Captain John Dunseith

Captain John Dunseith has by industry and thrift acquired considerable tug property, and is one of the most popular masters in the tug business operating at Toledo harbor. He was born at Newmarket, Ontario, in the year 1854, a son of James and Anna (Newbeon) Dunseith. After attending school in his native town until he was nine years of age, his parents removed to the United States and located at Toledo, Ohio.

In the spring of 1865 Captain Dunseith commenced tugging as fireman on the Gallaher, and advanced rapidly. After five years, during which he sailed on different tugs in various capacities, he was promoted to the position of chief of the tug G.W. Wilson. This tug was owned by William Richardson, of Buffalo, afterward taken to Toledo, and Captain Dunseith remained captain of her nine years. In 1879 he was appointed master of the tug Dudley, owned by Davis Brothers, and sailed her four years.

In the fall of 1883 Captain Dunseith purchased the tug Joseph S. Spinney, which he owned and sailed with great success; and was enabled in 1894 to purchase the tug Fannie L. Baker, which is sailed by Capt. James Skeldon, and the pleasure steamer Grandon, which he bought in the spring of 1897. He is a careful and successful lake captain, and the only mishap that enters into his record, and for which he was in no way at fault, was a collision with the steamer Reindeer, at the mouth of the Maumee river, while he was sailing the tug G.W. Wilson. The Wilson was sunk, and the captain of the tug Oscar Folsom rescued the crew.

Captain Dunseith is starboard quartermaster of Harbor No. 43 of the American Association of Masters and Pilots, and a Master Mason of Yondota Lodge, Toledo. His father, James Dunseith, died May 16, 1868, from which date our subject lived with his mother until the time of her death, February 12, 1894. He now makes his home with his sister, at No. 921 Erie street, Toledo, 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.