Captain George H. Brown

Captain George H. Brown, at the present time mate of the schooner E. H. Rutherford, of Toronto, Canada, is a native of the Province of Ontario, having been born in 1844, in the town of Cobourg. When he was three years old his parents removed with their family to Colborne, a few miles farther down the lake, and there he was reared and educated. While yet a lad he went on a fishing smack, and was fishing out of Colborne for a short time, and when sixteen years of age he shipped before the mast on the schooner Octavia, on which he passed a portion of the season, his next service being on the Sevilla, a large schooner trading to the upper lakes. Subsequently he was mate for four seasons on the Paragon; for two seasons on the Thistle; six seasons on the Blanche; two seasons on the Katie Eccles; one season on the Herbert Dudley; several years on the Robert McDonald; one season on the Octavia; and for the past nine years he has been chief mate of the E. H. Rutherford, under different captains; he has sailed altogether on schooners. During his long career on the Great Lakes, Captain Brown has twice been on vessels that were driven ashore; was once capsized out of a yawl-boat, and has fallen overboard several times, but he has survived all dangers and to-day is as hale and robust as many a younger man.

In March, 1877, the Captain was married to Miss Mary Redfern, of Colborne, Ontario, who also comes from a family of sailors, one of her brothers at the present time serving as captain of the schooner Keewatin, sailing out of Toronto. Captain and Mrs. Brown have a neat and comfortable home at Lakeport, near Colborne, Ontario, on the lake shore. To their union have been born four sons and two daughters, namely: Mary Louisa (Mrs. Mounger, of Brockville, Ontario); Edward, Helen, Robert, Harold and Henry. They have all received the best possible advantages for education. In his political preferences Captain Brown is a Liberal, and takes great interest in election campaigns, doing good work in the party's cause. In religious faith he is an Episcopalian.

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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.