Gales of November is an annual two-day maritime educational, fundraising and networking event for the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association. Gales is Friday-Saturday, Nov. 2-3, in Duluth. Find details and register at www.LSMMA.com.
Events Friday center in Canal Park, with talks at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center and a lunch at The Sports Garden, where Brett Seymour of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center will speak (see side story).
All Saturday at the DECC, speakers focus on underwater photography, Great Lakes lighthouses, shipwrecks and other maritime heritage, including the history of cruising on the Great Lakes. Paul LaMarre III will talk at lunch (see the main story). There’s a silent auction in the exhibitor hall.
Also Saturday, winners will be chosen for the Cruise of a Lifetime raffle. Two cruises have been donated to help LSMMA’s fundraising. Victory Cruise Lines has donated one (two-person) cabin forits nine-night cruise on Victory II, either from Detroit to Thunder Bay or Thunder Bay to Detroit, valued at about $12,000. Interlake Steamship Company has donated a cruise on a Great Lakes freighter for up to six people.
Museum ship Col. James M. Schoonmaker.
Ship Shape: The Col. James M. Schoonmaker made an impression on Paul LaMarre III long before he ever saw the 617-foot freighter.
“Since I was born,” Paul says, “the builder’s plate and a model of the Col. James M. Schoonmaker were above our fireplace.” Such a mantle display was only natural in their Grosse Isle, Michigan, home because his grandfather and father worked in the maritime industry. In addition his dad, Paul C. LaMarre Jr., is a renowned marine artist and historian.
Like some kids might learn baseball, Paul learned freighter facts: Launched in 1911, the Schoonmaker was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes until 1914. The flagship of the Shenango Furnace Company broke cargo records its first year for iron ore, coal and grain. Sold in 1969 to Republic Steel Corporation, the vessel was renamed after president Willis B. Boyer, and was sold twice more before laying up in 1980.
COURTESY PAUL C. LAMARRE III
Paul LaMarre III.
In 1987, the ship opened as a floating museum in Toledo, Ohio. Paul’s father would take him there and impressed on him that it was like “going to church to pay respects to the history of your family heritage and the history of the Great Lakes themselves. So that was something very, very special to me.”
After graduating from the California Maritime Academy and working on boats on the Great Lakes, Paul joined the Navy and spent three years as an aviator, flying an
F/A-18 Hornet before returning to work in the maritime industry in 2006.
Sailing as a mate for the Gaelic Tugboat Company on the Detroit River helped him reconnect with the industry he loved. Plus he was with the company where his father has worked for more than 45 years.
When friends from his Navy days came to visit, Paul wanted them to see the Boyer (aka Schoonmaker), the city-owned museum ship.
But Paul and his buddies found the tourist site closed. As they were leaving, Paul saw a man on the ship and went back for answers. An old-timer emerged to say the laker suffered from neglect, tours were not available and there was currently no director.
COURTESY PAUL C. LAMARRE III
Paul LaMarre III with his father, Paul LaMarre Jr. in 1983.
Paul decided to apply for the job. Long story short, he was soon hired as executive director of the Willis B. Boyer museum ship, and for two years steered a grassroots campaign to save and restore the historic vessel.
In 2011, on the ship’s 100th anniversary, the restored laker was rechristened back to its original name by Treecie Schoonmaker, the granddaughter-in-law of the vessel’s namesake.
The concept for the National Museum of the Great Lakes started with the Great Lakes Historical Society, and together Paul and the society worked on its creation in Toledo.
Today, the Schoonmaker is open for tours in its permanent berth beside the National Museum.
If you haven’t already guessed, Paul is passionate about maritime history.
He will talk about that passion – and the details of saving the Schoonmaker – in his Saturday luncheon presentation “More Than a Job – Living the Lakes” at the Gales of November conference in Duluth.
“I have a career that has taken some unique turns. Ultimately, it all started from my childhood, growing up as a third generation of a Great Lakes family,” Paul says.
While working on the Schoonmaker project, Paul’s efforts led to a “day job” with the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority in 2007, serving as manager of Maritime Affairs. Since 2012, he’s been the port director for Monroe, Michigan, overseeing the Michigan’s only port on Lake Erie.
Paul likes to joke that he sold his soul to the world of port management “to save my rusty old ship,” but adds, more seriously, that he’s blessed to have had many varied experiences.
Already, his efforts to preserve maritime heritage have been honored.
In 2009, he was the youngest person to receive the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History’s annual Award for Historic Preservation for his work on the Schoonmaker.
This year the Marine Historical Society of Detroit named him 2018 Historian of the Year, for significant contributions to research and presentation of Great Lakes shipping history. Paul calls it a special honor, because the past Historians of the Year, going back decades and including his father (in 2001), vote for the new honoree. Many of them have been Paul’s mentors.
“There are certain things in life that speak to your heart and are nostalgic. For me, I tell folks that my leadership within the active Great Lakes maritime industry is more than a job, because it’s trying to preserve the family heritage and preserve an industry that has fed our family and the entire Great Lakes region for well over a century.”
Paul rarely gives talks at conferences, but he looks forward to gatherings like Gales of November.
“It not only allows me to tell what I believe is an important story, but it allows me to reacquaint myself with the journey that I’ve taken to get where I’m at. What is better than talking about our Great Lakes heritage in the Zenith City in front of a group of people who truly care about the subject matter?” he says.
“It really is more than a job.To me, it’s really not about the port of Monroe, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Duluth. It’s not necessarily about the Col. James M. Schoonmaker or the National Museum of the Great Lakes. It is trying to instill within business-minded people, historically minded people, really all those who benefit from this maritime transportation system, how important these vessels and the relationships that are built around them are to our everyday life.”
BRETT SEYMOUR
Shipwrecks in 3D
Prepare to dive into some of the most stunning photography of the shipwrecks at Isle Royale National Park during a talk by Brett Seymour, assistant district chief of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center. Brett, a diver and photographer, has been leading an effort to create a 3D virtual tour of the island parks’ wrecks and he will talk about his experiences this spring at the island as well as some of the new technology being developed to enhance underwater images. His talk, part of Gales of November, will be at lunch Nov. 2 at The Sports Garden.