George F. Lynn

George F. Lynn is a son of Dennis and Ellen Mulvill Lynn, residents of Port Huron, Mich. The father was a pioneer in marine circles, being a prominent and successful tug agent and marine reporter, and followed this vocation up to the time of his death, which occurred May 30, 1898. There were seven boys in this family, all of whom are or have been identified with navigation on the Great Lakes: James J., being general agent of the General Electric Company and in charge of their lake work; Edward, a tug captain in Cleveland; M.J., who is retired from marine life, and is in the hardware business at Bay City; W.J., captain of the new Niagara, owned by Muson and Hall, of Buffalo; Dennis, Jr., marine reporter at Port Huron; and Daniel E., in the employ of Dunham Towing and Wrecking Company, of Chicago, as assistant superintendent of tug line. He received the gold medal from the government in recognition of his services in saving a number of lives on the St. Clair river, and a particularly gallant attempt to rescue the crew of the schooner William Shupe, which went ashore above Fort Gratiot light during a severe storm in May, 1894.

George F. Lynn, the subject proper of this sketch, was born at Port Huron, Mich., May 29, 1868, and there attended school until sixteen years of age. He was first occupied in machine shops during the winter, and at firing and decking on tugs of Lynn's Tug line in the summer season, spending two years in this way. In 1887 he went as oiler on the Aurora, which was the largest steamer then on the lakes, and the following season was on the Wyoming in the same capacity. In 1889 he was second engineer on the Robert Mills, and for the four consecutive seasons of 1892-91-92-93 was chief of the John G. Moran. The two succeeding seasons found him serving in the same capacity on the Choctaw Chief, going on to the F. & P.M. No. 5 as her chief in December, 1896, and continued on her up to 1897. The F. & P.M. No. 5 is in service continuously the year round, never laying up winters.

In 1898 our subject became engineer and superintendent of the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Company's boats, plying on Lake Michigan between Peshtigo, Wis., and South Chicago, remaining in this position till the close of navigation, when he became manager of the marine department of the O.S. Richardson Fueling Company, of Chicago. Mr. Lynn is recognized as a prominent and competent engineer in the lake service, and that estimate of his qualities is borne out by his record on the lakes, and also by his service as chief engineer at the Detroit power house of the Citizens Electric railway during the first years of the electric service. He has eight issues of chief's licenses. He is unmarried, and lives at No. 1498 West Adams street, Chicago.

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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.