Luke Mullany

Luke Mullany, at present employed as assistant engineer at the Buffalo Water Works, was born at Roscommon, Ireland, and was brought to America by his parents when he was eighteen months old. His father, John Mullaney, was a farmer in the old country, and became a quarryman in Saratoga County, N. Y., after he came to this country. The mother's name was Mary Golden.

Luke Mullany obtained his education in Saratoga County, and began his seafaring life on the old steamer Southern Michigan, which belonged to the Southern Michigan & Northern Indiana line, working a season on the steamer. The following season he was fireman on the Crescent City and Forest Queen, respectively, and the next in the same capacity on the Winona, of the New York Central line, and the Troy. He then became second engineer on the tug Noah P. Sprague. His next employment, in 1860, was as second engineer of the steamer Wabash Valley, of the Goodrich line, upon which he remained until she sunk in collision with the steamer Mineral Rock, outside Saginaw Bay. She did not sink immediately, but was run to Black River, about twenty miles off, where she went down in shallow water, and was afterward raised, taken to Detroit and rebuilt. After being paid off at Detroit Mr. Mullany started for Buffalo on the steamer Mt. Vernon. The boiler of this steamer blew off the dummy light in Lake Erie, but he finally reached his destination in safety and obtained employment as second engineer on the propeller Rocket, of the New York Central line, for the balance of the season. She plied between Green Bay, Toledo and Buffalo.

In 1861 Mr. Mullany was second engineer of the propeller Hunter, which burned at the dock at Chicago just about the time she was being laid up at the end of the season. The following two seasons he was second engineer of the Empire State, chief of the Kentucky, and second of the Mohawk. In 1864 he was second engineer of the steamer St. Louis for the whole season; in 1865 was second on the Badger State; in 1866 was engineer on the propeller Saginaw; in the latter part of 1867 he served as engineer of the steam barge Howard; in 1868 he went on the New Era, and during the latter part of that season was engineer of the tug Mosier; in 1869-70 and part of 1871 he was engineer of the tug Monitor. For one season he also engineered tugs belonging to the Maytham line, and for the following nine years he was engineer of a hydraulic hoist at East Buffalo for the Eire Railroad Company, in whose employ he continued, at their docks at Buffalo and otherwise, until about May, 1883, when he was made assistant engineer at the Buffalo water works, in which employ he still remains.

Mr. Mullany was married in 1874 at Florence, Oneida Co., N. Y., to Julia E. Slater, and they have five children, named and aged (1898) as follows: John Thomas, twenty-one years; Loretta Evaline, nineteen; Edward Patrick, sixteen; Julia Frances, thirteen, and Arthur James, eleven.

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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.