Captain John G. Anderson

Captain John G. Anderson is a native of Germany, having been born February 16, 1851, at Bremerhaven. At the age of eleven years he left his native country, however, and went to Newcastle, England, whence he sailed on a brig, running between France and England. After three years in this line of work he sailed out of Liverpool and came to America settling first in New York City. From this place he shipped on a schooner from Staten Island, running along the coast to Mobile, Galveston, and to Brazil. Here he served before the mast until 1871 when he went to New Orleans, coming soon after to Chicago, where he shipped on the lake schooner, Betsy Bold. Here he acted as seaman one year, and then shipped on the Fleet Wing as second mate, being given the position of mate after three months. In 1874 he acted as mate of the bark Acorn, and then after a time on the Misel, after which he was with Capt. John Morrison, on the schooner John Rice. Captain Jones then took the Rice, and with him he acted as mate three seasons, after which he served in the same capacity with Captain Vuths on the Columbian. He then commanded the Virginia, B.W. Ogden, Transfer, Little Jake, Monitor and in 1889 came to the Red Wing, where he has since remained.

Captain Anderson is the son of George and Dora Anderson, natives of Germany; and is a member of a family of nine children, six of whom are sailors. George Anderson, who is deceased, was a sailor until his seventy-fifth year, and during his marine career visited the principal ports of the globe.

On January 11, 1881, Capt. John G. Anderson was married to Miss Eliza Graveline, of Amherstburg. Their children are: Violet, who is attending school in Amherstburg; Lulu, who is deceased; George, who is in the Detroit schools; and Mary, still at home.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.