The Great Lakes were America’s first superhighway before railroad lines and roads arrived in the late nineteenth century. This book tells the story of the ships and boats on which the United States, barely decades old, moved to the country’s middle and beyond, established a robust industrial base, and became a world power, despite enduring a bloody Civil War. The “five sisters,” as the Great Lakes came to be called, would connect America’s far-reaching regions in the century ahead, carrying streams of Irish, German, and Scandinavian settlers to new lives, as the young nation expanded west. Initially, schooner fleets delivered passengers and goods to settlements along the lakes, including Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, and returned east with grain, lumber, and iron ore. Steam-driven vessels, including the lavish “palace” passenger steamers, followed, along with those specially designed to carry coal, grain, and iron ore. The era also produced a flourishing shipbuilding industry and saw recreational boating advance. In text and photographs, this book tells the story of a bygone era, of mariners and Mackinaw Boats, schooners and steamboats, all helping to advance the young nation westward.

Take a trip on the Great Lakes with Sweetwater Sailors. This entertaining, historical and factual book brings you up close and personal with Great Lakes Merchant Mariners, both men and women, including the only American woman Captain of a large Great Lakes ore carrier. You'll have a first person perspective on the jobs they perform and what makes them continue working in a potentially dangerous profession, which keeps them away from home most of the year. Great Lakes merchant sailors provided photographs of their own experiences and collaborated with the author, Bob Ojala by sharing many interesting and funny stories of their years on the Great Lakes. If you're interested in the history of the Great Lakes, ships of all kinds, and women in atypical careers, will enjoy this book. The author spent four years in the U.S. Coast Guard, 17 years as a ship Surveyor with the American Bureau of Shipping, nearly 9 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has managed in his own business as a marine consultant for 30 years. Bob is still active in the marine industry. His father was a Merchant Mariner for 32 years, giving Bob the interest in the Maritime Industry, his hundreds of contacts with sailors, and his respect for their profession.

A personal account of forty years of sailing upon Lake Superior, this small volume develops in the reader a rich appreciation of the surrounding land, history and people of the "unsalted sea." The author focuses on several favorite anchorages and at each reawakens the spirits of people who preceded her on the shores or islands, seeking shelter, sustenance, or wealth. Prehistoric peoples pit Isle Royale as they mine native copper; Ojibway campfires flicker in the woods; French voyageurs steal past on their way to fur trading posts. But there are also luxury yachts riding anchor in safe harbors, ore boats looming out of the fog, fierce storms and tragic shipwrecks. All contribute to the lore of the great lake and make this book good reading for sailor and landlubber alike.

From the Native water monster who raised canoe-killing storms to thousand-foot cargo ships, sailing the Great Lakes has inspired autobiography, folksong, poetry, drama, and fiction about some of the most beautiful, most dangerous, waters in the world. In the words of those who lived them, here are stories o fdangers and triumphs, ghosts and mysteries, and darevevil risks and losses. White Squall is a history of the Great Lakes written by those who knew them best in all times and all weathers from the beginning to the present.

The author provides an account of his experiences as a crew member on a tall-masted schooner during a six-week voyage through the Great Lakes, and discusses his other explorations of the lakes, looking at their history, geology, and environmental disaster and rescue.