Captain C. F. Moore

Captain C.F. Moore is one of the men who have made a success of their connection with the lakes. He was born in Harrison, Macomb Co., Mich., January 26, 1826. His father was J.B. Moore, a native of Detroit, and his mother was formerly Miss Nellie Tebo. Captain Moore has three brothers living - Richard, of Port Huron; Clement and Joseph; John is dead. There are four living sisters - Jane, Philomene, Eliza and Phoebe; Caroline and Erolide are dead. The Captain does not incline much to societies, and the only one of which he is a member is the Shipmasters.

Captain Moore began sailing when about sixteen years old, going before the mast on the scow Williams, sailing out of Mt. Clemens. He remained on her through the seasons 1845-46, and made such good use of his time that the next year he was appointed master of the scow Pike, plying between Mt. Clemens, Toledo and Sandusky. He paid close attention to his business, and after running the Pike two seasons, was made master of the steamer Albion, in 1850. She ran between Detroit and Mt. Clemens, and Captain Moore piloted her steadily down to the close of the season of 1853. In 1854, having saved some money, he bought the tug Clifton, and did towing through the old North Channel in Lake St. Clair, where nine and a half feet was considered high water. Captain Moore ran the Clifton until the close of the season of 1856 when he took the R.R. Elliott and did towing from lake to lake during the seasons of 1857 and 1858. In 1859 he became captain of Eber Ward's steamer Ruby, carrying passengers and freight between Detroit and Port Huron, and gave such good satisfaction to owners and patrons that he continued in that position five years. During the season of 1846 he was master of the Dart, and did river towing. In 1865 he had charge of the T.F. Parks, also doing river towing, and in 1866 took control of the big tug John Prindiville. This line of business pleased Captain Moore better than the passenger one, and in 1867 and 1868 he was master of the U.S. Grant, owned by John Demass. In 1860 he became part owner of the tug Frank Moffatt, and was her master during that and the next three seasons. In 1873 he bought a considerable interest in the big tug Mocking Bird, and was her master for four seasons, doing a towing and wrecking business. In 1877 he became sole owner of the large tug Brockway, and did towing and wrecking with her for four years. During the winter of 1880-81 Captain Moore sold out his marine interests, and passed the year 1881 in putting his money into four large brick dwellings about the corners of Second and Abbott streets, Detroit. In 1882 he sailed the tug Champion, and 1883 the Torrent, which were in the same business. In November of that year occurred one of the many incidents in Captain Moore's career, of which he has reason to feel proud.

A heavy snowstorm was raging, the mercury was down to zero, and the wind was rolling up great waves when word was received in the harbor at Port Huron that the large schooner Merrimac, with her masts gone, was at the mercy of the storm near Georgian Bay. There were larger tugs in the harbor, but their masters declined to go to the rescue, saying that it was a hopeless undertaking. Captain Moore, however, volunteered to make an effort to save the crew of the Merrimac, had timbers placed in the Torrent as braces, had everything liable to be carried away chained down and with engineer John Cronenweth at the throttle, steamed out to rescue the Merrimac and her crew. Despite the fury of the gale, the great task was successfully accomplished, and the schooner towed into Port Huron. But the Captain and the crew had to be at their posts thirty-six hours continuously, engineer Cronenweth having his hand on the throttle all the time, shutting off steam as the tug rose on a wave and the wheel came out of the water; and then turning it on as she lowered and the wheel was again submerged.

In 1884 Captain Moore sailed the tug Castle, and during 1885 he was master of the tug John Martin part of the season, then with nine others he went to Chicago and bought the side-wheeler Saginaw, he sailing her on Lake Erie the balance of the season. From this time to 1889 he spent his time on shore looking after his real estate and other investments. That spring he returned to sailing as master of the steamer Greyhound, on the Detroit- Toledo route. He ran her for two seasons, and then sailed the Idlewild during 1891 and 1892. He then retired from the lakes, and has done no sailing since except to run the steamer E.K. Kirby, for three months in 1896, during the illness of her captain.

Captain Moore was married, in 1852, at Mt. Clemens to Miss Caroline E. Chappell, and has one daughter, Minnie L., now Mrs. Charles Shaw, of Detroit.

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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.