John Ford

John Ford, a mariner of many years service on the lakes, was born in Greenock, Scotland, in the year 1841, and went to sea when very young, first shipping as boy, and later sailed before the mast, serving a full apprenticeship. Mr. Ford spent 15 years in all at sea, and left for the Great Lakes while still rating as an able seaman.

He has been on the lakes over thirty years, and in the employ of the government all that time. He first shipped on the U.S. schooner, Belle Stevens as second mate and later with the Surveyor for a short time.

Mr. Ford has held positions on the lighthouse tender boats of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh districts, and has sailed on nearly all the boats connected to the lighthouse service, serving at different times as mate of the Haze, the Warrington, the Surveyor, the Amaranth, and the Dahlia, being transferred from one to another by those in charge of the service. Several years ago he commanded the Dahlia for nine months, but was again transferred to the Warrington, where he remained for two years, and for the last four years has held the position of first mate on the Amaranth.

Mr. Ford is married and has lived in Detroit, Mich., since coming to the lakes. He has seven children: Mary, John, Frank, Louis, Robert, Maurice and Eugene.

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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.