Kathleen Moore | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1794 – c. 1812 |
Died | 1899 |
Service/ | United States Lighthouse Service |
Kathleen Moore (c. 1794 – c. 1812 – 1899), also known as Catherine Moore, Kathleen A. Moore, Kathleen Andre Moore, Kate Moore, and Catherine A. Moore, was a lighthouse keeper.[1] She was employed by the United States Lighthouse Service, which was a precursor agency to the United States Coast Guard.[2][3][4]
Moore served at the Black Rock Harbor Light on Fayerweather Island in Long Island Sound for over half a century, beginning when she helped her father as a twelve-year-old. She is credited with saving 23 lives.[1][2]
According to Moore: "Sometimes there were more than two hundred sailing vessels at night, and some nights there were as many as three or four wrecks."[1] Moore's duties included keeping the light lit during stormy weather, and nursing shipwrecked sailors back to health.[1] She retired in 1878.[1] She died in 1899 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport.[1]
In 2010, the Coast Guard decided that all the new Sentinel-class cutters would be named after Coast Guard personnel who were recognized for heroism. Accordingly, Moore was one of those honored,[3] and the ninth cutter in the class was named the USCGC Kathleen Moore.[5] Built at Bollinger Shipyards, the cutter is homeported in Key West, Florida.[6] Bollinger delivered the vessel to the Coast Guard for pre-commissioning testing on March 28, 2014.[7]
A grave marker was dedicated to Moore at Mountain Grove Cemetery in 2014, shortly before the commissioning of the ship in her name. The gravestone, provided by Bollinger Shipyards, quotes John 8:12 and lists her name as "Kathleen A. Moore" and her birth year as "circa 1812".[8]