Captain Hamilton Cummings

Captain Hamilton Cummings, now living retired at No. 32 Twenty-third avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, spent almost half a century upon the water. He was born on February 16, 1827, in Bangor, County Down, Ireland, and in 1844 first went to sea as an apprentice on the ship Huron, on which vessel he remained for three years. Entering the American service, he sailed between New Orleans and Philadelphia on the Jacob S. Wan for one season, the following year, during the great famine in Ireland, sailing on the brig Flora with a cargo of provisions for the sufferers.

After several years' service upon saltwater Captain Cummings came, in 1850, to Cleveland, and shipped on the schooner William Monteith, of Buffalo. During the seasons of 1852 and 1853 he was mate of the schooner Kosciusko; in 1854 was mate of the schooner Herald, and the following two years served in the same capacity on the schooner Summit, of which he was subsequently master from 1857 until 1861. In the latter year he was drafted for service in the Union Army, but the examining physician refused to accept him on account of an injury he had suffered to his foot, believing him unable to march, and having lost his position on the Summit he spent the remainder of the year as a recruiting officer. In 1862 he was mate of the barque Sherman, the next season sailing the schooner W. W. Arnold, in 1864 the schooner Empire State and the following season becoming master of the schooner Southwest, of which he had charge for four years. For the next seven years he was captain of the schooner Edward Kelley, and in 1880 he took command of the schooner Camden, of which he continued master for twelve years, since which time he has abandoned the water and engaged in business ashore.

In 1853 Captain Cummings married Miss Jane MacNeal, who died ten years later, and four children born to them three died in infancy. William, the eldest, is now a prosperous machinist.

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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.