William P. Lee

William P. Lee, who was born at Detroit, Mich., March 26, 1861, is the only son of Andrew and Mary (Kellett) Lee, who were natives of New York State. He received his education in the public schools of his native city, and when sixteen years of age secured employment as shipping clerk in the Pullman car shops at Detroit, which position he held for six months. He then commenced firing on the Michigan Central railroad for three years, after which he learned the molding trade, working at same for five years. At the end of this time he started steamboating, firing on tugs belonging to the Mills line, of Detroit, for two seasons, the steamer Queen of the West one season, the Starke one season, and the tug Crusader one season. He then obtained second engineer's papers, and filled that berth on the John E. Hall one season, and the Toledo No. 3 three seasons, in 1896-97 going as second to John R. Judge, on the Eber Ward, with whom he had begun steamboating in 1884 on the Mills line of Tugs.

Fraternally, Mr. Lee is a member of Amity Lodge No. 335, I.O.O.F., of Detroit, and of Detroit Lodge No. 6, A.O.U.W.

He was married, in 1893, to Miss Mary Woolen, of Lafayette, Ind., and they have two children: Bertha Elizabeth and Andrew. The family residence is at No. 1443 West Fourth street, Detroit, Michigan.

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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.