Captain William G. Fox

Captain William G. Fox was born at Titusville, Penn., September 25, 1873, one of three children, two sons and a daughter, of William and Louise (Musson) Fox. When about seven years of age he moved with his parents to Buffalo, N. Y., where he attended public school, and during two seasons of that time, also worked on and around the docks as errand boy, etc., for the old Cotter Tug line. Subsequently, when the line changed its name to Cotter & Schriver, he went into the office, and practically assumed the management thereof, acting in that capacity until the spring of 1895, when the Game Cock Tug line was organized by Eli Schriver, John Killelia, both old-time tug men and masters, and himself, their docks and offices being located at the foot of Commercial street.

Captain Fox, not being contented with the mere theoretical ideas of tugging, took up the practical end as well, and during the last year of his employment with Cotter & Schriver, also the season of 1895-96, served his apprenticeship on various tugs of the lines mentioned so successfully that pilot's papers were issued to him in the season of 1897. It must be admitted that the record enumerated is a remarkably successful one, and shows what pluck and perseverance can accomplish if directed in its proper course.

Captain Fox is an unmarried man, and resides with his parents and one brother, Charles W., and a sister, Daisy L., at No. 756 Washington street, Buffalo, N. Y. He is a member of the Buffalo Harbor Tugs Pilot Association.

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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.