Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes [Paperback]

Dwight Boyer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0912514477 | ISBN-13: 978-0912514475 | Publication Date: 1968 | Edition: 1st

This book tells the story of the missing "ghost ships 'of the Great Lakes, ships that diappeared, often in complete mystery and were never seen again.

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Freshwater Pr; 1st edition (1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912514477
• ISBN-13: 978-0912514475
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #737,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work blends fiction and non-fiction, October 20, 2000

By 

Frank H. Straus (Springfield, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes (Paperback)

Dwight Boyer's "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes" is almost a classic of Great Lakes literature. The author, a longtime Cleveland, Ohio, journalist, had many friends in Great Lakes shipping and was able to draw upon his numerous contacts to produce a series of works that carry with them the smell and sight and sound of the Great Lakes.

"Ghost Ships" is written as a series of article-length stories about Great Lakes cargo vessels that met disaster - in some cases, disaster so complete that no one was left alive to tell the tale of how the boat went down. Boyer expertly combines contemporary evidence, in many cases gathered from local news stories, to develop believeable theories as to how these "ghost ships" met their end.

Some readers may be troubled by Boyer's ability to guess what happened and his ability to blend fact and fiction together to create his tales. However, all of his stories are firmly grounded (if I can use this word when writing about the water) and the man knew more than any living person how these disasters happened. Modern technology has lowered the probability of great disasters on the Great Lakes, and as of the Year 2000 there have been no "ghost ships" for the past 25 years. Long may it so continue. In the meantime, we have Boyer's fine book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 17 ships gone missing on the Great Lakes, March 28, 2010

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost ships of the Great Lakes. (Hardcover)

According to the late reporter and marine historian, Dwight Boyer (True Tales of the Great Lakes, Great Stories of the Great Lakes, etc.), even the plodding ore freighters, limestone haulers, and coal barges of our great inland lakes are referred to as 'she'-- whether her name is 'Frank C. Barnes' or 'James H. Reed,' 'she' could be a sweet-handling lady or a cranky shrew with a tendency to sink at the slightest provocation.

In "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes," Boyer reconstructs the last hours of seventeen ships gone missing on the lakes, whether due to mechanical failure, human error, or the inhuman forces of mountainous seas and terrifying winds. Storms can blow up very quickly on our vast inland lakes, and the ships in these tales sank well before the advent of weather satellites or, in many cases, ship-to-shore radios.

One of the saddest chapters, for me at least, is "Hard Times for the `Benjamin Noble.'" In the spring of 1914 (as is true now) the United States was in the grip of a severe recession, and the owner of the almost new canaller, "Benjamin Noble" underbid a contract to carry railroad rails from Ashtabula, Ohio to Duluth, Minnesota. To make money, several boxcars of steel rails had to be shipped up the Lakes in one trip. The `Noble' took on so many loads that her anchors were partially submerged when her young captain finally ordered his first mate leave the last two boxcars of rails behind. Otherwise "their weight would have sunk the ship right there in her loading slip."

This was the first trip of Captain Eisenhardt's first command. He knew that if he complained, there were other men who would be glad to take the `Benjamin Noble's helm. He couldn't complain to the Coast Guard, because in 1914 they had "no marine safety-enforcement powers...Their responsibility was saving lives after a disaster occurred."

The `Benjamin Noble' set out on that mild day in April, 1914 and made it all the way up to the Soo Locks without any problems. However, shortly after Captain Eisenhardt's overladen ship passed beyond sight of the locks, warnings of what turned out to be the worst spring gale in years were hoisted.

But the warnings came too late for the `Benjamin Noble' and her crew of eighteen souls.

Boyer sketches the lives of his sailors, with quick, telling details, but his narrative powers are most especially displayed during the ferocious storms that sank these seventeen vessels, and turned them into "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes."

Note: 36 years after this book was published, and 90 years after the `Benjamin Noble' set sail for Duluth, her remains were finally discovered under nearly 300 feet of cold Lake Superior water. See www.superiortrips.com/NShoreShipwreckImages/Ben_Noble.htm for more information about this doomed canaller.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Phantom Ships that pass in the night", December 15, 2009

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

According to the late reporter and marine historian, Dwight Boyer ("True Tales of the Great Lakes," "Great Stories of the Great Lakes," etc.), even the plodding ore freighters, limestone haulers, and coal barges of our great inland lakes are referred to as 'she'-- whether her name is 'Frank C. Barnes' or 'James H. Reed,' 'she' could be a sweet-handling lady or a cranky shrew with a tendency to sink at the slightest provocation.

In "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes," Boyer reconstructs the last hours of seventeen ships gone missing on the lakes, whether due to mechanical failure, human error, or the inhuman forces of mountainous seas and terrifying winds. Storms can blow up very quickly on our vast inland lakes, and the ships in these tales sank well before the advent of weather satellites or, in many cases, ship-to-shore radios.

One of the saddest chapters, for me at least, is "Hard Times for the `Benjamin Noble.'" In the spring of 1914 (as is true now) the United States was in the grip of a severe recession, and the owner of the almost new canaller, "Benjamin Noble" underbid a contract to carry railroad rails from Ashtabula, Ohio to Duluth, Minnesota. To make money, several boxcars of steel rails had to be shipped up the Lakes in one trip. The `Noble' took on so many loads that her anchors were partially submerged when her young captain finally ordered his first mate to leave the last two boxcars of rails behind. Otherwise "their weight would have sunk the ship right there in her loading slip."

This was the first trip of Captain Eisenhardt's first command. He knew that if he complained, there were other men who would be glad to take the `Benjamin Noble's helm. He couldn't complain to the Coast Guard, because in 1914 they had "no marine safety-enforcement powers...Their responsibility was saving lives after a disaster occurred."

The `Benjamin Noble' set out on that mild day in April, 1914 and made it all the way up to the Soo Locks without any problems. However, shortly after Captain Eisenhardt's overladen ship passed beyond sight of the locks, warnings of what turned out to be the worst spring gale in years were hoisted.

But the warnings came too late for the `Benjamin Noble' and her crew of eighteen souls.

Boyer sketches the lives of his sailors, with quick, telling details, but his narrative powers are most especially displayed during the ferocious storms that sank these seventeen vessels, and turned them into "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes."

Note: 36 years after this book was published, and 90 years after the `Benjamin Noble' set sail for Duluth, her remains were finally discovered under nearly 300 feet of cold Lake Superior water. See www.superiortrips.com/NShoreShipwreckImages/Ben_Noble.htm for more information about this doomed canaller.