Charles C. Goodwin

Charles C.Goodwin

Charles C. Goodwin remembers no part of his career upon the Great Lakes with more pleasure or satisfaction than his services in the Life Saving Service. In this department of the United States Government he spent four years, two at Cleveland and two at Erie, and he holds two gold medals which were given him in recognition of his efficient and courageous work.

Mr. Goodwin was born in Portland, Maine, in 1864, a son of Capt. Charles C. and Mary (Brown) Goodwin, the former of whom will be remembered by those familiar with the Life Saving Service as one of the oldest men in that service, he having devoted eighteen years of his life to the Cleveland station. The family has settled in Cleveland, and young Goodwin commenced sailing at the age of fourteen years. His first experience was gained on the schooner Timothy Baker, on which he remained two seasons, and then he became oiler on the steambarge Progress one season, becoming a tug engineer immediately afterward. Since that time he has been engineer of the tugs L. P. Smith, Peter Smith, S. S. Stone, Louisa, Enterprise, and Maikwell at Cleveland, the Pageat, Fairport, and many others.

When the great flood of 1883-84 caused destruction along the Ohio River, Mr. Goodwin was a member of the Cleveland Life Saving Station crew, which responded to the call for help which was sent from Covington, Ky. The crew and their boats were placed upon a fast train and rushed to that point, where they spent twenty-two days in performing deeds of mercy. One of Mr. Goodwin's medals was presented to him at this time by the Masonic Relief Association of Covington. The other medal came from the United States Government, for heroic services performed at the time of a great storm near Cleveland when a number of vessels went ashore. At another time Mr. Goodwin spent two years as chief engineer of the Cleveland Electric Lighting Company. Five years ago he became engineer for the firm of E. R. Edson & Co., in Cleveland.

In 1886 he was married to Miss Nellie Watson, of Cleveland, and they have three children, Charles, William and Dorothy. The family reside at 75 Willett street, Cleveland, Ohio.

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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.