Beyond the Windswept Dunes

The Story of Maritime Michigan

Elizabeth B. Sherman

• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN:
  9780814331279
• eBook ISBN:
  9780814340011
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Beyond the Windswept Dunes takes the reader into a world of maritime adventure as it was experienced by the sailors, passengers, rescue workers, shipping magnates, industrialists, and many other people whose livelihoods revolved around Michigan's port city of Muskegon. At one time the leading edge of westward expansion, Muskegon was a place where lumbering and lakers merged and where rails met decks, a place situated midway along the coast of a great and sometimes stormy inland sea. Here Elizabeth Sherman offers both a shipping history and a portrait of the city. The events covered range from the visit by the British sloop H.M.S. Felicity in 1779 through Muskegon's boom years as "Lumber Queen of the World, " from the city's revitalization with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to its recent establishment of a floating museum complex for historic naval vessels. The book's focus is on the ships themselves—such as the Lyman M. Davis, Salvor, Highway 16, and Milwaukee Clipper—vessels that were noteworthy for being the first of their kind or for their popularity, unusual and distinctive careers, or tragic losses. A number of ships were lost in Lake Michigan near Muskegon Harbor, and the stories of some of the most notable wrecks and rescue missions appear in this book, including the psychic intervention that led the William Nelson to the exciting rescue of the crew aboard the sinking Our Son. The book offers many first-hand statements of shipwreck survivors and other witnesses, lending an authentic voice to the accounts.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontispiece
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Series Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Maps and Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Hewn from the Wilderness: Muskegon’s Earliest Days
• 2. Lumber Days on Muskegon’s Waterfront
• 3. Steamships and Car Ferries of Muskegon
• 4. Maritime Muskegon in the Twentieth Century
• 5. Muskegon Today: New Ships and Old
• Poem: The Good Captain
• Appendix A: Angus Linklater/The Granada
• Appendix B: Capt. J. D. Dunbar/The R. B. King
• Appendix C: Frank Dulach/The Waukesha
• Appendix D: Frank Dulach Reiterates
• Appendix E: Toronto Evening Telegram/The Lyman M. Davis
• Appendix F: Frank Blakefield/The Erie L. Hackley
• Appendix G: “Doc” Ray Cooke/The Alabama
• Appendix H: Guy E. Jones/The Naomi
• Appendix I: Capt. Edward Miller/The Muskegon
• Appendix J: Lyman Nedeau/The Salvor
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index