Captain A. C. Smith

Captain A.C. Smith, of Detroit, Mich., was born May 16, 1844, in the township of Raleigh, Ont., near the shore of Lake Erie, where his parents were at that time residing. They were Americans by birth, and the Captain can trace his ancestry back to the Pennsylvania and Connecticut Colonists. His father was a farmer, and Alfred is the only member of the family who has followed the occupation of a sailor. He first went on the lakes in 1862, and sailed as a boy during that season on the schooner Northern Belle, afterward sailing for six years before the mast on the Imperial, Young America, and several other schooners. Captain Smith later became wheelsman on the steamer Henry Howard, and first rose to command on the steamer Mystic, on which he shipped as mate. Leaving the Mystic he sailed the tug Brady for three seasons for J. M. Jones, of Detroit, commanded the steambarge Mary Gerecki two seasons, and sailed different schooners for Captain Bradley during the three years following. Captain Smith then sailed the schooner Dot for two seasons, after which he commanded the Propeller Favorite for one season, the steambarge P. H. Birckhead, three seasons, and the steambarge George L. Colwell four seasons. He superintended the building of the George Farwell, which he brought out in the season of 1895, and in 1896 he brought out the schooner P. P. Dobbins, with which he is still connected.

Captain Smith is married and has four children, who are attending the Detroit schools. He is a member of the Ship Masters Association, Branch No. 7, of Detroit, Michigan.

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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.