Captain Dan Henderson

Captain Dan Henderson was born in Oswego, N. Y., in 1862, son of Capt. William Henderson, who is at present residing in Kansas City. He attended the Oswego schools while a boy, and also during the winters after he began sailing.

The Captain's first experience on the lakes was gained when he was fifteen years of age, as seaman on the schooner Oades, following which he served successively in the schooners Maggie, Trenton and Orient, being mate on the last-named craft until she was lost on Point Peninsula, Lake Ontario. Then for a time he was mate of the Garrett Smith, after which he remained on`shore one season, employed as clerk in a grocery store in Cleveland. He was later mate of the schooner Colonel Cook, and then fireman of the tug R.K. Hawley, of which he shortly afterward became engineer, and he was subsequently connected with the tug line of Capt. Robert Greenhalgh in Cleveland, bringing out new the Doan, Warwick, Bolton and Mary Virginia. While he was serving as captain of the Doan she struck a snag while backing, and her rudder being turned violently sidewise, he was thrown over the wheel and severely injured in the side, being laid up for some time. The next year he took the Doan outside the harbor to bring in a vessel; the tug tripped on the line and turned completely over, the hands being rescued by the life-saving crew. After this accident Captain Henderson went to Ashtabula, and finished the year in the tug Dragon. He was janitor of the Waverly school one year, and in 1887 entered the employ of the Cleveland Sand & Gravel Co., as captain of the sandboat, with whom he has remained ever since, with the exception of one year, when he was pilot of the fireboat J.L. Weatherly. In 1896 he was made superintendent of the company.

Captain Henderson in 1880 married Miss Lena Anthony, of Cleveland. Their children are: Will, Ruby and Grace.

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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.