Captain Daniel McLeod

Captain Daniel McLeod

Captain Daniel McLeod was born on Prince Edward Island in 1835. After receiving a public-school education such as the youth of that day were blessed with, and boating about until 1852, he shipped on the American schooner Reward, of Newburyport, Mass., plying in the fishing trade between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Boston and other ports.

In 1855 the Captain was appointed master of the schooner Garland, of which he was part owner, and remained on her seven years, coasting in the winter and fishing in the summer. In November, 1861, he shipped as mate on the schooner Gold hunter, one hundred twenty tons burden, Capt. Neil McKay, out of Prince Edward Island, bound for New York. During the passage she was blown out of her course, and on the 1st of January, 1862, was entirely dismasted. The schooner from that date drifted along like a derelict until May, when the crew (five all told) were picked up by a brig bound for the Barbados, from which place they were shipped to Halifax, arriving in June, 1862. During the time the Gold Hunter drifted as a derelict the crew, after the provisions were exhausted, lived on the oats with which the schooner was loaded from February 10 to April 1, when they boarded the West Indiaman, the master of which refused to take them off, but furnished them with a barrel of flour, a barrel of hard bread, and some pork.

In 1863 Captain McLeod shipped on a coasting vessel out of Boston; in 1865 shipped as second mate, and afterward became mate on the schooner Rachel Seaman, hailing from West Dennis. In 1865-66 he went as mate on the barque Charles and Edward; in 1867 he removed to Buffalo, shipped one trip on the schooner Pamlico, and then went on the schooner St. Lawrence for one season, continuing on her as mate the two following seasons. In 1869 he was made mate of the schooner William Grandy, which position he held the following season also. He was then appointed master of the schooner St. Lawrence. In the meantime he removed to Chicago, and after the Chicago fire he stopped ashore and engaged in business as a ship carpenter and rigger until 1887, in which year he was appointed inspector for the manager of Inland Lloyds, and in January, 1890, was appointed manager. In this capacity he was stationed three years at Buffalo and one year at Detroit, and has at this writing (1898) been stationed three years in Cleveland. Socially he is a Knight Templar, a member of St. Bernard Commandery, Chicago; belongs also to the Mystic Shrine in Buffalo, and to the Consistory in Detroit.

Captain McLeod was married in 1863, to Miss Mary Palmer, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has one daughter, Olive Genevieve.

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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.