Beyond the Windswept Dunes

by Sherman, Elizabeth B.

• ISBN13: 9780814331279
• ISBN10: 0814331270
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr

Summary

The first book to document the maritime history of the port city Muskegon combining historical detail and good storytelling. Beyond the Windswept Dunes takes the reader into a world of maritime adventure as it was experienced by the sailors, passengers, rescue workers, shipping magnates, industrialists, and many other people whose livelihoods revolved around Michigan's port city of Muskegon. At one time the leading edge of westward expansion, Muskegon was a place where lumbering and lakers merged and where rails met decks, a place situated midway along the coast of a great and sometimes stormy inland sea. Here Elizabeth Sherman offers both a shipping history and a portrait of the city. The events covered range from the visit by the British sloop H.M.S. Felicity in 1779 through Muskegon's boom years as "Lumber Queen of the World, " and from the city's revitalization with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to its recent establishment of a floating museum complex for historic naval vessels. The books's focus is on the ships themselves--such as the Lyman M. Dav

Author Biography

Elizabeth B. Sherman is on the board of directors for the Great Lakes Maritime Institute, and is a member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Hewn from the Wilderness: Muskegon's Earliest Days	1	(6)
Trapper, Trader, Soldiers, Spy: The Visit by the HMS Felicity	4	(3)
Lumber Days on Muskegon's Waterfront	7	(46)
``Dreadful Endurance'': The Neptune and Other Early Shipwrecks of Muskegon	24	(3)
A Tragic Homecoming: The Wreck of the Granada	27	(1)
Safe in the Sand: The Trial and the Annie Nelson	28	(1)
Semper Paratus: The Muskegon Lifesaving Crew and the Wreck of the R. B. King	29	(3)
``So Terrible a Reality'': The Wrecks of the South Haven, the Helen, and the L. J. Conway	32	(6)
Legend and Mystery: The Fate of the Rouse Simmons and the Thomas Hume	38	(6)
``Frenchman, he don't lak to die'': The Wreck of the Waukesha	44	(4)
The Charmed Life of the Lyman M. Davis	48	(5)
Steamships and Car Ferries of Muskegon	53	(60)
Sailing Blind: The Wreck of the Wabash Valley	69	(1)
Lost to the Depths: The Wreck of the Alpena	70	(4)
A Steamer for All Seasons: The Alabama	74	(6)
Up Against the Big Guns: The Charles H. Hackley	80	(3)
``Carelessness Becomes a Mortgage to Danger'': The Wreck of the Steam Barge Milwaukee	83	(6)
Trials by Fire: The Naomi and the Nyack	89	(2)
``They Will Probably Send Me to Hell'': The Wreck of the Muskegon	91	(7)
Adrift in Changing Times: The Story of the Illinois and the Missouri	98	(3)
The ``Queen of the Great Lakes'': The Milwaukee Clipper	101	(3)
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: The Aquarama	104	(2)
``A Monster of Its Kind'': Muskegon's First Car Ferry	106	(2)
The Shenango Legacy: The Grand Trunk Car Ferries	108	(5)
Maritime Muskegon in the Twentieth Century	113	(38)
Bad Luck Comes in Threes: The Wreck of the Salvor	117	(7)
Psychic Intervention: The Wreck of Our Son	124	(2)
Breakwater Blues: The Wreck of the Henry W. Cort	126	(6)
Tragedy Averted: The Near-Wreck of the Fred W. Green	132	(1)
Coming Full Circle: The Highway 161LST 393	133	(3)
Laid-Up Lakers: Steel Strikes of the 1950s	136	(3)
Breakwater Blues Reprise: The Ordeal of the Makefjell	139	(4)
Museum Ships: The USS Silversides and the USCGC McLane	143	(3)
The Halcyon's Days in Muskegon: From Seaside to Scrapheap	146	(5)
Muskegon Today: New Ships and Old	151	(6)
Poem: The Good Captain	155	(2)
Appendix A: Angus Linklater/The Granada	157	(2)
Appendix B: Capt. J. D. Dunbar/The R. B. King	159	(2)
Appendix C: Frank Dulach/The Waukesha	161	(4)
Appendix D: Frank Dulach Reiterates	165	(2)
Appendix E: Toronto Evening Telegram/The Lyman M. Davis	167	(2)
Appendix F: Frank Blakefield/The Erie L. Hackley	169	(2)
Appendix G: ``Doc'' Ray Cooke/The Alabama	171	(4)
Appendix H: Guy E. Jones/The Naomi	175	(2)
Appendix I: Capt. Edward Miller/The Muskegon	177	(4)
Appendix J: Lyman Nedeau/The Salvor	181	(4)
Notes	185	(8)
Glossary	193	(4)
Bibliography	197	(10)
Index	207