Ships of the Sea Podcast host Molly Taylor interviews Lynn Brennan retired assistant port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Savannah, about her 33-year career and the port’s growth to nearly 6 million TEU.

Brennan explains CBP’s seaport responsibilities, working with importers, exporters, terminal operators, and enforcing rules for about 40 agencies, plus using technology and trusted-shipper programs to target high-risk cargo. She shares seizure stories involving counterfeit luxury goods and pharmaceuticals, dangerous consumer products (hoverboards, Aqua Dots), narcotics hidden in tuna cans, cement mixers, and wood, smuggled gold coins, endangered-species items like a tortoiseshell-inlaid piano, and a 1999 case of 132 smuggled Chinese immigrants.

Brennan outlines CBP career paths, CBP’s origins in 1789, the Savannah Custom House history, and her post-retirement volunteering and maritime networking through the Propeller Club and SERAC.

The Ships of the Sea podcast is recorded on location at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, housed in the historic William Scarbrough House, an elegant example of early Greek Revival architecture in the South. Built in 1819 for William Scarbrough, a prominent shipping merchant and the first president of the Savannah Steamship Company, the museum showcases a remarkable collection of ship models, paintings, and maritime antiques. In addition to its exquisite interior, the museum features the largest private gardens within Savannah’s historic district, designed to reflect a typical 19th-century parlor garden.

CONNECT WITH US:

Learn more about The Savannah Pilots Associations

A look inside Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

Museum EVENTS

Education and Group Programs

Meet the Production Team Dee Daniels Media

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Welcome to Ships of the Sea

00:20 Meet Lynn Brennan

01:21 From Import Specialist Up

02:55 College and Career Pivot

05:06 What Port Directors Do

07:26 Inside Cargo Exams

08:10 Wild Seizure Stories

12:51 Stress and Mission Shift

13:44 Careers Across CBP

16:04 Tariffs and Classification

18:06 Customs History 1789

22:25 Tech and Trusted Trade

24:28 Supply Chain Trust

24:53 Human Smuggling Bust

26:53 Creative Drug Concealment

29:18 Endangered Piano Seizure

31:40 Savannah Customs House History

34:48 Tours and Modern CBP

36:51 Careers and Entry Paths

39:40 Life After Retirement

40:26 SERAC and Relationships

42:43 Museum Support Outro

Ships of the Seas podcast Host Molly Taylor interviews maritime archaeologist and Georgia Southern University history teacher Kurt Knoerl, who is moving to the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater to teach public, digital, maritime history.

Knoerl explains maritime archaeology as studying water-related sites—shipwrecks, wharves, shoreline and inundated sites—and describes student fieldwork in Savannah using mapping, GIS, and recording methods. He recounts entering the field after an archaeology elective, attending a Savannah conference, getting scuba certified, and studying at East Carolina University; he notes career paths via CRM firms and agencies like NOAA.

He emphasizes researching before diving, documenting sites before removal, and the high costs and risks of artifact conservation. Knoerl discusses his online Museum of Underwater Archaeology, salvage law and ethical concerns (including war graves and Titanic), permitting challenges, interest in Civil War wrecks like CSS Savannah, AI limitations in research, and sea-level rise threats to coastal heritage.

The Ships of the Sea podcast is recorded on location at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, housed in the historic William Scarbrough House, an elegant example of early Greek Revival architecture in the South. Built in 1819 for William Scarbrough, a prominent shipping merchant and the first president of the Savannah Steamship Company, the museum showcases a remarkable collection of ship models, paintings, and maritime antiques. In addition to its exquisite interior, the museum features the largest private gardens within Savannah’s historic district, designed to reflect a typical 19th-century parlor garden.

CONNECT WITH US:

Learn more about The Savannah Pilots Associations

A look inside Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

Museum EVENTS

Education and Group Programs

Meet the Production Team Dee Daniels Media

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:51 What Maritime Archaeologists Do

01:37 Teaching In The Field

03:49 Finding The Career Path

04:55 Diving Requirements

06:46 Degrees And CRM Work

07:57 Favorite Finds And Sites

09:41 How Wrecks Are Documented

11:35 Conservation Costs And Risks

12:13 Museum Of Underwater Archaeology

14:33 Ownership Salvage And Laws

15:54 Shipwreck Ownership Battles

16:34 Titanic Museums Debate

17:51 Profit Versus Preservation

19:00 Wrecks as Gravesites

20:08 Why Context Matters

20:55 Maritime Archaeology Careers

22:03 Teaching Fieldwork Logistics

23:08 Sharing Finds With Public

24:31 Dream Savannah Wrecks

26:25 Advice for New Archaeologists

27:38 Technology and AI Challenges

30:54 Future Threat Sea Levels

31:38 Closing Thanks

Ships of the Sea Podcast host Molly Taylor interviews Trey Thompson, Master Pilot and President of the Savannah Pilots Association, about what harbor/river pilots do and how Savannah’s 20 pilots guide ships in and out of the Port of Savannah along a 35-mile channel using helm orders, buoys, and range markers.

Thompson describes training and licensing, the week-on/week-off schedule, dispatching and coordination with tugboats, docking pilots, and ship crews, and the growing use of larger container ships despite fewer ship calls. He emphasizes that the most dangerous part is boarding via Jacob’s ladder, recounting incidents including a ladder breaking and a serious injury from a heaving line, leading to helmet use.

They discuss simulations in Baltimore for larger ships and dredging studies, right whale regulations that reshaped pilot boats, the association’s 1864 formation, and plans to move the pilot base from Fort Pulaski to Lazaretto.

The Ships of the Sea podcast is recorded on location at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, housed in the historic William Scarbrough House, an elegant example of early Greek Revival architecture in the South. Built in 1819 for William Scarbrough, a prominent shipping merchant and the first president of the Savannah Steamship Company, the museum showcases a remarkable collection of ship models, paintings, and maritime antiques. In addition to its exquisite interior, the museum features the largest private gardens within Savannah’s historic district, designed to reflect a typical 19th-century parlor garden.

CONNECT WITH US:

Learn more about The Savannah Pilots Associations

A look inside Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

Museum EVENTS

Education and Group Programs

Meet the Production Team Dee Daniels Media

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

00:52 What Harbor Pilots Do

01:48 Learning the Savannah River

03:04 Schedules and Pilot Boats

05:00 Boarding Dangers and Safety

07:23 Trey’s Path to Piloting

08:02 Training and Multitasking

09:33 Docking Pilots and Tug Coordination

10:59 Weather Traffic and Holiday Ops

12:25 Bigger Ships Simulators and Dredging

14:32 Leadership and Whale Regulations

15:24 Whale Encounters

15:53 Community Leadership Roles

16:25 Pilot Staffing Numbers

17:07 Apprentices and COVID

17:54 Captains and Conferences

18:47 Right Whale Boat Rules

19:28 Rough Runs to Ships

20:12 Savannah Pilots History

21:00 Master Pilot Selection

22:28 Moving to Lazaretto Base

23:49 Funding and Wake Concerns

25:25 Future Bigger Ships

26:46 Closing and Support