Robert H. Field

Robert H. Field, of Cleveland, who has sailed for more than twenty-five years, is one of the successful marine engineers employed upon the Great Lakes. He was born in Cleveland in 1859, the son of Capt. Robert S. Field, one of the best known of the earlier lake navigators, and commenced sailing at the age of twelve years as fireman on the tug Abe Nelson. This position he retained for six years, at the end of which period, having secured an engineer's license, he went in that capacity on the tug Forence. Later he had charge of the engine rooms on the steambarges William Rudolph and Wetford in turn, and he subsequently spent one year in Alpena as engineer of the tug C. D. McKinnon, for the firm of Fletcher, Pack & Co., and two years in the same port as engineer of the tug Black Ball No. 2 of the Vessel Owners Towing Company. This tug was sunk in a collision with the steamer Maggie Marshall while Mr. Field was employed on her, and some of the crew narrowly escaped drowning. After this Mr. Field came to Cleveland, and in 1887 entered the employ of J. W. Averill as engineer of the tug Helene, whence he was shortly afterward transferred to the tug Black Ball in the same employ; he has continued in this position up to the present time.

Mr. Field was married January 17, 1881, to Miss Sophia Grebe, of Cleveland, and they have three children, Robert, Rose and Lille.

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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.