Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes (Paperback)

~ Dwight Boyer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Freshwater Press (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: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #208,536 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 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)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for Great Lakes history buffs, March 18, 2008

By	Jerald R Lovell (Clinton Township, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dwight Boyer, an experienced journalist, and the marine writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has written a series of books on Great Lakes history. This is one of his best. Boyer's writing style is lucid and entertaining, encompassing not only the vessel(s) involved in each narrative, but also presenting the persons who make each yarn a complete story. Each chapter covers a separate vessel or instance, and each is enormously interesting. A section of black and white photographs or drawings is contained in the center part of the book.

The particular volume discussed here contains a series of narratives about vessels that sank, usually with at least some loss of life. A particularly good series of chapters concerns four vessels that sank in the terrible autumn of 1929 in storms, collisions, fog, and other mishaps of fortune. One of these is the Milwaukee, a big Grand Trunk railroad ferry that went out in the face of a storm that kept other vessels in port. The captain, Robert "Heavy Weather" McKay, was known for his disdain of the elements, and the boat foundered and sank somewhere in Lake Michigan. One lifeboat with four sailors who had perished from exposure, part of the bridge, and a purser's note, telling what had happened were all that were ever found. Also covered is the result of the investigation of the calamity.

Other stories include the disappearance of the famous "Alpena", the loos of the "Senator" a car hauler, in a fog-occasioned collison and the like. Any fan of Great Lakes history will enormously enjoy this wel-written book, which covers many noted sinkings and disappearances, and which always seems to add a human side that only very careful research discloses.

I highly recommend this wonderful book to any student of Great Lakes and Midwest history, as well as to anyone who enjoys a few colorful yarns about boats and those who work on them. Enjoy.