I remain fascinated by the fluidity with which men and women have flowed across the international border that “divides” the Great Lakes. This story is about an Irishman who served in the Royal Navy (whether voluntarily or not remains to be discovered), leaving a young family behind, emigrated to the… Read more“Oliver Grace and the Sloop Mary Ann”
Author: walter
Detroit’s first dry dock
While the history of the Detroit Dry Dock Company, and to a lesser degree, Clark’s dry dock are reasonably well documented, the first dry dock on the Detroit River is rather more obscure. Most historical accounts do little more than acknowledge that at some point in the early 1850s (the… Read more“Detroit’s first dry dock”
Sailing Vessels on the Great Lakes
Question: What year saw the largest number of commercial sailing vessels on the Great Lakes? I found myself asking this question a couple of years ago, when I was working on an article that ended up being published in The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord last year. [Note: There is… Read more“Sailing Vessels on the Great Lakes”