Women's History Month: Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Tori Barrett | Elizebeth Friedman and husband William later in life after years of valuable intelligence service for the nation. Friedman was a pioneering code-breaker for the Coast Guard during the prohibition era and World War II. (Photo courtesy of the National Cryptologic Museum)  

HONOLULU, HI, UNITED STATES

03.24.2021

Courtesy Story

U.S. Coast Guard District 14 Hawaii Pacific

In honor of women’s history month, the Coast Guard 14th District’s Women's Leadership Initiative chapter members took the time to write a number of profiles on pioneers who have led the way for women in the Coast Guard.

Today we hear about Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a trailblazing code-breaker in U.S. Coast Guard by Lt. Lydia Renfrow from Coast Guard Sector Honolulu.

Known as "America's first female cryptanalyst," Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a pioneering code-breaker for the Coast Guard during the prohibition era and World War II, and is considered the founder of the modern-day Coast Guard Intelligence Program.

Born in 1892, Elizebeth was the youngest of nine children. The special spelling of her name is attributed to her mother, who held a strong passion against Elizebeth ever being called "Eliza."

In 1915 she graduated college with a major in English literature. Her interest in cryptology began with trying to prove that Frances Bacon was the author of William Shakespeare’s plays. That theory relied on the idea that the plays were written in secret codes—and so began Friedman’s work as a code breaker. She married her husband William in 1917 and later had two children, Barbara and John.

Her work with the Coast Guard began soon after the passage of the Volstead Act, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or trade of alcohol in the United States. Liquor smugglers frequently used radios to coordinate their activities and began to encode their messages.

In 1924 the Federal Prohibition Bureau hired Friedman and detailed her for duty with the Coast Guard. Between 1927 and 1930, she is credited with solving over 12,000 smuggling messages in hundreds of different code systems. Her work led to 650 federal prosecutions and she testified in 33 cases. 

During World War II, Friedman broke the codes generated by the German Enigma machine, a cipher device used to protect military communication. She also exposed a ring of German spies in South America.

Over the course of the war, Friedman’s team from Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit 378 decoded thousands of messages. Her accomplishments were critical to Allied operational success in the war.

After years of government service, Friedman retired and published her book The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined. She passed away in October 1980 at the age of 88. In July 2020, the Coast Guard announced that it will name the eleventh ship in its Legend-Class National Security Cutter (NSC) program in her honor.

• Date Taken: 03.24.2021
• Date Posted: 03.24.2021 19:07
• Story ID: 392226
• Location: HONOLULU, HI, US