Captain William Carolan

Captain William Carolan was born March 22, 1865, in Rochester, N.Y., the only child of Patrick and Margaret (McCormick) Carolan, both of whom were natives of Ireland. Patrick Carolan came to the United States early in life and engaged in farming and the lumber business until his death, which occurred January 24, 1892; his wife departed this life on March 4, 1888.

Captain Carolan spent the first fifteen years of his life in the city of his birth, and one year later came to Buffalo, out of which port he sailed as deckhand on the Empire State, on that boat obtaining his first knowledge of marine life. His promotion was rapid, and in a short time he was given the position of watchman and wheelsman, continuing as such two years, after which he engaged as wheelsman one season each on the following boats: George Spencer, D.W. Rust, Business, Yakima and Horace A. Tuttle. The following year he shipped on the Caledonia as second mate, and subsequently served in that capacity on the Bulgaria, John Harper and John W. Moore, receiving promotion to the position of mate on the last named boat, and removing to Cleveland at the close of his service on her. He entered the employ of the Globe Iron Works in that city, and soon afterward became wheelsman on the government boats Columbia and Lilac, which were taken to Portland, Maine, and Staten Island, later holding the same berth on the yacht, Comanche, owned by Hon. M.A. Hanna, of Cleveland, on a trip to Brooklyn, N.Y. In 1893 he came to Detroit and obtained employment with the Detroit, Belle Isle & Windsor Ferry Co., with whom he has since remained, during the first three seasons as mate on the Fortune and Pleasure, from which he was transferred to the Excelsior, in command, for the season of 1896. Judging by the past, Captain Carolan's future in the marine life promises to be a successful one, and he has gained the confidence and respect of his present employers to an enviable degree. He is unmarried.

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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.