Long before popular television shows such as
Dirty Jobs
and
The Deadliest Catch,
everyday men and women - the unsung heroes of the job world - toiled in important but mostly anonymous jobs. One of those jobs was deckhand on the ore boats, and this book offers an insider’s view of life on some of the ships that plied their trade on the Great Lakes. With numerous photographs and engaging stories, Deckhand illustrates both the mundane and the intriguing duties performed by deckhands on these gritty cargo vessels. Boisterous port saloons, monster ice jams, near drownings, and the daily drudgery of soogeying - cleaning dirt and grime off the ships - are just a few of the experiences Mickey Haydamacker had as a young deckhand working on freighters of the Great Lakes in the early 1960s. Haydamacker sailed five Interlake Steamship Company boats, from the modern Elton Hoyt 2nd to the ancient coal-powered Col. James Pickands with its backbreaking tarp-covered hatches.Deckhand will appeal to shipping buffs and to anyone interested in Great Lakes shipping and maritime history as it chronicles the adventures of living on the lakes from the seldom-seen view of a deckhand.