Healy, Michael Augustine

Impact on the world

Received a federal officer's commission personally signed by Abraham Lincoln in March 1865, becoming the first U.S. sea service officer of African descent and the first to command a federal vessel; he went on to a celebrated career patrolling the Bering Sea aboard the cutter Bear, earning the nickname 'Hell Roaring Mike' Healy and becoming, by some accounts, the most famous captain in the history of the agency that became the U.S. Coast Guard.

Life & background

Born on a Georgia plantation to a white planter and an enslaved woman, Healy was sent north by his own father along with his siblings specifically to prevent their enslavement, and was raised and educated in Massachusetts. He worked his way up through the enlisted ranks of merchant ships before securing an officer's commission in the Revenue Cutter Service, signed by President Lincoln just a month before Lincoln's assassination, making Healy the first U.S. sea service officer of African descent and the first to command a federal ship. He spent roughly a decade patrolling the treacherous Bering Sea aboard the cutter Bear, a command marked by extraordinary physical hardship that, by his own service's account, included standing wet, cold, and hungry on the bridge for 40 consecutive hours while navigating dense fog and ice. The stress of command contributed to a drinking problem that led to his removal from command in 1896, though the Service later reinstated him, and he retired in 1903 as the third-most senior officer in the Revenue Cutter Service; a modern U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker is named in his honor.

Sources

1. NOAA Ocean Exploration; U.S. Coast Guard historical records; Encyclopedia.com