William H. Thiesen

Dr. Thiesen is the Atlantic-area historian for the U.S. Coast Guard and author of Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820–1920 and Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860 (University Press of Florida, 2009 and 2010, respectively).

Articles by William H. Thiesen

Eyewitness to the Battle of the Atlantic

By William H. Thiesen

February 2023

Lieutenant Commander Anton Fischer created a lasting archive of vivid you-are-there imagery that captures the drama of the World War II Atlantic.

Hell Roarin’ Mike

By William H. Thiesen

February 2023

The life and times of a Coast Guard legend—Captain Michael Healy, the rough-and-tumble tamer of the wild Alaskan frontier.

The Coast Guard’s Unintended Mission

By William H. Thiesen

August 2020

The history of how the Revenue Cutter Service took on a humanitarian lifesaving mission that eventually led to a U.S. Life-Saving Service and, later, the Coast Guard.

Busting Smugglers & Breaking Codes

By William H. Thiesen

February 2020

Before the war on drugs, there was the war on the rumrunners—and it kept the U.S. Coast Guard hopping throughout Prohibition.

Painting "Inspection of a Merchant Ship," by Gil Cohen, 1989

U.S. Revenue Cutter Operations in the Civil War

By William H. Thiesen

June 2019

From blockade enforcement to combat operations, the predecessor to the U.S. Coast Guard had its hands full in the War Between the States.

From Local Law Enforcer to Global Responder: 228 years of Coast Guard Transformation

By William H. Thiesen, PhD

August 2018

You can kick this old service around, tear it to pieces, scream from the house-tops that it is worthless, ought to be abolished or transferred to the Navy, have the ...

The Coast Guard's Great War Challenge

By William H. Thiesen

April 2018

World War I would prove the first true test of the modern Coast Guard’s military capability.

Coast Guardsmen from the cutter Escanaba come to the rescue of the torpedoed transport Dorchester’s survivors on 3 February 1943, as depicted by Robert Lavin

The Coast Guard's World War II Crucible

By William H. Thiesen

October 2016

Beginning even before America entered the great struggle, the U.S. Coast Guard proved its mettle, time and again, on the global stage.

The Coast Guard's Aerial Visionary

By William H. Thiesen

April 2016

A century and a half ago, a technological revolution began sweeping aside preindustrial machines, vehicles, and vessels made of wood and powered by wind or livestock. Iron and steel were ...

'A Few Armed Vessels, Judiciously Stationed'

By William H. Thiesen

August 2015

Today’s U.S. Coast Guard, the nation’s oldest continuous Sea Service, carries on an illustrious 225-year legacy.

Change Hastened by Conflict

By William H. Thiesen

February 2015

After making early moves toward racial equality, the Coast Guard lowered barriers to blacks in both the enlisted and officer ranks during World War II.

Saving Lives During America's Deadliest Disaster

By William H. Thiesen

November 2012

The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was the worst of the worst, but out of great tragedy arose even greater heroism.

William H. Thiesen

Articles by William H. Thiesen

Quicklinks

Receive the Newsletter