January 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 9. U S N N
House ceremony Nov. 22. “If Wright is fl ight, and Edison is light,
then Hopper is code,” Obama said of the innovator who he noted was a gutsy and col- orful woman who, when she joined the Navy was 15-pounds below military guidelines, yet attained a long and prosperous career. “While the women who pioneered soft-
ware were often overlooked the most presti- gious award for young computer scientists now bear her name,” he said, referring to the annual Grace Murray Hopper Award for Outstanding Young Computer Profession- als, established in 1971 by the Association for Computing Machinery. “From cell phones to [U.S.] Cyber
Capt. Grace Hopper, then head of the Navy
Programming Language Section of the Offi ce of the Chief of Naval Operations, discusses a phase of her work with a staff member in August 1976. (U.S. Navy photo by PH2 David C. MacLean/Released)
Computer Science Legend, Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, Posthumously Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
By April Grant, Navy Offi ce of Information WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, best known for her advancements in computer programming and data processing, was awarded the Pres- idential Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Barack Obama during a White
Command, we can thank Grace Hopper for opening programming to millions more peo- ple, helping to usher in the information age and profoundly shaping our digital world.” To accept the award on Hopper’s behalf
was her grand-niece Deborah Murray, who stood alongside the president as the citation was read, “As a child who loved disassem- bling alarm clocks Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper found her calling early. Known to- day as the “queen of code” Grace Hopper’s work helped make the coding language more practical and
accessible...Amazing Grace was committed to making the language of computer programming more universal. Today we honor her contributions to com- puter science and the sense of possibility she inspired for the generations of young people.”
Publisher's Note Continued from Page 4.
worry. It was also great to receive the news that MBB will be getting a special award for the Maine boat builders in August. My truck had an issue on my last run
south to cover from Freeport to Marblehead, MA. I was hearing a faint noise when on the North Shore of Massachusetts and this got progressively worse that evening on my way to the Portsmouth Public Library. The next morning I took her in to the GMC dealership in Portsmouth and went back to the hotel to await her diagnosis. My thought was a bear- ing and wondered how long I might be stuck in Portsmouth. All day I sat and reformatted a book on “Merchant Sailing Vessel from 1867-1887.” Just before 5 o’clock I called and was told they just brought her in and that they would let me know in the morning what they had found. When they called in the morning they said she was done and come get her. It was just a loose wheel. Not bad for just having turned over 370,000 miles. How far will this one go? I came home to fi nd an e-mail request-
ing information on a photograph, which was of a three-masted schooner under sail. In Capt. LaCain Smith’s book “Maritime History of Brooksville,” the caption reads “Schooner BALTIMORE under Captain Warren Hutchinson around 1875.” Under BALTIMORE on the previous page he says, “Schooner possibly built at Searsport in 1833. In 1875, Warren Hutchinson sup- posedly ran her, though records show a ship of her name as being lost in 1841.” A quick search of the “Merchant Vessel Lists of the United States [MVUS] showed several schooners listed between 1867 and 1885, but neither of the BALTIMOREs suggested were not afl oat. The one from Searsport was gone and the one lost in 1841 was built at Prospect. I then went and copied all the entries I had for captains with the last name Hutchins, Hutchings or Hutchinson. Next I looked at all the vessels named BALTI-
The Presidential Medal of Freedom
is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or oth- er signifi cant public or private endeavors. Twenty-one recipients in total were honored Tuesday. “Today we celebrate extraordinary
Americans who have lifted our spirits, strengthened our union, pushed us towards progress. I always love doing this event but this is a particularly impressive class,” Obama said. Born in New York Dec. 9, 1906, Hop-
per attended Vassar College, graduating in 1928 with a degree in mathematics before receiving masters and doctorate degrees in mathematics and physics from Yale Univer- sity in 1934. In 1943, at the age of 37, she enlisted
