Elisabeth Lansdale Du Val, Ship Wireless Operator

S.S. Howard, Merchants and Miners Transportation Co.

S.S. Howard, Merchants and Miners Transportation Co.

Elisabeth (sometimes spelled Elizabeth) Lansdale Du Val (Hobleman) (1893-1987) was a ship wireless telegraph operator in the early days of radio, serving on the S.S. Howard of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company line, in the employ of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.  At the time, she was the only woman serving aboard a ship as wireless operator.

She was the daughter of Edmund Brice Du Val of 2200 North Charles St., Baltimore, and was the great granddaughter of Justice Gabriel Duvall (1752-1844), who was named to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Madison and served from 1811-35.

She passed the Commerce Department examination for a first grade commercial license on September 27, 1917.  On December 4, she began service as wireless operator on the Howard between Baltimore and Jacksonville.  She had sole responsibility for the afternoon shift, and was on watch each night.  Even though approximately fifty women held licenses, Miss Du Val was apparently the only wireless operator serving aboard a ship.

The Commerce Department had received numerous inquiries from women desiring to become wireless operators.  The department advised them that because of housing conditions on shipboard, there was hardly any demand for women as radio operators.  Instead, the department advised them to study American Morse, since there was a great shortage of landline telegraph operators due to the war, and that Western Union was providing instruction and even paying while new operators learned the trade.

On February 19, 1918, she applied to the Secretary of the Navy for a commission and assignment to a war vessel.  According to press accounts, the Navy “took the application under advisement,” but it was apparently never granted.

She married H.A. Hobelman, a 1917 graduate of Johns Hopkins University, on June 14, 1922.  Interestingly, in 1911, young Hobelman had contributed an item to Popular Mechanics for reducing stress on an anchor chain.  Mrs. Hobelman died in Maryland in 1987 at the age of 94.

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