Captain William H. Wallace

Captain William H. Wallace is a young steamboat master who has so far succeeded in keeping his vessel out of trouble and avoiding disasters, shipwrecks and other ills attendant on the shipmaster's life. He was born in 1861 at Lorain, Ohio, and attended the public schools of that city, passing into the high school. He then spent one year at Oberlin College, leaving there to enter the Spencerian Business College, where he took a full course, and graduated at the age of nineteen. Considering himself now equipped with an education that would qualify him for his chosen profession, that of master mariner, as it might be, he directed his energies toward acquiring the practical experience necessary in any calling, and in the spring of 1880, shipped before the mast in the schooner Thomas Gawn, remaining on her one season. In 1881 he transferred to the steamer Robert Wallace, on which boat he remained eight years, as wheelsman, watchman and second mate, being on this vessel in the fall of 1887, when she and the David Wallace went ashore near Marquette, Mich. The vessels remained in a very perilous position for the crews, from Tuesday morning until Friday noon, before they were taken off by the life-saving crew, and, added to the uncomfortable condition of the boats in zero weather, they were without food. In 1889 the Captain shipped as mate of the steamer Vulcan, which berth he held four years, when he was advanced to the captaincy of the steamer. In the spring of 1896 he was appointed master of the steamer Vega, which he laid up at the close of navigation, and of which he resumed command the two following seasons.

Captain Wallace is a son of David and Martha Wallace, the former a prominent builder of lake vessels. In June, 1887, he married Miss Nellie Cunningham, of Clyde, Ohio. The home presided over by his charming wife is at No. 16 Duane Street, Lorain, Ohio.

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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.