Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and Ships on the Great Lakes, 1817–1940, by George D. Jepson. Published by Sheridan House, in association with WoodenBoat, P.O. Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616. Illus., index, hardcover, 200 pp. $45.
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Sailing the Sweetwaters Seas is a collection of WoodenBoat articles by George D. Jepson. It tells the maritime history of the Great Lakes through the lens of the wooden boats and ships that pushed into the young Unites States’ middle region—and beyond. Indeed, the lakes—the so-called “five sisters”—were America’s first cargo and passenger superhighway before railroad lines and roads arrived in the late 19th century. Wooden boats helped establish the region’s robust industrial base, propelling the United States to become a world power. Over the course of a century, the Great Lakes would carry streams of Irish, German, and Scandinavian settlers to new lives. Initially, schooner fleets delivered passengers and goods to settlements along the lakes, including Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, and returned east with grain, lumber, and iron ore. Steam-driven vessels, including the lavish “palace” passenger steamers, followed, along with those specially designed to carry coal, grain, and iron ore. The era also produced a boat- and shipbuilding industry, as well as a flourishing of recreational boating. In text and photographs, this book tells the story of that era and its mariners—and of its boats and vessels. 