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256 THE MARINE REVIEW Capt. William Jackson, an Indian, and two dogs, took my departure from the Soo on snowshoes, by way of Mackinac and Saginaw, the only conveyance to be had in those days. Few of my readers ‘are in a position to realize. what hard- ships such a trip as this entails. After 31 days of continuous toil we succeeded in finishing our trip; no sleepers to ride in at that time. “In March of 1855 I took charge of the brig FREEMAN, belonging to the same owner, H. N. Gates. On the open- ing of navigation I loaded a cargo of coal and _ grindstones for Milwaukee after discharging loaded wheat at 26 cents per bushel for Ogdensburg. On delivering this wheat at Ogdensburg, I loaded a cargo of Scotch bloom iron at Prescott for Cleveland, after which went to Buffalo and loaded 7000 kegs of powder for Lake Superior, shipped by Niles & Kinney. Arrived at Sault Ste. Marie about the middle of June where I dicharged* some of the powder and where I succeeded in get- ting some charts of the Hudson Bay Fur Co. These charts were made by Lieutenant Bayfield, an Englishman, in 1825. “On June 18 went on up to the lock to .go through and found the schooner Forp, Capt. John Parker, in the lock bound down. When he came out of the lock, loaded with copper, I took it, bound up, the FREEMAN thus being the first sail vessel passing through the lock bound up. Two steamers had gone through before, being the ILLINOIS and Norru Srar. We set the fore top- sail and sailed on to Lake. Superior; calling at Marquette, I left 360 kegs of powder and proceeded on to Eagle river, where I landed more of my cargo and passed on to Ontonogan and fin- ished unloading my cargo of powder there. At Ontonogan I took in 152 tons of mass copper and 30 tons of stamp copper consigned to the smelting works at Detroit. After discharging this copper at Detroit, I went on over to Cleveland and took in part of a cargo of supplies at Hanna & Gar- rettson’s for Lake Superior points, com- prising Eagle river, Ontonogan and La Pointe. The First Ore Cargo “On returning to the Soo, took in 200 tons of iron ore. from Thomas McKnight’s dock, which was brought to the Soo from Marquette by the steamer NapoLeon, before the canal was open. . This was are first ore I ever knew of being brought from Lake Superior by sail. The date was, I believe, August, 1855. There were but very few tugs at that time on the lower rivers, hence we were forced to sail through. After landing this ore at Cleveland, I made a quick trip again to Lake Superior with only part of a load and returned immediately to Cleveland for part of a load and went over to Detroit, finish- ing out with lumber for the stamp mill at Ontonogan. “There being at this time no copper or iron ore at Marquette, I returned to Monroe (Lake Erie) and _ loaded flour and West India stores for Buffalo. My next cargo was made up at Buf- falo, Cleveland and Detroit for Ontono- gan and way ports. During this time the brig FREEMAN was sold to parties at Ontonogan, where I took her and discharged her cargo, taking in, for the return trip, 50 tons of mass copper and 8 tons barrel copper at $8.50 per ton freight. I took this to the Detroit Smelting Works in a few hours over three days, where, after discharging, I turned the vessel over to Capt. John Haloran on Nov. 11. Capt. George P. McKay went first mate. Starting a Perilous Voyage “Returning to Cleveland, I found my old schooner SkraAMAN all. loaded for Ontonogan and in trouble. She had no captain, no anchors and chains, part of her sails blown away and in a mess generally. She had started on her voy- age and had been forced to return in a disabled condition. Her captain and crew had refused to go out with her again. She had about a $4,000 freight in her and the underwriters had refused to take any risk on vessel or cargo. The owner of the vessel, H. N. Gates, and the owners of the cargo held a consultation and, at the time of my arrival, had decided to unload the ves- sel. Mr. Gates asked them if they would leave the cargo in her if I would take charge of the vessel. On his part, Mr. Gates said, if I would take charge ‘of the SkaAmANn he would take the risk on the vessel himself. The owners of the cargo consenting to this arrange- ment, Mr. Gates turned to me and said: ‘I insist on you going with the schooner SEAMAN.’ I answered him: ‘All right, I will go as far as I can with her.’ “IT procured new anchors and chains, but found a very hard task in securing a crew. Every sailor thought he would be frozen to death if he went on board of her. I succeeded at last in getting a crew and departed, arriving at the Soo about Nov. 20 and found the FreEMAN and Forp there, bound to Ontonogan. Captain McKay had been injured in getting through the lock and had to be carried ashore. We were wind- bound about three days, but finally got a fair wind. The’ Seaman had in 4000 kegs of powder and a_ heavy deck load of barrels. Our fair wind took us to Copper Harbor, where the FREEMAN and Forp went and did not come out again that year. The FreeEMAN struck a rock and sank in the harbor. “I hung outside and got a gale’ of wind fair and ran for Ontonogan. Arriving: off Ontonogan, I hove to and the storm abating stood in for the July, 1917 place. Found the steamers Oconrz and Nortu Star there and they could not land their freight. I could not get inside and the little schooner ALGONQUIN came out and took my deck load, which just about filled her up. At this junc- ture another snow storm burst upon us and I was forced to run for La Pointe for a harbor 90 miles. away and to my astonishment the ALconguin fol- lowed me instead of going into the harbor, which she could have done. The steamers scattered and left the balance of their cargoes at. Ba De Gris and left the lake for that season. I got into LaPointe on Friday night, but no ALGONQUIN showed up. (It snowed about 3 feet during that gale.) I had made up my mind that my deck load was gone. It was still snowing and everything frozen up and about 2 p. m. the ALGONQUIN came around the foot of Madeline island into the harbor. Lowering away a boat I pulled to her and found she had been hove to during the gale and had lost but one barrel. It had been so thick they could not find the place. — “After the weather abated we got under way and went on back to Ontono- gan. The Atconguin got in all right, but it was necessary for me to lighter more cargo before I could get over the bar. With another wild snow storm beginning to make, this was anything but a pleasant outlook and all we could do was to. lay to until it was over. With the thermometer 12 degrees below zero and the vessel loaded down with ice, I made the -attempt the moment the storm began to abate, first lower- ing away a boat after letting go an anchor, and pulling inside. The people begged me to run the vessel ashore, saying they were so short of provisions they must have my cargo. $25 per barrel and very little to be had. I said it was out of the question to purposely beach my vessel and if they did not try to assist me to get inside I would leave and not return there again that winter. It was then Dec. 7. Over the Bar “We pulled back to the vessel, sound- ing on the bar as we went. I found there was within 4 inches of water we were drawing and another snow storm brewing, determined to make a last effort to get inside—and kept off for the buoy I had dropped when we sounded out. The vessel went about half way over the bar, stopped and began to pound, but keeping all the sail on her that I could, she lifted over, went on over and into the river about 4:30 p. m. on Dec. 7. She fetched up in the ice and the next day we cut her alongside the dock with saws and be- gan to discharge the cargo in a whirling snow storm. “Determining to send the SrAMAN to Copper Harbor to get some of the Flour was. - ie