Joseph Normand

The subject of this sketch was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1864, a son of Capt. Joseph Normand, who owned and sailed vessels during the earlier half of the century, and was one of the earliest wire-rope riggers on the Great Lakes.

Our subject commenced his sailing career in 1873 as fireman on the yacht Herald, where he remained two seasons. Then he entered the employ of the firm of L.P. & J.A. Smith, serving as fireman successively on the tugs Shoo Fly, Maggie Sanborn, L.P. Smith, James Amadeus, and Standard, being with the latter boat three years, one of which he served in the capacity of engineer; afterward entering the employ of Robert Greenhalgh, and for one and a half years served as engineer on the tugs W.H. Doan, C.E. Bolton, and Mary Virginia. Then he removed to Chicago, where he was employed for three years as engineer on the tugs Flossie Tilkey, Robbie Denham, Mosier, and T.T. Morford. Then he returned to Cleveland, and spent one year on the tug Joe Harris, and one season on the government tug Spear, followed by a season on the steambarge Nahant, serving as engineer on the tug Enterprise during the season of 1896.

In 1888 Mr. Norman[sic] married Miss May E. Cahill, of Cleveland. The union has been blessed with three children: Mabel; Joseph, who died in infancy; and Florence Beatrice.

Return to Home Port

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.