Michael A. Healy

Michael A. Healy ( * September 22, 1839 near Macon, Georgia, † August 30 1904 in San Francisco) was an officer of the Revenue Cutter Service. According to him, the icebreaker USCGC Healy is named.

Life

Healy was born as one of 10 children of Irish -born plantation owner Michael Morris Healy and the black slave Eliza. At his school education, he showed little interest and hired in 1855 as a cabin boy on a merchant ship. In March 1865, he appeared as a Third Lieutenant in the service of the Revenue Cutter Service. In the same year he married Mary Jane Roach, who later often accompanied him on his travels. His first command of a ship, he received in 1877. In October 1882, he was involved as commander of the USRC Thomas Corwin on shelling the village of Angoon, whose inhabitants had previously taken two members of the Northwest Trading Company as hostages. In March 1883 he was promoted to Captain.

In February 1886 Healy took over command of the USRC Bear, which he held until 1895. " Hell Roaring Mike", as he was nicknamed, the waters sailed to Alaska and was equipped as government representatives, with far -reaching powers. He pursued smugglers, decided disputes at sea and in the sparsely populated coastal areas, came to the aid of ships in distress would, supplying remote villages with supplies. Between 1892 and 1895 he transported reindeer to Alaska, who served the people as a food source after the whale and seal populations were greatly diminished due to extensive hunting.

In June 1896 Healy was convicted in a court martial guilty bullied subordinates under the influence of alcohol and to have brought his ship in danger. He was subsequently suspended for four years without pay from the service. In 1900 he was again assume a command and led until his retirement in September 1903 several more ships. He died at the age of 64 of a heart attack.

His life is the subject of the documentary The Odyssey of Captain Healy (USA 1999).