Thrilling true stories of Great Lakes ships fill this 320-page volume. Highlights of events in Great Lakes history are told in the beginning chapter capsulizing great moments of adventure on the Inland Seas. This is followed by true tales of bygone and later ships of the lakes fleets, combining romance and industry to tell the saga of commercial shipping. Here are the tales of the sturdy lake vessels from the earliest explorer and fur trader to the more modern lake steamer. This book is "all boat" from cover to cover and includes nearly one hundred photographs. This expansive collection of pictures is a rare assemblage.Appeal is enhanced in this volume by a list of the Great Lakes major ship disasters, tables of sailing distances between various lake ports, sailing times for a normal transit, a nautical scale and a thorough index to the more than three hundred and fifty ships mentioned in the book.