Captain George Bohn

Captain George Bohn, master of the Governor Morton, more familiarly known as the "Police Patrol Tug," is of French extraction, having been born in Paris, France, April 17, 1855. His father, Joseph Bohn (now deceased), who was on the police force of Buffalo for a period of ten years, emigrated to America in the year 1856, when the son George was eighteen months old.

Our subject received his education in the public schools of Buffalo, and began his first sailing as fireman of the P. J. Ripont, a steamyacht owned by Edward Dahlke, formerly of Black Rock, but latterly of Cleveland, Ohio.

He was employed upon this yacht two seasons, but the following season, that of 1872, he was fireman on the tug Monitor. The three years following he was employed at various occupations on railroads, and in 1878 returned again to the water for a livelihood, becoming engineer of the James Hays, a steamyacht, upon which he remained three seasons in succession. From 1881 to 1883 he was engineer of the James Hays, a steamyacht, and for the succeeding seven seasons he was engineer of the steamyacht A. T. Kerr, and for the succeeding seven seasons he was engineer of the Glance, finally, in 1890, becoming her pilot and master, and he was with her the whole season in that capacity. The next season he was on the steamyacht Waller, in 1892 returning to the Glance for a couple of seasons, and for the season of 1894 he was master of the Ideal. In 1895 Mr. Bohn was made pilot of the police patrol tug Governor Morton, and was still acting as such at the close of the season in 1896. The work of the Morton is patterned after that of the police patrol tugs of New York harbor, and her duties comprise a constant close inspection and watch over the harbor of Buffalo and also Buffalo and Niagara rivers day and night, she having two crews. During the season of 1896 her respective crews made about eight hundred arrests, mostly of vagabonds and tramps, some of persons stealing from vessels, and the balance for being drunk and disorderly. The idea embraced within the duties of the Morton is a valuable one and could be carried to other lake ports with profit. For the season of 1897 he was on several boat tugs, mostly on the Annie M. Pierce, and for the most of the time on the Glance as her engineer.

Mr. Bohn was married February 14, 1875, at Buffalo, to Annie Gorman, of Cleveland, Ohio. They have three children, namely: George, now (1898) aged fifteen; Laura, aged twenty, and Joseph, aged eighteen. Mr. Bohn has been a member of the Masters and Pilots Association, Harbor No. 41, since August, 1896.

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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.