Molly K. Carney, known as Molly Kool was the first registered female sea captain, in North America. She died at her home at the age of 93 on Feb 25 2009.

She got her captain's license in 1939 and sailed the Atlantic Ocean between Alma, New Brunswick, and Boston for five years, according to her friend Ken Kelly. She would have been the Ist in the world, but was beaten by a few months by a Russian woman.

Brought up in the village of Alma New Brunswick, she learned a love of the sea and sailing from her father, a Dutch ship captain. At 21, she was the first woman to attend the Merchant Marine School in Saint John, New Brunswick and at 23, she made history by earning the title of captain, after the Canadian Shipping Act was rewritten to say "he/she" instead of just "he." 

She overcame superstitions and won the respect of her male sailors after she often sailed her father's 70-foot scow the Jean K in the dangerous waters of the Bay of Fundy. Recently, friends Mary Majka and Kelly joined in a fundraising effort to pay to move her ancestral home from Alma to a knoll in nearby Fundy National Park overlooking the bay.

Kool married Ray Blaisdell, of Bucksport, Maine, in 1944. He died 20 years later. She was remarried in the 60s to businessman John Carney, who bought her a boat, which he called the Molly Kool.

In her final years, she lived in a retirement community in Bangor, where there was a lighthouse and a captain's wheel in the hallway outside her room. Residents called her Captain Molly.

Kool also was famous in the U.S., and appeared on an episode of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!".

She is survived by a sister, one of four siblings. A memorial service is planned in March in Bangor. Her ashes were returned to New Brunswick, where her wish of being returned to the sea was honoured.