Life on the Great Lakes: A Wheelsman's Story

By Fred Dutton

Book Overview

Fred Dutton's fascinating account captures the flavor of working on Great Lakes ships in the early twentieth century.

Fred Dutton's story tells of the time before the gyro when ships were steered by magnetic compass and men had to estimate the degree of error in navigational calculations. Dutton recounts the terror of ships meeting and passing in the fog and the subtleties of handling ships at the docks. Serving under many captains on a dozen and a half vessels, he spices his account with profiles of ships' officers and crew and with details of deckhand work.

Life on the Great Lakes provides a concentration of information that otherwise would need to be assembled in fragments from a hundred sources. Historians, folklore buffs, and ship lovers will discover details of vessel operation usually available only in the dialogue of a passing generation of very elderly sailors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814322611
• ISBN13: 9780814322611
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Wheelsman's Story

This book gives an insight as to how much work it was to steer and navigate th Great Lakes before all the modern radar and radio communiction was there. Plus he throws in a few tales of his experiences with different people on the Great Lakes. It was a fairly quick enjoyable read. I have not read "A Sailor's Logbook : A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters" to compare it to because its kind of hard to find. This is book is not a reference book or read like one either as other Great Lakes books can be.