Captain William Carlisle

Captain William Carlisle belongs to the Carlisle family who were part owners of the large thread manufactury of Carlisle & Clark, in Paisley, Scotland. The English Channel bore no lad more ambitious and energetic than William Carlisle, who started out in marine life as cabin boy in 1842, at the early age of nine years. He spent three years on the channel, and then came to America, living first in Montreal, and then in Napanee, Ontario, near Kingston. He at once went upon the lakes, sailing during the summer and attending a school of navigation in New York City during the winter for several years.

The first vessel of which Captain Carlisle was master was the schooner Daniel G. Ford, of Oswego, with which he was connected for seven years, and was then master of the schooner Delaware, for three years. Subsequently he was master of the following steamers: Cormorant, two years; Egyptian, one year; Hiawatha, one year; Wallula, two years; Yakima, four years, and the Yuma, one year. He was very successful in his life on the lakes meeting with but one serious accident, and that previous to becoming captain. One winter while he was sailing on salt water, he was shipwrecked on the Island of Nassau, where he suffered an attack of yellow fever; and he was also wrecked at Sand Beach, on Lake Huron, at which time he lost everything he possessed. He was fearless, yet careful and conserv- ative about his sailing, and was a thorough gentleman in every sense of the word. As mate he sailed over all of the principal seas, and possessed a certificate of master, as well as of mate on salt water, although he never commanded an ocean vessel.

In 1881, Captain Carlisle married Miss Frances Sauer of Detroit, and to them were born three children - William Cecil, Daniel Roger and Colin Campbell. The Captain departed this life in 1894, and he was widely and deeply mourned.

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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.