Past and Present

The compilation of a complete list of all vessels that have sailed the Great Lakes is, perhaps, impossible, for many early records have been destroyed, and those remaining are sometimes incomplete. The following directory has been prepared with great care, and no available source of information that might add to the accuracy or to the number has been neglected. Few if any prominent vessels on the lakes, it is believed, have been omitted, and the list is by far the most complete that has ever been compiled. It contains with comparatively few exceptions the names of all lake craft from the earliest historical times to the present

The abreviations used usually self-explanatory. Those most commonly employed are as follows:
b., for built.
bge., barge.
c., composite.
Can., Canadian.
col., collision.
com., commission.
cfy., car ferry.
g.t., gross tons.
Hur., Huron.
l., lake.
Mich., Michigan.
n.t., net tonnage; or sometimes, when applied to Canadian vessels, new tonnage.
prop., propellor.
r., river.
rev. cut., revenue cutter.
straits, Straits of Mackinac.
Sup., Superior.
stmr., steamer.
sty., steamyacht.
stcb., steam canal boat.
stpd., steam pile driver.
stl., steam lighter.
std., steam dredge.
schr., sail vessels or barges.
slp., sail sloop.
sly., sloop yacht.
U.S. Gov., United States Government.
v., vessel.
'98, 1898 etc..

By steamer is usually meant side-wheel steamer, but it includes also many propellers among the Canadian vessels and sometimes American propellers, old vessel lists not always maintaining the distinction between side-wide steamers and propellers:

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Volume II

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.