Researching the career of a first mate....maybe.

[wardenclyffe]

Hi,

This is my first post.  My godfather was my first cousin, once-removed. He had a career aboard Great Lakes freighters.  I never met him.  At my baptism, they had a proxy for him because he was out on a ship.  I grew up in Wisconsin, but frequently visited his parents in the Upper Peninsula, but every time we visited, he was out on a ship.  He died in 1986 in his late 50s, so he might have worked from the late 1950s to the '80s.  I was always told that he was a first mate and he was out on a ship.  I assume that was true.  It gave me a romantic vision of him in a pea coat standing in the fog at the prow of a freighter.  But for all I know, he could have been swabbing decks (not that there's anything wrong with that).

He's dead.  His parents are dead.  My parents are dead. He was an only child.  I'm starting with nothing.

His name was Richard A. Newman or Dick Newman. Born in '28. Died in '86.  Can anyone suggest a good place to start?  I'm trying to figure out what ships he worked on and his career in general.

Thanks,

Ward

[wardenclyffe]

Thank you!  That certainly seems to be him.  Third mate to second to first.  Obviously there are some gaps in the record, but this gives me a starting point.

Thanks again,

Ward