William H. Bishop

William H. Bishop is a son of Orris and Sarah (Philps) Bishop, and a brother of Edward Bishop, who was in the Thunder Bay life-saving station for a time and is now lighthouse-keeper at that port. Mr. Bishop was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, March 14, 1863, and attended the public schools in his native place until he reached the age of fifteen years. He then opened his lakefaring life as lineman on the tug E.H. Miller, out of Alpena harbor, on which he remained six years. In the spring of 1883 he entered the employ of the Thunder Bay Boom Company as engineer of the tug Segison, retaining that berth three years, and in 1886 he joined the tug Ralph, as engineer, with Capt. C.W. Richardson, now hull inspector in Chicago. The next spring he went to Detroit and shipped in the river tug Kate Williams, as engineer, for a short time, after which he went to Cleveland and entered the employ of L.P. & J.A. Smith as engineer of the tug Maggie Sanborn. He continued with this firm four years, transferring from one tug to another as occasion required. In the spring of 1891 Mr. Bishop shipped as second engineer on the steamer John W. Moore. The next season he was on the steamer Empire for a time, and after leaving her served as second engineer on the C.J. Kershaw and E.S. Pease until fall, when he shipped on the fish tug, King, at Erie, Penn. In the spring of 1893 he came out as second engineer on the steamer A. Everett, transferred to the Nellie Torrent, and in the fall joined the fishtug Siskiwitt. The next season he was second engineer of the steamer Nahant. In 1895 he served as engineer of the tug S.S. Stone, till August, closing the season on the steamer Horace B. Tuttle. In 1896 he came out as first assistant on the Griffin, transferred from her to the steamer Argonaut, and at the close of lake navigation shipped on the steam canalboat John Lang, and went to the Atlantic coast by way of the Hudson river and the Sound. Returning to the lakes the following season, he fitted out the steamer Pascal P. Pratt, and ran her till June, when he took engineer's berth on the large tug Chauncey Morgan, of the Cleveland Towing Company.

Mr. Bishop was married to Miss Emma Horn, of Cleveland, on June 30, 1897. He is a member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.