Captain H. W. Robertson

Captain H.W. Robertson is a marine master of long experience and one thoroughly acclimated with all the departments of his work, having devoted his entire life to this occupation. He was born February 19, 1841, at Marine City (then called Newport), Mich., and there lived until his sixteenth year, when he went sailing. His first experience was on the A. Rust, where he acted as seaman two years, later as mate, for the same length of time and finally as master. When he left this boat he went on the propeller Genesee Chief as mate and remained one season, subsequently serving in the same capacity in the Bay City and East Saginaw, and then shipping on the C.G. King, of which he was master two seasons. After commanding the D.K. Clint one season, he remained on shore for a year, engaged in business, and on returning to the water he went on the Rumage, and the following year on the Andrew J. Smith. During the seasons closely following he commanded the Alpena, Emma Thompson, B.W. Jenness, Porter Chamberlin, Havana, C.H. Green and Oscar T. Flint, coming in 1896 to the E.M. Peck, where he has since acted as mate.

On December 17, 1867, the Captain was married to Miss Mary Higley, of St. Clair, and they have one son, L.C., who sailed for several years, but is now engaged as bookkeeper for Buhl & Sons, of Detroit; Frank, an older son died in infancy. Captain Robertson is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, Royal Guards and the Masonic Order, Evergreen Lodge No. 9. His parents, James and Theodate (Millard) Robertson, were natives of Michigan and New York State, respectively; both are deceased.

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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.