Captain Claude M. Ennis

Captain Claude M. Ennis, son of Capt. Clinton and Ridella Ennis, was born at Birmingham, Ohio, in 1871. He attended the public schools, finishing his education in the Spencerian Business College, in Cleveland, which he attended two winters. He commenced sailing in the summer months as boy on the schooner M. R. Warner, was seaman one season, and followed this service by a season on the steamer Horace B. Tuttle as watchman. In 1883 he was appointed second mate on the schooner James Couch, remaining one season, and in 1884 he filled the berth of wheelsman on the steamer James Pickands, the following season holding the same position on the steamer Smith Moore. In 1886 he shipped as mate on the schooner Frank Perew, and in 1887 on the steamer James Pickands as wheelsman, continuing for two seasons in that berth. In 1890 he was made second mate of the steamer Lansing, with which he also remained two seasons. In 1892 he went to Chicago and superintended the construction of eight steam passenger boats during the progress of the World's Fair, built to the order of Ellis R. Meeker, of Boston, under the firm name of the World's Fair Steam Yacht Concession, to operate in connection with the Fair. He then had the management of the line and sailed the Portland. Returning to Cleveland in 1893, Captain Ennis sailed the tugs Allie May and Blazier for that season. In 1894-95 he shipped as mate on the steamer Lansing, and in 1896 as master of the steambarge M. C. Neff, trading between Lake Superior, Georgian Bay and Ohio ports, laying his boat up at the close of navigation in Cleveland harbor. Captain Ennis is a young master but he has given good satisfaction to the owners of the various boats in which he has sailed.

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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.