Archival Great Lakes Wreck Lists

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: All, : Over the years, I have collected comprehensive annual Great Lakes accident lists for nearly every year since 1840. Some of the lists have nearly 2000 entries. They are very important resources for tracing the careers of Lake vessels and they list MANY total loss wrecks that are not yet in any published source. : The problem is that the lists have never been transcribed and are very difficult and time consuming to search manually. I have tried to transcribe them, but I simply don't have enough time and it would take a lifetime. Searching for a given accident or loss takes hours with the raw data, instead of seconds, if they were transcribed. : I'm wondering if there is any interest in putting together a community effort to transcribe the lists. In exchange for transcription, I'd be willing to share the data (which is very lightly circulated) with transcribers. : If the lists can be transcribed, I will put them all online in a searchable database, which would be the single most valuable source for Great Lakes wreck researchers in existence. I estimate the lists contain over 100,000 individual accident references. : Please respond or email me if you are interested in participating. The lists are all original archival lists from insurance companies, the signal corp, customs houses, etc. and run from about 1840 to about 1910. I consider them the single most valuable resource in my collection. : Brendon

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