Molly Kool: The First Woman to Become a Sea Captain
On the dangerous waters of the Bay of Fundy, North America’s first female sea captain shattered gender barriers by commanding a ship (and people’s respect) at just 23 years old.
Born in Alma, New Brunswick, in 1916 to Dutch sea captain Paul Kool and Myrtle Anderson Kool, Molly grew up aboard her father’s cargo scow, the Jean K. Childhood meant hauling cargo, reading weather and learning the rhythms of dangerous water rather than watching safely from shore.
When Molly Kool decided to follow in her father’s wellies, she applied to the Merchant Marine School in Saint John and was rejected. Kool refused to accept the boundary placed before her, and she convinced officials that she was capable, becoming the only woman ever admitted.
At 21, she earned her mate’s certificate. At 23, in 1939, Kool achieved what no woman in North America had before: certification as a Master of a Cargo Steamship in the Home Trade, one of the highest levels of qualification in the industry.
Her telegram home carried five unforgettable words: “Call me Captain from now on.”
With her groundbreaking sea captain certification complete, her father soon retired, handing command of the Jean K. to his daughter. Kool captained the vessel for the next five years, navigating the Bay of Fundy’s notorious tides while hauling cargo along the East Coast as far south as Boston.
Her career was marked by danger: collisions, shipwrecks, a gasoline explosion and men in the industry who did not want her there. Some crew members resisted taking orders from a woman, but her skill had a way of settling arguments. The one time it didn’t, she punched a foreign captain in the jaw when he blocked her from her captain’s seat. He quickly ceded it.
Still, she returned to the water, again and again. Through leadership, endurance and calm decision-making in crises, Kool earned the men’s respect.
Captain Kool’s lack of acceptance of the status quo helped forge a path for women as the pronoun ‘she’ had to be included in the Canadian Shipping Act. This literally rewrote the rules, allowing women to be legally recognized as captains from then on.
Despite international attention including an appearance on Ripley’s Believe It or Not! radio program, Kool remained modest, saying she only did what she had to do. After retiring from the sea, she moved to Maine, where she lived until her death in 2009.
Her story remains anchored to the place where it began. Her ashes were scattered over the Bay of Fundy near her birthplace, returning her to the waters that defined her life.
The Albert Country Museum has a Captain Molly Kool display in their People of the Tides exhibit. And 2.2 kilometres from the family’s original property in Alma, Kool’s childhood home was relocated and rebuilt in Fundy National Park. It operates as the Molly Kool Heritage Centre, run by the Friends of Fundy, to celebrate her life and legacy.
The Friends of Fundy hope the Centre will inspire visitors to live with the same determination and show the same ingenuity as this local icon and trailblazer. (And it did inspire, as it was here that I learned about Molly Kool on a recent press trip to New Brunswick in February 2026.)
A decade after her death, Canada honoured her legacy. In 2019, the Canadian Coast Guard welcomed the CCGS Captain Molly Kool icebreaker into its fleet. They called her “a courageous and fearless mariner” and a pioneer who “stepped outside the constraints of traditional gender roles, and broke down barriers helping female mariners move … into the mainstream.”
Today, as women’s ability to lead effectively is somehow still questioned, Molly Kool’s story feels less historical and more urgent. She did not wait for acceptance; she proved her belonging through competence, grit, a mean right hook and persistence.
Captain Molly Kool broke glass ceilings in the ‘chilly’ halls of the Merchant Marine School, and through the pronoun change in the Canadian Shipping Act. It is fitting that her namesake ship is now breaking literal ice barriers of up to one metre out of the Canadian Coast Guard Atlantic Region Headquarters in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
And not just because her name sounds like a fictional superhero, Captain Kool is the trailblazer and cultural icon we deserve on International Women’s Day. Molly Kool reminds us that women belong at the helm of both literal and figurative ships—and that progress often begins when someone refuses to step aside.
As you celebrate the women in your life, send this article to a courageous woman who is charting her own course!
