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From the Foreward: "This is the exciting story of the Great Lakes ships and the men aboard them. The author describes the long, broad-hulled ore boats loading by night under the brilliant arc-light of the Erie docks as well as the 1800-mile round-trip voyage that threads the Soo Canal and the MacArthur Lock, passes under the majestic spam of the International Bridge, and through the St. Marys Falls canal, which raises the vessel tenty-one feet to the level of Lake Superior.
Mr Carse, with his long experience of the sea, relates the ever-present perils of the voyage: the danger of to ships passing in the narrow channels where the turbulent underwater suction of the vessel toward vessel means dreaded collision if there is even momentary loss of control; the danger of fog during which a slight error in taking a bearing may ground the ship and block the entire Lakes shipping service; the danger of that strange Lakes wave called the seiche.
Champlain's discovery of Huron in 1615, the enterprises of the timber barons, the fabulous future prospects of the Lakes' lore, history, and drama are set down on these pages ith the nautical flavor hich Robert Carse captures so well. Forty photographs add to the vividness of the fascinating account of life aboard the ships of America's great inland fresh-water sea."