True Tales of the Great Lakes

by Dwight Boyer

Here is another of Dwight Boyer's books on the world's largest inland seas. His painstaking research has uncovered many long-forgotten adventures and tragedies of freshwater ships and sailors. He offers new material on the dramatic events that took place on each of the lakes during the terrible storm of 1913, a four-day weather convulsion in which twelve ships and their crews vanished forever, and approximately 300 sailors perished. Here too is the tragic story and the bitter aftermath of the capsizing of the excursion steamer Eastland, which sank in the Chicago River in 1915 with a loss of 835 lives. In a lighter vein there is the tragicomedy involving the City of Dresden, which had to jettison 500 kegs and 1,000 cases of whiskey to the delight of the farmers of Long Point on Lake Erie.This memorable collection contains many more authentic stories of ships, people and happenings. They run the gamut from sacrifice and superb bravery to carelessness, poor judgement, wanton disregard for human life, and often just plain bad luck.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

340 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1960

Reviews

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat repetitive and oddly long-winded in places but this is a book of Great Lakes nautical tales, including plenty of shipwrecks. In fact, shipwrecks and founderings are the majority of the tales. All of them, maybe. The tales cover a span of time from the latter 1800s to the early 1900s, with a focus on the turn of the century and a particular focus on the great storm of 1913.

I quite enjoyed this book and thought it made for excellent reading. The author’s workmanlike prose conveys the mood and character of each tale, and I really got a sense of the people, forces, and contexts at work.

One of the tales was quite long after the disaster because it became somewhat of a legal drama, one was much like another in substance and even season (well, duh), and there was one phrase about mourning First Nations women that was objectionable ('but 1960 was a different time', I hear in my mind).

Overall, a fine piece of work. Truly, this book contains some choice tales from the Great Lakes. If you like nautical tales, or the Great Lakes, or history then this is a book you’ll enjoy.

[Linn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book describes the boats, people associated with the boats, the stories that led to their demise. It was well done, although at times dry.