Joshua Appleby

As I was checking my favorite ship cams this morning, I was curious about the name of  a  ship that was anchored off Fort Lauderdale. It was the Joshua Appleby, a  United States Coast Guard Buoy Tender. Of course, the name Appleby caught my attention because we have ancestors from Rhode Island with that name. So...I checked Wikipedia and don't ya know, that's where Joshua was from. Here is his story and who knows, he is probably related to us.
Joshua Appleby (December 5, 1770—October 11, 1846) was an American lighthouse keeper remembered for having lost his life in the Great Havana Hurricane of 1846.
A native of Rhode Island, Joshua Appleby served as keeper of the Sand Key Light in the Florida Keys. On the day of the disaster, the hurricane began battering the lighthouse at ten in the morning and, eventually, all of Sand Key was submerged and the lighthouse destroyed by the gale forces of wind and tide. Appleby, his 51-year-old daughter Eliza, and his 11-year-old grandson Thomas were swept away to become additional victims of the hurricane which was calculated to have caused the deaths of at least 255 people.
In commemoration of the long-ago loss of Appleby, his family and the lighthouse, the United States Coast Guard  commissioned, on August 8, 1998, Joshua Appleby, a St. Petersburgh-based, 175 ft. Coastal Buoy Tender named in honor of the keeper.

And..for something totally delightful...watch this :o)