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      Launched in 1862, the scow-schooner SARAH CLOW was no backyard sailboat - she was a significant vessel of 192 tons. The SARAH CLOW was driven ashore and destroyed by a storm in the fall of 1869. Thanks to Brendon Baillod for providing some of the information used in these notes. …

      This is the only instance I know of of a vessel being so totally destroyed by the action of escaping air as she sank. The fact later brought about accusations that THORNTON was totally unseaworthy at the time of her loss. She was 274 gt, built by Bidwell & Banta …

      Note this vessel's unusual engine arrangement, with two compound engines running a single shaft.

      Campbell, Owen & Co. later became the Detroit Dry Dock Co., one of the most prolific and innovative shipbuilders on the lakes. The vessel on the drawing board in the article probably came out as the double deck passenger freighter GORDON CAMPBELL the next year. S. R Kirby, who had …

      THREE MEN LOST FROM A VESSEL. - The schooner Geo. F. Foster , of Chicago , Henry Smith , master, and bound from Chicago to

    THREE MEN LOST FROM A VESSEL. - The schooner Geo. F. Foster , of Chicago , Henry Smith , master, and bound from Chicago to

Maritime History of the Great Lakes

      NOT LOST. - Charles Peterson and John Lynch , the sailors of the schooner Geo. F. Foster , who were supposed to have been drowned on Thursday ...

      The SHIAWASEE reportedly also survived the ordeal. She was a brand-new barge, out on her first or second trip, while the WARD was a former steamer and barkantine.

      Column 7 The hull converted to a drydock at Bay City, Michigan, (not Saginaw) on the Saginaw River, was the PLYMOUTH ROCK's sister WESTERN WORLD. The Saginaw River dock was used into the 20th Century, and remnants of it are still visible. Articles on the 1854 launches are at this …

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      There are also instances of hull breaches being plugged by boulders and blocks of ice, but this is the only report of a fish saving a Great Lakes vessel of which I am aware.

      KINGSTON ITEMS. - The News says that the propeller Bristol , from Lake Huron shores, arrived on Saturday ...

      SEAGULL's interesting career did not end there. She was sold to Americans in 1869 (US#23526) and plied in relative peace until being heavily damaged in a stranding at Sand Beach, Michigan, in 1888. She was rebuilt to a small propeller after that, but caught fire at the lumber dock at …

      LAUNCH OF THE NEW PROPELLER A. C. VAN RAALTE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON - We witnessed the launch yesterday afternoon of a new and handsome little propeller of 200 tons burthen, at the yard of Messrs. Hitchcock & Gibson, foot of Erie street. Promptly at 3 o'clock, the hour announced ...

      BUFFALO HARBOR - A survey is now in progress, preliminary to the commencement of work upon the improvement of Buffalo harbor, which, if fully carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the engineer in charge, will give that city one of the most magnificent harbors on the ...

      A CRAFT OF OLDEN TIME. - An account is given in the Milwaukee Sentinel of the loss of the schooner Gazelle, of Sheboygan, which in some particulars is incorrect or the early marine records must be slightly astray. The Gazelle was built at Maumee in 1846, and not 1832, and …

      This is something you didn't see very often in the old newspapers - a correction. Or is it? In the first article [17 Oct 1867], the marine reporter obviously had some trepidation about challenging the story from another paper. Insurance underwriters' lists probably didn't show the 1832 Gazelle (1864 list …

      This is an especially exciting account of a wreck which occurred on Lake Ontario. Of particular interest is the list of volunteer professional seamen who went to the wreck to rescue their fellow sailors. Thanks to Dick Palmer for letting me step into his journalistic bailiwick with this article.

      EXILE was built in 1867 at Huron (or Milan) OH. She was a good-sized schooner: 152 feet keel by 30 feet beam, by 11 feet depth of hold. She lasted a long time, being wrecked in a storm in 1916. The Chocolay River mouth is a few miles southeast of …

      With your indulgence, I have made the punctuation of all of the abbreviated "first" names (eg W J Preston) uniform, leaving out the periods on all. Hall has the habit of doing it both ways. There's a limit to how accurate a transcription must be - it's the point at …

      TIDAL WAVE AT GRAND HAVEN - A tidal wave rushed up the Grand River from the lake on the 1st instant, raising the water about thirty inches in a few seconds. A large number of logs were swept from the boom of Messrs. Storr & Co., and Wyman & Burnell, …