J. L. Gabrian

J.L. Gabrian was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1863, a son of Theodore and Philopene (Bisnea) Gabrian, both of whom are still living at Worcester. The father is a carpenter by trade. Mr. Gabrian finished his school education in his native place at the age of thirteen, and then moved to Detroit, Mich., from which city he began sailing as deckhand on the old City of Detroit, now the City of the Straits, belonging to the Detroit & Cleveland line. His next berth was in the passenger steamer Saginaw Valley, running between Cleveland and Saginaw, and later he was wheelsman in several steamers, among them being the D. C. Whitney, C. Tower, Passaic and Mineral Rock. He was also wheelsman of the lake tugs Peter Smith, Chief Justice Fields and Torrent. During the season of 1895 he filled second mate's berth on the steamer H. E. Packer, of the Lehigh Valley line, and during that of 1896 on the steamers Tuscarora and Saranac, of the same line. While in the lake service he has been employed by the Union Steamboat Company, Anchor line, Western Transit Company and Lehigh Valley line. Mr. Gabrian is an interested member of Local Harbor No. 41, of the American Association of Masters and Pilots.

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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.