Captain James M. Saunders

Captain James M. Saunders is the son of Capt. John and Eliza B. (McQuoid) Saunders, and was born March 2, 1861, in Kingston, Ontario. He attended the public schools and worked on his father's farm until he reached the age of eighteen years.

One bright spring day of 1879 our subject went down to Kingston and shipped on the barge William McGregor as seaman. He enjoyed this berth to such an extent that he remained on the barge six years, the last year being advanced to the position of second mate. In August of the season of 1885 he shipped on the new barge Susan E. Peck as second mate, and the following season of 1886 was appointed mate of her. In 1887 he went as mate of the barge Harvey Brown, following this service during the season of 1888 as second mate on the steamer Forest City. In the spring of 1889 he entered the employ of the Northern Steamship Company as wheelsman on the steamer North Wind, under Captain Waite. The following season he transferred to the North Star as second mate, and in 1891 was advanced to the position of mate of the same boat, which berth he held up to the close of navigation in 1896, laying up with his steamer in Buffalo Creek. For the season of 1897 he held the same position on the North Star, under Capt. William Thorn, of Detroit. In spring of 1898 he was appointed captain of the Northern King, of the same line.

In 1886 Captain Saunders was united in marriage, at Cape Vincent, to Miss Maud E. Howard, of Kingston, Ontario, and their children are Elma and Howard. The family residence is at No. 34 Laird avenue, Buffalo, N.Y. The Captain is one of the younger and most successful men of the line.

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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.