This week, we feature a love story that influenced America’s founding and a foray into the oft-overlooked shipbuilder for the Great Lakes waterways that developed so much of the American heartland.
Maritime History
‘The Great Lakes Ships of Frank E. Kirby: America’s Greatest Naval Architect’
By Richard GebhartThe North American Great Lakes form one of the world’s most important commercial waterways. From the 1800s on, especially after the Civil War, it was the highway that fed America’s industrial heartland. From the 1880s through 1910s, the most important and innovative ships designed and built on the Lakes sprang from the mind of self-taught naval architect Frank E. Kirby. This book provides a biography of the man, the history of his ships, and the impact his innovations had on shipping worldwide.