in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emer- gency Service (WAVES) and the following year was commissioned and assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University as a lieutenant junior grade. There, she completed groundbreak- ing work in computer technology, including producing a model of the electronic com- puter, the Mark I, and introducing the word “bug” to describe a computer malfunction. Often referred to as the “mother of
MORE and discovered one hailed from Brooksville in the 1870s. Oh was that easy. She was 31 tons with a length of 53.5 feet and was built at Essex, MA in 1839. Since I only had documented her till 1885 I dug out all the MVUS till she disappeared from the registers, which was in 1902. I sent all the material I had found and got a reply saying isn’t that too small to be a three-master? Well yes it is, and if I had been paying attention I should have realized that. Back to the list of BALTIMOREs and found all were under 100 tons with the exception of one with a gross tonnage of 127.96, which hailed from Tremont in the late 1860s to 1870 and went to New York till 1875 when she was sold foreign. Could that be her? Then one wonders if the photograph is
mis-identifi ed. As you know I have transcribed a lot of
newspaper articles, mostly from the Bangor Whig & Courier, Democrat & Free Press (Rockland) and the Republican Journal (Belfast). So I looked through these that had been transcribed and BALTIMORE never came up. However, I did fi nd other vessels with the last name of either Hutchins or Hutchinson as their master. One problem is that I have not gotten very far in the Ells- worth American and that is the paper that covered Brooksville. So hopefully this week I have a chance to slip over to Ellsworth to read and see what I might fi nd in the Ship- ping News. One of the vessels I found in the
Shipping News was OLIVE CROSBY, a three-masted schooner of 296 tons, 117 feet in length and built at Castine in 1874. There was a Hutchinson as her master, but it was either Isaiah or Charles W., but could Warren also have been master? Capt. Doug Lee does not think this is the right schooner. He thinks the schooner in question is much newer. No matter how much I have got done, it
is not what I or someone else wants or needs. I think that is part of Murphy’s Law.
computing,” Hopper was instrumental in the creation of (Universal Automatic Comput- er) UNIVAC, the fi rst all-electronic digital computer. She also invented the fi rst com- puter compiler and founded a new program language that became a widely used frame- work for coding languages during the time. Hopper even forecasted the future of com- puters as being the compact, user-friendly systems they are today. Her achievements spanned a 43-year
naval career-earning her the rank of rear admiral in 1985, a level reached by few fe- males at the time, and adding her to the list of longest-serving offi cers-before offi cially retiring in 1989. She continued to work in the fi eld until her death Jan. 1, 1992. Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, deputy chief of
Naval Operations for Information Warfare, recalled meeting Hopper as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. “Knowing what she had accomplished and how much the Navy valued her was an inspiration to me.” Tighe, who has described Hopper as
a role model, added, “Quite simply, and on many levels, Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper is an inspiration for us all. As a pioneer in computing, as a woman leading the way in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fi eld at a time when that was almost completely unheard of, and as a dedicated naval offi cer, she paved the way so that all of us who followed could succeed. All of us in the Information War- fare Community owe her our gratitude. The
award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is both well-earned and well deserved!” In 1996, the destroyer USS Hopper
(DDG 70) was named in honor of the legend and in October the Naval Academy broke ground on Hopper Hall, which will house the academy’s Center for Cyber Studies. Her other awards and decorations
include the Distinguished Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, American Cam- paign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal and Naval Reserve Medal.
Power Savings: ONR Research Helps Navy Curb Kilowatts
By Warren Duffi e Jr., Offi ce of Naval Research Public Aff airs
ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) -- With Offi ce of Naval Research support, Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers have designed a portable measurement system to precisely and cheaply monitor the amount of electricity used by individual household appliances, lighting fi xtures, and electronic devices.
“Supporting research that targets key
military and national energy challenges is a vital component of ONR’s mission, which is to drive technology advancements,” said Dr. Richard Carlin, head of ONR’s Sea War- fare and Weapons Department. “Projects like this have the potential to address broad energy needs.”
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