My Family's NewCoast Guard Cutter

Dateline: 8 May 2014

Sumner Increase Kimball
1834—1923

Now the U.S. Coast Guard is naming a new ship after me. Well, sort of. 

National Security Cutter #7, to be christened Coast Guard Cutter Kimball, is actually being named after my ancestor, Sumner Increase, who pretty much founded the Coast Guard. You can read all about Sumner Increase At This Link. And you can read about the new ship at This Link.

How I came to know about this is kind of an amazing story... My half-brother, Christopher, just happens to work down in Alabama for the company that is building the ship. He e-mailed my Aunt Carolyn up in Maine, wondering if we might be related to this famous Kimball. Aunt Carolyn e-mailed 2nd cousin Reginald in Canada who knows the Kimball family history better than anyone. Reginald wrote…

"To answer your query, I checked my Kimball book. Sumner Increase Kimball's descent from Richard Kimball, the immigrant ancestor of 1634, goes like this:  Richard, Richard, Ephraim, Ezra, Richard, Nathaniel, Increase Sumner, the latter man being his father.  Your descent from that same Richard Kimball of 1634 is as follows:  Richard, Richard, John, Richard, Jacob, Asa, Richard, William, Jedidiah, Leverett, Herrick, Carolyn. 

Thus you can see that Sumner Increase Kimball and our William Kimball of N.B. were 5th cousins.  And you are a 5th cousin, 4 times removed, of that same famous Sumner."

I don't know if I'm a 5th cousin 5 times removed, or what. But the point is, Sumner and me is definitely kin. Do you see a resemblance?

Another interesting thing…. Sumner graduated from Bowdoin college in Maine (he started college when he was 16 years old). My grandfather, Dr. Herrick Kimball (who I am named after), and my father were both Bowdoin graduates too. Fact is, I was practically born at Bowdoin. My father was a student there in 1958, the year of my birth. I had some great times at Bowdoin, back in the day (though I don't remember them).

There was a time in my life when I dreamed of being a student at Bowdoin too. When I was in 7th grade I sent a letter to Bowdoin (no e-mail back then) requesting the school catalog. But that idea faded away before I graduated from high school. I wasn't smart enough, or focused enough, or rich enough to go to a school like that. And, in retrospect, it's just as well.

So that's the story of how I got a new ship named after me… sort of.

This is what 497 million tax dollars will buy.