’s five boroughs). This late-morning ceremony specifically took place at the shipyard of James D. Leary (1837-1902). The design for the ship has been... Continue Reading →
January 6, 1919 A little less than two months after the armistice ending World War I had gone into effect, USS Kestrel II (SP-529) – which served as a patrol vessel for the U.S. Navy during that military conflict – was decommissioned. Kestrel II was originally a private motor yacht that had been built in... Continue Reading →
Juan Ortega was born in Spain in 1840. He eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. Ortega, who became better known as John rather than Juan, would serve with distinction while fighting for his adopted country during the American Civil War. Ortega joined the Union Navy -- the name for the U.S.... Continue Reading →
September 13, 2005 National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) began construction on USNS Alan Shepard (T-AKE-3), a U.S. Navy underway replenishment (UNREP) vessel. (This type of vessel is used to transport fuel, munitions, and various other supplies to ships out at sea.) The building of the Alan Shepard took place at NASSCO’s shipyard in San... Continue Reading →
August 28, 1945 Just a few days before World War II ended with the formal surrender of Japan to the Allies, the U.S. Navy tanker USS Chukawan (AO-100) was launched at the Bethlehem Steel Company’s shipyard in Sparrows Point (an industrial area in the vicinity of Baltimore). As part of those festivities, this vessel --... Continue Reading →
August 26, 1886 Jerome C. Hunsaker, an aeronautical engineer whose productive career spanned the period from the early days of aviation to the age of space exploration, was born in Creston, Iowa. Hunsaker attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated at the head of his class in 1908. He was then assigned by the Navy... Continue Reading →
July 5, 1917 The U.S. Navy acquired a wooden-hulled screw steam yacht named the Admiral from Gordon Dexter (186-1937), president of the Connecticut-based Submarine Signal Company. This acquisition took place three months after the United States’ entry in World War I on the side of the Allied Powers and at a time when the Navy... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 