Captain H. L. Sanders

Captain H.L. Sanders, part owner and master of the steambarge Mark B. Covell, of Manistee, Mich., is a native of that State, having been born October 20, 1859, in Marine City, a son of Capt. Jerre Sanders, whose place of nativity was Cattaraugus county, New York.

Capt. Jerre Sanders was a sailor by occupation, and followed the lakes for many years - from the age of fourteen until his death in 1866, which was caused by accidental drowning while acting as pilot on the St. Clair Flats, at the time they were building the canal there. He was one of the best known men on the Great Lakes in his day, and at one time he was captain of the propeller Ottawa, and of the brig Roscius.

Our subject attended the public schools of his native city until he was fourteen years of age, after which he attended school only one winter; but he has been a great reader, as well as a keen observer of passing events. When fourteen years old he commenced sailing the lakes, his first occupation being watchman on the steambarge Salina, of the Anchor line, on which vessel he remained two seasons, one as watchman and one as wheelsman, at the remarkable early age of fifteen. In the following season he shipped on the steamer V. H. Ketcham as lookout man for a short time, and from her went on a schooner as a boy before the mast. Next season he went as wheelsman of the Detroit and St. Clair river tug Kate Moffat, while the greater part of the following three seasons he passed on sailing vessels before the mast and as mate. His next vessel was the steambarge R. C. Brittain, running between White Lake (on the east shore of Lake Michigan, twelve miles north of Muskegon) and Chicago, on which he served first as wheelsman, then as second mate, first mate and finally as master. In the spring of 1888 he brought out the steambarge Mark B. Covell, and has been master of her ever since. In 1894 he acquired a quarter-interest in the Covell, and is now both part owner and master.

In 1881 Captain Sanders was married at Whitehall, Mich., to Miss Laura E. Rodgers, of that place, and two sons, Jerry and Mark, have been born to them. Socially the Captain has been a member of the Ship Masters Association and is affiliated with the F. & A. M., Lodge No. 310, Whitehall, Michigan.

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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.