Beyond the Windswept Dunes: The Story of Maritime Muskegon (Great Lakes Books Series)

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," 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 book’s focus is on the ships themselves—such as the Lyman M. Davis, Salvor, Highway 16, and Milwaukee Clipper—vessels that were noteworthy for being the first of their kind or for their popularity, unusual and distinctive careers, or tragic losses. A number of ships were lost in Lake Michigan near Muskegon Harbor, and the stories of some of the most notable wrecks and rescue missions appear in this book, including the psychic intervention that led the William Nelson to the exciting rescue of the crew aboard the sinking Our Son. The book offers many first-hand statements of shipwreck survivors and other witnesses, lending an authentic voice to the accounts. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Maps and Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments 1. Hewn from the Wilderness: Muskegon’s Earliest Days Trapper, Trader, Soldiers, Spy: The Visit by the HMS Felicity 2. Lumber Days on Muskegon’s Waterfront “Dreadful Endurance”: The Neptune and Other Early Shipwrecks of Muskegon A Tragic Homecoming: The Wreck of the Granada Safe in the Sand: The Trial and the Annie Nelson Semper Paratus: The Muskegon Lifesaving Crew and the Wreck of the R. B. King “So Terrible a Reality”: The Wrecks of the South Haven, the Helen, and the L. J. Conway Legend and Mystery: The Fate of the Rouse Simmons and the Thomas Hume “Frenchman, he don’t lak to die”: The Wreck of the Waukesha The Charmed Life of the Lyman M. Davis 3. Steamships and Car Ferries of Muskegon Sailing Blind: The Wreck of the Wabash Valley Lost to the Depths: The Wreck of the Alpena A Steamer for All Seasons: The Alabama Up Against the Big Guns: The Charles H. Hackley “Carelessness Becomes a Mortgage to Danger”: The Wreck of the Steam Barge Milwaukee Trials by Fire: The Naomi and the Nyack “They Will Probably Send Me to Hell”: The Wreck of the Muskegon Adrift in Changing Times: The Story of the Illinois and the Missouri The “Queen of the Great Lakes”: The Milwaukee Clipper All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: The Aquarama “A Monster of Its Kind”: Muskegon’s First Car Ferry The Shenango Legacy: The Grand Trunk Car Ferries 4. Maritime Muskegon in the Twentieth Century Bad Luck Comes in Threes: The Wreck of the Salvor Psychic Intervention: The Wreck of Our Son Breakwater Blues: The Wreck of the Henry W. Cort Tragedy Averted: The Near-Wreck of the Fred W. Green Coming Full Circle: The Highway 16 /LST 393 Laid-Up Lakers: Steel Strikes of the 1950s Breakwater Blues Reprise: The Ordeal of the Makefjell Museum Ships: The USS Silversides and the USCGC McLane The Halcyon’s Days in Muskegon: From Seaside to Scrapheap 5. Muskegon Today: New Ships and Old Poem: The Good Captain Appendix A: Angus Linklater/The Granada Appendix B: Capt. J. D. Dunbar/The R. B. King Appendix C: Frank Dulach/The Waukesha Appendix D: Frank Dulach Reiterates Appendix E: Toronto Evening Telegram/The Lyman M. Davis Appendix F: Frank Blakefield/The Erie L. Hackley Appendix G: “Doc” Ray Cooke/The Alabama Appendix H: Guy E. Jones/The Naomi Appendix I: Capt. Edward Miller/The Muskegon Appendix J: Lyman Nedeau/The Salvor Notes Glossary Bibliography Index Back_Cover