Dr. Thiesen serves as Atlantic Area Historian for the U.S. Coast Guard. Prior to working for the Coast Guard, he taught history at the undergraduate and graduate levels and served as curator and assistant director for five years at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, the largest maritime museum on the Great Lakes. Dr. Thiesen earned a master’s degree from East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime History, with a concentration in naval history, and a Ph.D. in University of Delaware’s Hagley Program in the History of Industrialization and Technology, with a specialization in maritime industries and technology. His articles and reviews have appeared in numerous naval and maritime journals, including Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, Naval History Magazine, Naval War College Review, International Journal of Maritime History, The Mariner’s Mirror, Sea History Magazine, Nautical Research Journal, The American Neptune, and the Journal of Maritime Research. His books include Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820-1920 and Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860. Thiesen’s Coast Guard-history series, “The Long Blue Line,” is featured weekly on the Coast Guard Compass website.
