27. Georgian Bay, 1828Captain James Hackett watched the bow of his ship, the Alice Hackett, plow the waves. He was worried about the clouds and the height of the breakers; this weather did not bode well. The Scottish sailor had gained his experience on the coast of his country of origin, off the Hebrides, so his seaman’s instincts on this freshwater sea were completely amiss. The rather sketchy nautical charts that the admiralty issued to captains of Great Lakes ships were hardly adequate to navigate safely. Innumerable islands and rocks waited just below the water, in the most unpredictable places. Here too, storms could easily surprise the mariner. Their warning signs were not at all like those that appeared on the real seas—those with salt water. Here, if a boat was unlucky enough to ge
