Frank Perew

Frank Perew, nephew and namesake of the famous veteran vessel owner of the Great Lakes, is a son of John Perew, a blacksmith by trade, who was formerly a resident of Cleveland, Ohio. He (John Perew) was born in France, and married Margaret Hart, of De Kalb, Ill., who survives him. He was engineer on the lakes for about eighteen years, and died in 1875.

Frank Perew, the subject of this sketch was born in Cleveland, Ohio, February 15, 1846. His education was, obtained in Cleveland and Asthtabula, and at the age of thirteen years he shipped as cabin boy on the propeller T.U. Bradbury. His next employment was as greaser on the tug William G. Fargo, owned by Capt. Frank Perew, his uncle, and which was subsequently sold in New York. In 1866 and 1867 Mr. Perew was chief engineer of the canal tug Ontario, of Kingsman's line; in 1868 he went to Cleveland and was engineer of the harbor tugs S. S. Coe and W. B. Scott for four seasons, returning the following spring to Buffalo, where he engineered canal tugs in the harbor for three seasons. On July 27, 1875, the tug William R. Crowell was launched at Buffalo, and he was her engineer for five consecutive seasons. During 1880-81 he was second engineer of the propeller Fountain City and in 1882, was chief of the John B. Lyon, Australasia, Henry Chisholm, and Robert A. Parker, from that time until 1896 serving in the same capacity on the City of London, John C. Pringle, Oscoda, Nebraska, Birckhead, Progress, Western and others. During the latter season he was chief engineer of the steamer Topeka. For season of 1897 he was on the excursion boat Columbia and on the Henry Chisholm; for season of 1898 also on the Columbia.

In 1872 Mr. Perew was united in marriage, at Buffalo, to Delia Golden, and they have two daughters; Margaret G. and Estella May. The family residence is in Buffalo, New York.

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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.