John R. Judge

John R. Judge, chief engineer of the Eber Ward, of the Union Transit line, has through his own efficiency gained the reputation of being one of the best and most careful engineers in that line.

Mr. Judge is the elder of two sons of John R. and Sarah (Craven) Judge, the former of whom was born in New England and the latter in Canada. They came to Detroit, where the subject of this sketch was born June 2, 1867. He received his schooling there, and started work in Flower Brothers machine shops, where he remained two years. In 1885 he commenced steamboating, firing on the tug Hercules, of the Mills line, Detroit, all that season, and during that of 1886 he was on the tugs Parks and Ballentine. During the seasons of 1887-88 he was engineer on the Canadian tug Gordon Gauthier, on Georgian Bay, and the next one (1889) on the tug Crusader. He was second engineer of the City of Cleveland one season (1890), and then chief of the barge John E. Hall, one season (1891). For the season of 1892 he was second of the Lindsay until September, and then went as chief of the S.F. Hodge for the balance of the season of 1892, and for the seasons of 1893-94 until September when he was appointed chief of the Eber Ward, which berth he has retained up to and including the present season of 1898. Mr. Judge has ten issues of chief's license.

In June, 1888, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Mary Poole, of Detroit, Mich., and their union has been blessed with four children, viz: Florence, now (1898) aged nine years; John, aged seven; Robert aged five; and Edward, aged two. The family residence is at No. 205 Chester Street, Buffalo, N.Y. Mr. Judge is a member of Enterprise Lodge No. 65, A.O.U.W.; also a member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association No. 1, of Buffalo, New York.

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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.