Heritage

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The early days of the Canadian Steamship Line on the Great Lakes

The great Hamonic

In early times, when the Great Lakes were the highways, communities depended on the ships that sailed the lakes for both their supplies and transportation.

Today, in and around the Great Lakes, the generations of those who sailed those ships, still live and tell their own stories and those of their ancestors.

In Southampton, a coastal town on Lake Huron whose namesake is Southampton, England, there are many who remember sailing the Great Lakes as teenagers and whose fathers and grandfathers carried on the sailing trade that enabled the early development around the lakes.

Chuck Beaton (L) & Doug Johnson are surrounded in history with 'From the Wheelhouse' book by Beaton and his father and the Canada Steamship line flag in the background

Many of the young people who "took to the ships" were left with little choice in a time of depression and little work.  Both young men and women, such as Doug Johnson who worked as a watchman on the ship the Windsor and Honey Price who was part of the steward program on the ships, and who now live in Southampton, remember the days spent aboard ship.

While many of the memories of those who sailed the Great Lakes in the age of sail are fading with age, some have fortunately been preserved.

Among those remembrances, is a little book filled with detail of sailing the Great Lakes, and co-authored by father and son ,.. Horace L. Beaton and Charles P. Beaton.

'From the Wheelhouse': The Story of A Great Lakes Captain - Horace L. Beaton, is both a recounting of the early days by a captain on the Great Lakes and the memories of his son, Charles, who as a child remembers his father, Captain Horace L. Beaton.

Horace Beaton was born inland from the Great Lake Huron in the small farming community of Tara, Ontario and, at the young age of 16, began working the ships.  His tales of adventure appealed to his son, Charles (Chuck) who wanted to ensure they were inscribed in perpetuity.

Reverend 'Chuck' Beaton (United Church) painstakingly documented his father's life as a captain on the Great Lakes, so that the marine lifestyle memories that evolved around the Great Lakes were not lost with time.

'From the Wheelhouse', tells the stories of life on the Great Lakes by a Captain and his family who waited on shore and, at times, sailed with him ...  episode #1:  The Beginnings ... to follow.

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Thursday, April 07, 2011