The most important shipping business journals published in the Great Lakes region prior to the Great Depression were the Marine Record (1878 – August 1902) and the Marine Review (March 1890-October 1935). When they merged in 1902, the result was published under the somewhat awkward banner “Marine Review and Marine… Read more“Digitizing the Marine Record and Marine Review”
Great Lakes Business Directories
R. L. Polk & Co.’s Marine Directory of the Great Lakes (1884-91) 1884 1888 Another volume has survived from 1891 Beeson’s Marine Directory (1888-1921) 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917… Read more“Great Lakes Business Directories”
Insurance Classification Registers
While many are familiar with Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and the products of some of the other major international classification societies, most of these organizations were not very active in classifying vessels on the Great Lakes. What follows are some of the regional organizations that were active on the Lakes… Read more“Insurance Classification Registers”
Official Ship Documentation: Canada
Original Ship Registers An abstract of ship information which includes most of the surviving ship registers in Canada can be found in the Naval Marine Archive’s Ships database. Most of the surviving manuscript registers were microfilmed at Library and Archives Canada and are available via the Héritage site of Canadiana.ca. A handful have… Read more“Official Ship Documentation: Canada”
Official Ship Documentation: United States
Enrolments from American Great Lakes ports are available on microfilm from the US National Archives. A thorough abstract of the enrolments can be found at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum hosted Gerald C. Metzler Great Lakes Vessel Database at http://www.greatlakesvessels.org. A set of transcriptions of some of the pre-1860 Great Lakes enrolments (including most… Read more“Official Ship Documentation: United States”
Towing on the first Welland Canal?
In the history of the Welland Canals, steam plays a major role after the appearance of the first propeller-driven vessel in 1841. Before that point, the use of steam is so marginal that it is almost entirely overlooked. Towing was a process that involved animals and people directing them. On… Read more“Towing on the first Welland Canal?”
The Chippawa (1825)
There has been very little comment on the Chippawa in Great Lakes histories. Perhaps the only exception is H. A. Musham who, in his generally excellent series of articles on Great Lakes steamboats, offered the following: “Another steamboat that went into service on Lake Erie this same year [1824] was… Read more“The Chippawa (1825)”
The Water Witch (1862)
Each year in the nineteenth century, the gales of November took their toll of the shipping on the Great Lakes. On 17 November 1863, the front page of the Detroit Free Press noted that President Lincoln and his cabinet were planning to make a brief appearance in Gettysburg where the… Read more“The Water Witch (1862)”
Captain Joseph Whitney
Captain Joseph Whitney American-born Captain Whitney was for over 15 years the best known steamboat captain on both sides on Lake Ontario. This followed eight years in command of schooners on the lake. Before that he had over a decade at sea, as a prisoner in Britain’s notorious Dartmoor… Read more“Captain Joseph Whitney”
200th Anniversary of the launch of steam on the Great Lakes
Because of an article I had written for FreshWater[1] twenty-five years ago I was approached by the Royal Canadian Mint for feedback on the design of a coin they were going to issue on the 175th anniversary of the launch of the Frontenac. There is a fisherman in the foreground who might… Read more“200th Anniversary of the launch of steam on the Great Lakes”