"If I've learned one thing working on many books about Great Lakes shipwrecks, it's that Nature usually wins, and that for all of the human efforts to sail in all conditions, human foibles can lead to disastrous results."

"Lake Michigan holds more shipwrecks than the four other Great Lakes combined, and its sheer size has a lot to do with it.”

Along Lake Michigan explores 14 shipwrecks ranging from 1847 to 1940. Moving in chronological order, the short chapters detail what’s happened to each ship as well as a short history of the ships and, when relevant, diving explorations.

The shipwrecks were mostly a result of nature or accidents, a couple by fire and others as collisions/groundings. But a few were mysteries, there were some that we didn’t know where they even sunk until a century afterwards, let alone what exactly caused the tragedy with so many theories circling.

Mostly a basic overview of the crashes, doesn’t go too in depth and the information about each wreck varies. Sometimes the author will provide fun facts about the historical events surrounding the crash or the owner of the shipping line, while other times he only gives the story of how the shipwreck happened. And in later chapters he wrote as if telling a story (finally!) instead of just reciting the bare facts. So it was inconsistent in its narrative style but no matter what kind of information provided, the author mostly tells it in a dry, surface level way which reads more like a Wikipedia page than an in depth exploration.

For earlier wrecks, like the 19th century ones, I can understand the lack of information if there’s not much available compared to the more “recent” tragedies. But for the mysterious shipwrecks I wish we had a deeper exploration about the theories!

This is more for casual readers who have a mild interest in Lake Michigan shipwrecks, or shipping disasters in general. There are probably better books if you want more in depth details and not just a basic summary, especially if you’re already somewhat knowledgeable about the wrecks. However this would be good if 1) you're mildly curious about the topic and have zero prior knowledge about these wrecks, 2) as a reference guide to see which wrecks you’d like to learn more about-for instance I’ve added books about the Eastland to my TBR- or 3) as a gift.

Overall it was an interesting read to get me started on the topic, and as a Michigander I appreciated learning more about the history of one of our Great Lakes!

Rating: 3.5

This was an excellent book. It was well-written. I would highly recommend this book. It's very easy to read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Engaging and informative. I do wish the author would stick to a narrative style. Some of the chapters are chronological and others jump back and forth in time.

I’ve never seen Lake Michigan when it’s whipped up and stormy; hard to imagine it becomes so violent, especially in November. So many shipwrecks occurred because the owners were more concerned with profit than safety. Many fascinating stories, although since they can stand alone, much is repeated.

There is great research done on this novel about the ship wrecks on Lake Michigan. I found it very informative.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very insightful accounts of several significant shipwrecks the have occurred on the Great Lakes. A must have book for anyone interested in the history of the Great Lakes.

An interesting look at some early year maritime disasters on Lake Michigan. While most are centered on poor choices made during bad weather, several o0thers look at non-storm related events. The stories are interesting; however, it seems like the author rushed through some of the stories or did not research the events thoroughly. That said, it was a quick, in formative read that the maritime fan will enjoy.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Stayed up late to Read this in a night, I really enjoyed this book. I would read more books by this author

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

I love lighthouses, so shipwrecks have always been something that really intrigued me sonI was very excited to read this book. All of this author's other books are about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, so now I need to go and check out his other books.

The cover of this book is so beautiful, I'd absolutely hang it up on my wall as art.

Every chapter of this book is a self contained story about a specific shipwreck so it's easy to read them as individual little chunks. It's also a short book, so it's easy enough to read the whole thing in one sitting too.

The storytelling is great and the book overall is very well written.