Henry C. Talbot

Henry C. Talbot was born in Lockport, Niagara Co., N.Y., in 1848, where his parents settled in 1845. His father was a clerk in a law office, but, when Henry had attained the proper age, he was put to serve an apprenticeship in a boiler shop with the Holly Manufacturing Company where he learned boiler manufacturing. He then learned the machinist's trade at the Vulcan Iron Works at Cleveland with Thomas Manning, and then went as oiler on the steamer Peerless, a large passenger and excursion steamer built for and owned by Leopold & Austian. His next berth was as engineer of the tug O.B. Green, in the Chicago river, later in the steamer Skylark, in the fruit trade, followed by a short service on the steamer Messenger, for Graham & Morton, and the steamer Bessemer, for Leopold & Austian. He worked for Mr. Matthew Thomas for three years in a rolling mill at Sharon, Penn., after which he returned to Cleveland and worked for the Worswick Manufacturing Company. He then went as second engineer of the steamer Havana, and for two years on the Cumberland. In 1885 Mr. Talbot was appointed chief engineer of the J.S. Fay, of the Bradley line, and served two years, followed by one year on the R.P. Ranney, two years service on the City of Cleveland, two years on the Gladstone, and two years on the Alva. He now has supervision of the machinery of the fine new building owned by Mr. Bradley on St. Clair street in Cleveland, and attends to the repair work of the steamers in the winter. The machinery in the Vulcan block, of which he now has special charge, was set up by Mr. Talbot, and also at present time he is chief engineer of the Bradley estate.

Mr. Talbot was united in marriage to Miss Mary Barrett, and two children have been born to them: William Henry and John Henry. Mr. Talbot is an Odd Fellow of the third degree.

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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.