Kathleen Moore (born ; died 1899), also known as Catherine Moore, Kathleen A. Moore, Kathleen Andre Moore, Kate Moore, and Catherine A. Moore, was a lighthouse keeper. She was employed by the

United States Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of the ...

, which was a precursor agency to the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

. Moore served at the Black Rock Harbor Light on Fayerweather Island in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

for over half a century, beginning when she helped her father as a twelve-year-old. She is credited with saving 23 lives. 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." Moore's duties included keeping the light lit during stormy weather, and nursing shipwrecked sailors back to health. She retired in 1878. She died in 1899 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport.

Recognition

In 2010, the Coast Guard decided that all the new

Sentinel-class cutter The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as Fast Response Cutter due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At it is similar to, but larger than the lengthened 1980s-era s that it replaces. Up to 58 ves ...

s would be named after Coast Guard personnel who were recognized for heroism. Accordingly, Moore was one of those honored, and the ninth cutter in the class was named the . Built at

Bollinger Shipyards Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels. Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 to ...

, the cutter is homeported in

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Bollinger delivered the vessel to the Coast Guard for pre-commissioning testing on March 28, 2014. 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". Note that despite the year c. 1812 given on the headstone, the story lists her age as 84 in 1878, which would imply a birth year of 1793−94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Kathleen 1812 births 1899 deaths United States Lighthouse Service personnel Women lighthouse keepers Female United States Coast Guard personnel 19th-century American women Burials at Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport People from Bridgeport, Connecticut