A. R. Milne

A.R. Milne was born in the historic old town of Kingston, Ont., in 1842. He attended the public schools of his native place until he began his career as a mechanical engineer, at the age of fourteen years becoming an apprentice in the Kingston Locomotive & Car Works. Here he remained four years, until the different parts of the locomotive engine, and their relations to one another, became as familiar to him as the rising and setting of the sun, and then he went to Montreal and took up marine engineering in the shops of E.E. Gilbert, returning to Kingston after two years' experience in this line. Mr. Milne passed his examination as engineer in 1860, but as he was not yet of age, the inspectors were compelled, by law, to withhold his certificate until he reached his majority. Very shortly afterward he took charge of the engines of the steamers Pierpont and Gazelle, which ran between Kingston and Wolf Island, from these boats transferring to the steamers Montreal and Ottawa, of the Jacques & Tracy line, running between Hamilton and Montreal. Later on he took charge of the engines of the Rochester, afterward called the Hastings, and now familiar to Toronto people as the Eurydice; she at that time ran between Cobourg and Charlotte. Following his service on this boat he took charge of the engines of the Bay of Quinte, a steamer owned by Charles F. Gildersleeve, the present general manager of the Richelieu line.

About this time Mr. Milne (then only twenty-eight years of age) returned to Kingston and built the fine steamer Pierpont. From this boat he went on the Norseman, now the North King, which runs between Port Hope and Charlotte, remaining on her until he was sent for to fit out the steamer Vanderbilt at Lindsay, Ont.,a boat which was designed to ply on the Scugog and Sturgeon Lakes. This work completed, Mr. Milne went to St. Catharines to complete the steamer Lothair, in which the second compound engine on Lake Ontario was placed. The following six years he was engaged on the steamer Alexandria, running between Montreal and Charlotte, which was owned at that time by Mr. Walter Ross, of Picton, and is now the property of Mr. A. W. Hepburn, of the same place. For fourteen years following the last-named engagement Mr. Milne was chief trade instructor of the Kingston Asylum. Always fertile in original, and at the same time practical, ideas, this gentleman became the inventor and designer of the Sanitary Gas Machine, which, both in theory and practice, has proved a brilliant success, and is now in operation in the Kingston Asylum, the town of Brampten, and at other points. For about a year Mr. Milne traveled for Messrs. George Bertram & Sons, the well-known shipbuilders of Toronto, and afterward visited the United States on business connected with his own invention. On his return he again took charge of the Alexandria, and continued on her until the end of the last season, when he accepted his present position, that of first engineer on the Passport, one of the finest steames[sic] in the Richelieu line.

Mr. Milne has a fine family of six sons, all of whom are launched successfully on the sea of life. The eldest, William O., is editor and proprietor of the monthly financial journal, Money and Risks, Toronto; T. J. and Frank E. have a steam laundry in Kingston; Frederick E. is manager of the wholesale house of Fred E. Saul, Syracuse, N.Y.; A.C. is paying teller in the Peterboro branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce; Melville E. is studying medicine at Queen's University, Kingston.

Mr. Milne has done considerable traveling in America, and two years ago visited Scotland with the Independent Order of Foresters, of which organization he is past high chief ranger. He is also a past president of St. Andrews Society. So well is Mr. Milne known and so highly respected in Kingston, he was chosen by the largest and most influential ward in that city to represent her citizens in the municipal council. His career has been successful and highly honorable, and is worthy of more than ordinary notice.

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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.