Captain George R. Napier

Captain George R. Napier, who has been in Buffalo harbor tugs in various capacities nearly all his life, is the son of Peter and Agnes (Rousia) Napier, the former of whom was a malster by trade, in Buffalo, and died in 1882. The mother died one year later. The Captain was born in Elmira, N.Y., January 26, 1845. His education, however, was obtained in the public schools of Buffalo.

At the early age of fourteen years our subject accepted the berth of cook for three men on the tug J.B. Whip, owned by Capt. James Bampton, his compensation being fifty cents per day, and remained on her two seasons. From that time until the years 1871 he was deckhand and fireman on various tug in Buffalo harbor, during that season being master of the tug R.R. Hefford, owned by Captain Alonzo Cheney, on which he continued four seasons consecutively. Captain Napier has served in some capacity in almost all the tugs of Buffalo harbor, and also in a few other ports - Cleveland, etc. He served for about fifteen years with Hand and Johnson's line, was on the tugs Ash and Danforth, and for three months during 1896 was with Maytham's line. During part of 1896 was also master of the W.S. Carkin, of the Buffalo Dredging Company. He is a member of the Buffalo Harbor Masters & Pilots Association, and was charter member of the Tug Pilots Association.

On April 8, 1875, Captain Napier was married, at Buffalo, to Julia Carney, daughter of John Carney, of Buffalo, and they have two children: Clark J., now (1898) aged eighteen; and Cora B., aged sixteen years. The family reside at No. 33 Essex street. Captain Napier has been one of the most successful of the masters in Buffalo harbor, and his success has been due to his own merit.

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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.