James C. Hay

James C. Hay was born in Scotland, December 23, 1841, and came to this country with his father in 1844, settling in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended the public schools until 1857, when his health gave out. He then went to Michigan and lived on a farm, being located there when the Civil War broke out.

In July, 1861, Mr. Hay enlisted in Company I, 5th Mich. Vol. Inf., and served for three years. At the battle of Chancellorsville he was wounded, and at Gettysburg he received a wound in the chest that laid him up in the hospital at Philadelphia some months. While there, during his convalescence, he became acquainted with a marine engineer named Clark, and they conceived the idea of leaving the hospital and joining the steamer Keystone State, which was about to start on a cruise in search of the famous Alabama, which was creating great havoc among our merchant marine. The commander of the Keystone State, however, after the surgeon's examination, concluded that the wounds of Mr. Hay were too recent and of too serious a nature to permit his enlistment, and he was sent back to the hospital at Philadelphia, where he remained another thirty days, his wounds having re-opened.

In 1864 he returned to Cleveland and for some time was employed in the Eagle machine shop. In 1866 he went as second engineer on the steam Buckeye, in 1867 as chief of the Wisconsin, and then on the steamers Akron, City of Boston and Saint Albans, all of the Northern Transportation line. He remained in this employ seven years. In 1873 he went in the tug W.H. Pringle; in 1874, in the barge H.D. Coffinberry; in 1875, in the G.W. Rust; in 1876, in the wrecking tug J.W. Bennett; in 1879, in the steamer William Edward; in 1881, in the Progress; and in 1883 bought an interest in and engineered the tug Samson. In 1888 he was appointed engineer on the steamer North Wind, of the Northern Steamship company, and in 1890 he brought out the Castalia, upon which he remained until 1896, when he entered the employ of the Cleveland Dry Dock Company, where he is now giving good satisfaction. He is well know by all engineers on the lakes, and is held in great respect.

On December 14, 1869, Mr. Hay was married to Miss Sarah Landon, daughter of Solomon Landon, a Canadian, of English descent. Mr. Hay is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

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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.