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Monday, March 9, 2009

OT: FIrst female sea captain dies at 93

Daily Press (Hampton Roads, VA) reported yesterday that Molly K. Carney has died, at the age of 93.

As Molly Kool, she was the first woman in North America to become a licensed ship captain.

Molly Kool, although she died in Bangor, Maine, was born and raised in Canada. She won her captain's papers in 1939 and sailed the Atlantic Ocean between Alma, New Brunswick, Canada and Boston for five years.

(In other words, thanks to the World War which sucked men out of the work force, women were given their opportunity to shine..)

Her father was a Dutch ship captain, and she was 23 when she got her own papers. She sailed her father's 70 foot boat in the "dangerous waters of the Bay of Fundy).

In 1944 she married and left New Brunswick for Maine. Her first husband died after 20 years of marriage, she then married John CArney.

She appeared on an episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not.

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