Dwight Boyer Shipwreck Books

[Guest]

Thank you for solving a long time mystery for me. I could have sworn that I remembered reading somewhere as a kid that the Kamloops disappeared without a trace, but could never reconcile that with the other information to the contrary. And I've never again seen/been able to find that reference to "without a trace".

Love the Boyer books, always have. I remember waiting for new ones to come out. That being said, he was a story teller (and a good one), not a strict historian. Look at the Kamloops wreck story as an example. He reported the “ship and its entire crew disappear[ed]without a trace . . .” Not.

In May, 1928, fishermen discovered crew member remains at Twelve O' Clock Point on Isle Royale. Also, wreckage was discovered ashore. In June, more bodies were discovered. Nine bodies were recovered from Kamloops. Five were identified returned to next of kin. Four remained unidentified and were buried at Thunder Bay.

More relevant, in December 1928, a trapper at the mouth of the Agawa River found a note in a bottle from Alice Bettridge. She was a young assistant steward who apparently survived the sinking. The note stated: "I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. I just want mom and dad to know my fate." Her parents confirmed the note was Alice’s handwriting.

[Guest Who]

Thank you, Mr Lafferty. I knew Willis B. was a big noise in the steel industry and recall the Republic/Cliffs deal. Having worked on the Boyer I couldn't help but wonder.

[Statmk]

Love the Boyer books, always have. I remember waiting for new ones to come out. That being said, he was a story teller (and a good one), not a strict historian. Look at the Kamloops wreck story as an example. He reported the “ship and its entire crew disappear[ed]without a trace . . .” Not.

In May, 1928, fishermen discovered crew member remains at Twelve O' Clock Point on Isle Royale. Also, wreckage was discovered ashore. In June, more bodies were discovered. Nine bodies were recovered from Kamloops. Five were identified returned to next of kin. Four remained unidentified and were buried at Thunder Bay.

More relevant, in December 1928, a trapper at the mouth of the Agawa River found a note in a bottle from Alice Bettridge. She was a young assistant steward who apparently survived the sinking. The note stated: "I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. I just want mom and dad to know my fate." Her parents confirmed the note was Alice’s handwriting.

[William Lafferty]

Out of curiosity, was Dwight Boyer any relation to Willis B. Boyer, onetime name of the Toledo museum ship?

No. Willis Boyer, a Pennsylvania native, was a longtime Republic Steel executive who ended his career as president, then CEO, and finally chair of Republic Steel, all positions that coincided with Cleveland Cliffs handling the Republic float contract.

[GreatLaker]

Doubtful

[Guest Who]

Out of curiosity, was Dwight Boyer any relation to Willis B. Boyer, onetime name of the Toledo museum ship?

[Guest Jon Paul]

Boyer was a product of his time so there's lots of romantic writing and SOME artistic license taken in a few areas such as what was going on onboard a ship lost with all hands or his ability to put first names to people who other historians have not had the same luck dealing with just a initial and misspelled last name.

With that being said, he knew many sailors and captains first hand from the 1870s going all the way to his death in 1977. Boyer would seek out these living relics and ask them questions to form a book, which is why I hold him high regard regardless of some errors and license.

I would agree with your opinion on Boyer. I grew up reading Boyer's book and they were part of the reason I started sailing as an 18yr old deckhand in 1974. He wrote about eras that today's sailors wouldn't understand. A boat was your home for 8-9 months straight. Few vacation opportunities and not the time off every couple months that sailors enjoy today.
No cell phones, TV reception was intermittent at best, if at all. Navigation was done with charts, radar, DR and aquired local knowledge over your career with Loran and GPS Chartplottiing far in the future. A high point was passing Detroit and getting mail from Wescotts and copies of the Free Press or Detroit News or mail locking through the Soo. Boyer also recognized that Sailors worked the boats for many different reasons and from many different regions and backgrounds. He never forgot that many who died on the lakes during the early part of the 20th Century were intinerat souls basically nameless and homeless when not working on the black gang or deck crew aboard the hundreds of different kinds and varieties of the lake boats.
In my humble opinion Mr Boyer painted a much more realistic picture of what life was like working on the Lakes than any of today's current authors.

[William Lafferty]

Mr. Boyer died 15 October 1977. Here is an extensive obituary from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 16 October 1977. I have never seen a reference to a dog in contemporary press reports of the loss of Kamloops.

[Guest]

The Plain-Dealer reported that he died at 2:30 AM, October 15, 1977.

As far as accuracy, his obituary noted:

His passion for accuracy was legendary. He once spent three months trying to find what a lake captain's initials stood for. They were C.A. "They stood for Chauncey Aloysius," Mr. Boyer said. "No wonder he only used initials."

[Jared]

Boyer was a product of his time so there's lots of romantic writing and SOME artistic license taken in a few areas such as what was going on onboard a ship lost with all hands or his ability to put first names to people who other historians have not had the same luck dealing with just a initial and misspelled last name.

With that being said, he knew many sailors and captains first hand from the 1870s going all the way to his death in 1977. Boyer would seek out these living relics and ask them questions to form a book, which is why I hold him high regard regardless of some errors and license.

[Guest]

Just to add what the original poster had written, Dwight Boyer was born in 1913 and passed away in mid-October 1977 at the age of 64. He was a long-time writer, on the staff of Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. There is a bit of discrepancy on Dwight Boyer's passing. The November 1977 issue of the Detroit Marine Historian notes at the bottom of page 5 that he passed away in mid-October 1977. https://images.maritimehistoryofthegrea ... /page/7?n=

[Guest]

The series of books written about Great Lakes shipwrecks by Dwight Boyer has always been my favorite on the subject. I was wondering if anyone can vouch for how accurate these books are or did the author take a poetic license with certain aspects of the stories? I ask because they seem to be so detailed in many ways. I have found some notations of certain references he made in archived newspaper articles but was just wondering about the historical accuracy of his work. One story I found particularly interesting was the captain's dog refusing to reboard the Kamloops as it prepared to leave Courtright, Ontario while upbound on its fateful voyage to sink in Lake Superior. From what I have found online, Dwight Boyer was a newspaper reporter and worked for newspapers in Cleveland (The Plain Dealer) and Toledo (The Blade) during his career. His stories are very interesting and enjoyable to read.