Ship History Radio

SSHSA Education Director Aimee Bachari sat down with 91-year-old RET USCG Captain Joe Wubbold in Essex, Connecticut at the Steamship Historical Society's 90th anniversary celebration in November 2025. Captain Joe served in the US Coast Guard on active duty for 34 years, commanding a series of six ships, the last one being an icebreaker. He was Chief of Operations for the 13th Coast Guard District...

Captain Joe served in the US Coast Guard on active duty for 34 years, commanding a series of six ships, the last one being an icebreaker. He was Chief of Operations for the 13th Coast Guard District in the Pacific Northwest, which included oversight of all aids to navigation. His last assignment was Chief of Ice Operations in the Arctic, Antarctic, and the American Great Lakes. After he retired, C...

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for a chat with Curator Jordan Berson about the fascinating Elmo N. Pickerill Collection at the Steamship Historical Society of America. Elmo Neale Pickerill served as Chief Radio Operator aboard the world’s biggest ocean liner SS LEVIATHAN for most of the ship’s career. Pickerill had already made a name for himself in the fields of aviation and wireless radio...

On September 12, 1942, U-156 commander Werner Hartenstein torpedoed the RMS Laconia , a former Cunard White Star liner that was converted into a troopship during the war. On board that day, traveling from South Africa to England, were 1,500 Italian prisoners of war, military personnel, and women and children. After the attack, and realizing there were German allies and women and children on board,...

Join SSHSA Education Director Aimee Bachari and the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes Archivist Mark Sprang to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the EDMUND FITZGERALD. The two discuss what makes this shipwreck so popular, the changes that came about after, and the material related to "Big Fitz" that you can find in Mark's archive and collections at Bowling Green State Unive...

"It would be impossible for any cyclone to create a storm wave which could materially injure the city." Meteorologist Dr. Isaac Cline, 1891. Founded in 1839 on Galveston Island, the City of Galveston was a thriving seaport community. In 1899, Galveston was the biggest cotton port in the country, and the third busiest overall. Forty-five steamship lines served the city, among them the White Star Li...

Howard Middleton served as the first Black Port Commissioner in Houston from 1978 to 1996. He was a former Manpower programs director and labor executive when he was appointed to the Port of Houston Authority’s Port Commission. Middleton played a crucial role in the development of the Houston Foreign Trade Zone and was instrumental in the appointment of the Port’s first Black ship pilot, Paul Brow...

Continuing on from Episode 19, today, you will hear from Captain William Robb who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and went to sea at 16. He served in the Merchant Navy for the United Kingdom during World War II. After the war, he married and came to the US to live and work in 1949. He had heard that the Port of Houston was seeking stevedoring superintendents, and he and his wife relocated to Texa...

In honor of Black History Month, Education Director Aimee Bachari will be discussing race and labor on the Houston Ship Channel with Jason Theriot. Jason is an independent professional historian and consultant based in Houston, TX who specializes in historical research and writing services, focusing on energy, environment, business, and culture along the Gulf Coast. Jason and Aimee both received t...

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for a horror-filled interview with Daniel F. Harrington, who recounts the gruesome tragedy of the Larchmont Disaster. On February 11, 1907, in one of New England's worst maritime tragedies, the Larchmont sank in icy waters off Watch Hill after a collision with the three-masted schooner Harry Knowlton. A former East Providence City Council Member, Harrington be...

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for Part II of a discussion on Japanese immigration to Hawai'i by steamship and the practice of picture brides with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of History and Ethnic Studies Dr. Kelli Nakamura. In this episode, you'll learn about women's work on the plantation and the "double day." Dr. Nakamura also talks about domestic violence and racism in the...

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for Part I of a discussion on Japanese immigration to Hawai'i by steamship and the practice of picture brides with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of History and Ethnic Studies Dr. Kelli Nakamura. In this episode, you'll learn about how the American Civil War and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 fueled a need for sugar plantation workers in Hawai'i....

On May 7, 1915, Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania was struck by a torpedo from the German U-20 and sank in just 18 minutes off the south coast of Ireland. She was returning to Liverpool from New York with 1,959 passengers. Of those on board, only 761 survived. 1,198 people drowned including 128 U.S. citizens. Learn about the ship and why this event was pivotal to the course of World War I in our latest...

Learn about the role of lighthouses in maritime navigation and communication and how and why women held the federal position of lighthouse keepers in the nineteenth century. You will hear about Rhode Island's Ida Lewis, who is the most famous lighthouse keeper in the United States and how nineteenth century gender norms affected the way in which she was represented in the media with her position i...

Join us for a conversation with Paul Klee, who took the student ship the SS Groote Beer to Europe when he was just 17 years old. Hear about the last days of travel from point to point and what it was like being a teenager on a ship surrounded by peers. You can learn more about this topic at shiphistory.org/ships . To learn more about our organization, visit sshsa.org .

On this episode, you’ll hear a presentation that Archivist Astrid Drew gave to the World Ship Society’s Port of New York Branch back in May, where she discussed the Vincent M. Love Collection currently on loan to SSHSA. Follow along with Astrid’s presentation or dive deeper into this remarkable collection by visiting www.shiphistory.org/love-collection .

Join Archivist Astrid Drew and Assistant Archivists Heather Kisilywicz and Tessa Mediano as they discuss the challenges of preserving and interpreting three unique scrapbooks in the SSHSA collections.

Join us for a chat with Doug Tilden, former VP of United States Lines, South America, and later CEO of Marine Terminals. Doug spent the last five decades in the shipping industry, working his way up from being a dock clerk to serving as the top executive within a Global Fortune 100 corporation. Part II discusses cost reduction in ocean shipping and the evolution of container ships. Learn more abou...

Join us for a chat with Doug Tilden, former VP of United States Lines, South America, and later CEO of Marine Terminals. Doug spent the last five decades in the shipping industry, working his way up from being a dock clerk to serving as the top executive within a Global Fortune 100 corporation. In Part I of this series, you will learn about the move from breakbulk cargo to the rise of containeriza...

Join us for a conversation with Brigitte Bentele about her experience immigrating to America from Germany in the 1950s on board the SS United States. This interview was conducted for our program SHIPS (Ships, History, Influence, and Power Series). You can learn more about this program, see videos and other primary sources at shiphistory.org/ships .

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for a chat with Captain Richard Bowen. Learn about his maritime career including being Captain of the Knorr that found the wreck of the Titanic in 1985 on a joint French–American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Join Archivist Astrid Drew and assistant archivists Heather Kisilywicz and Tessa Mediano for a discussion about some of the wonderful collections that make up SSHSA. Find out about the challenges they face in managing an archive that comprises hundreds of thousands of photographs, plans, brochures, books and artifacts.

Join us for a chat with Jane Lyons, who discusses what it was like traveling as a member of a diplomatic family and how they chose to keep busy on long voyages. Visit https://shiphistory.org/ships-transport/ to see images from Jane Lyons' personal collection. This interview was conducted for SHIPS (Ships, History, Influence, and Power Series) thanks to a generous donation by Ted Scull. Learn more...

Join us for a chat with PowerShips contributor Eric Pearson about the challenges faced by the Merchant Marine in World War II. Not a PowerShips subscriber? Email info@sshsa.org to request a free sample copy today!

The Steamship Historical Society's archives and education department teamed up with Christina D'Amico, a genealogist, to create this informative episode for Rhody Radio. Learn about tips and tricks and some free resources to start on your genealogy journey. You can visit https://shiphistory.org/themes/immigration/ to access our research guide.