Our first Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (PSMHS) Sunday afternoon meeting at the new Maritime Event Center (MEC) at Bell Harbor Conference Center on Sunday, June 7 will highlight a Coast Guard heritage theme.  The program will feature Seattle Sector Commander Captain Suzanne Englebert, a display of current and past patrol boats, and a preview of a new Coast Guard historical exhibit developed by the Society.  The MEC is the former Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center at Pier 66.  

Captain Englebert, who will speak at 3 pm, is a 1984 Coast Guard Academy graduate and the first woman to be named Seattle Sector Commander and Captain of the Port.  Early in her career she served as a Deck Watch Officer aboard the 180 foot buoy tender Iris which operated off the coast of Oregon, commanded a Long Range Aids to Navigation Station in Okinawa, Japan and trained as a junior officer in Puget Sound to become a fully qualified Marine Inspector.  She has managed inspection and marine safety field programs off the coast of Maine and in the Upper Great Lakes.

Assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Captain Englebert’s work included developing national regulations for lifesaving safety standards, pollution prevention measures, and comprehensive maritime security requirements.  She has also commanded USCG missions in the Midwest including the 11-state region known as Sector Upper Mississippi River.  Prior to returning to Seattle she was the Chief of Prevention for the U.S. Coast Guard’s 7^th District, Miami, Florida. 

The historic Coast Guard patrol boats on display are scheduled to be the retired 1941 buoy tender Blueberry and 1944 patrol boat CG-83527 assigned to Tacoma for 17 years, and the 1962 former cutter Point Divide now owned by the Seattle Maritime Academy and renamed the Maritime Instructor.   Among the planned modern patrol boats on exhibit are the 25 foot Response Boat (Small) built by Safe Boats International of Port Orchard, new 45 RB (Medium) built by Kvichak Marine of Seattle, and perhaps an 87-foot Marine Protector class cutter.   The boats will be available for dockside viewing and some for boarding from 1 to 5 pm at the Bell Harbor Marina.  

Finally the event will also include a preview of a new temporary exhibit, installed on the MEC main gallery mezzanine, that showcases the “Coast Guard on Puget Sound.”  

 Tickets for the Tuscan Deli Buffet luncheon at 2 pm are $ 20 and include parking in the Bell Harbor parking garage just east of the Maritime Event Center.  Take the 5^th floor Skybridge across Alaska Way and then the elevator down to the street level and the MEC.