Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), July 1917, p. 255

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The Late Captain Andrews, Master of First Sailing Vessel to Pass Through Soo Canal, Had Written of His Experiences—Carrying Food to Starving Ontonogan Fla., a short time ago, of Capt. J. H. Andrews, the Great Lakes lost a navigator -who had been intimately associated with its commerce for more than half a century. Twenty years ago, at the age of 67, Captain Andrews moved to Florida. Until his death, how- ever, he maintained a close interest in lake affairs. Captain Andrews was the first man to make a complete trip from the lower lakes into Lake Superior. As_ master of the schooner FREEMAN, he_ passed through. the Soo. *canal:on July. 3, 1855, only 15 days after the first canal had been’ thrown open to commerce. He brought down the first cargo of iron ore. Late in one. season, he braved the dangers of a December storm on Lake Su- perior to carry winter supplies to the starving vil- lagers at Ontono- gan. After selling his vessel, he made the perilous trip on snowshoes’ through the trackless wilds of Wisconsin and Michigan. In THE MarRINE Review of June 16, 1904, Cap- tain Andrews re- counted a _ few “Knots from an Old Sailor’s Log bine? Sr com- menced sailing on the Great Lakes early in the forties, tobe ‘exact, 1843, beginning in the class of ves- sels that were in commission in those brigs, schooners and barques. Believing it will be of inter- est to some of the old-timers, who, if alive, will remem- ber them, I will give some of the of those most ig THE death at West Palm Beach, times, names early craft, of which are now but a I drifted about, memory. in my early sea- faring life, as sailors are wont to do, having sailed in the schooner CampriA, brig ALERT, schooner PHILENA Mitts, brig Scorr, brig Caratia, brig Opp FELLow, brig GLoBE, brig Mary oF CuHiIcaco, and was in this latter vessel, in 1849, the year of the big freshet in Chicago. “Some time later I went to the brig Boston, brig BANNER, brig JoHN IRwIN and barque Morcan. My first charge as master was the schooner FLyING DutTcHMAN, and in 1850 I witnessed THE LATE CAPT. J. H. ANDREWS, A Real Veteran of the Great Lakes, He Never Failed to Deliver a Cargo Which Was Consigned to His Care 255 the burning of the steamer GriFFITH on Lake Erie. “In 1853 I took charge of the schooner SEAMAN and was in the lower lake trade most of that year, carrying, however, one cargo of powder to Sault Ste. Marie, consigned to Spaulding & Childs. In 1854 I carried one cargo of powder to the Soo in June and also one cargo of stone for the locks. I left Port Colborne on Nov. 23 with a cargo of powder, bound for Sault Ste. Marie and arrived there on Dec. 2; was in company with the schooner. GRAND Turk, which went ashore at Presque Isle. She was the only vessel we saw on .Lake Huron and we were the only vessels that got through Lake Huron after Nov. 25.08 = that.’year, We finished dis- charging our cargo on the morning of. Dec. 44> tire thermometer stand- ing at 11 degrees below zero and I got under way for Cleveland, but suc- ceeded in getting only as far as the foot of Lake George, where, in one night, the ves- sel froze fast in 6 inches of solid ice. I concluded to strip the vessel, and, leaving one man on board, took the rest of the crew, and, crossing Sugar island to Hay lake, went back to the Soo. I made sev- eral trips to the frozen-up vessel that winter before I left for Cleve- land, using snow- shoes. “Deeming it in- expedient to re- main at the Soo all winter, I fitted out for a ‘snowshoe voyage’ to Cleve- land, and on Jan. 17, 1855, in- com- pany with my mate,

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