I’ve been away from the blog for an extended period of time due to a series of factors, few of them pleasant. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, my position is at a teaching university, not a research one such as the University of Michigan,Ann Arbor, and that makes difference. And I manage an ill parent on the other side of the Michigan from my home in Grand Rapids, so that hasn’t made things easy either.

That being said, I have not given up on the McDougall project, indeed it has continued in a limited fashion during the past year. This has included gathering additional sources and doing some editing of the chapters already completed. This summer will be an opportunity to actually work and write, unlike last summer.

What has also helped to get the project back on track is a request by the Superior Public Museums, a major benefactor of my work, to write a series of short descriptions of McDougall’s shipyards other than the American Shipbuilding Company in West Superior, Wisconsin. I am currently completing them and found it an excellent restart to the project.

Additionally, I was able to join a larger project on invasive species prevention through Wayne State University. This project involves a history of ship ballast from antiquity to the present day and how that has introduced invasive species such as the Zebra and Quagga mussels to the Great Lakes. My part is historical in nature, and since ballasting the whalebacks were of paramount importance, they will feature prominently my part of the project. This involvement has also brought funding and the ability to hire one of my best students to work with me and produce a scholarly article and hopefully a museum exhibit.

So, my summer looks to be one directly focused on the project in one way or another, so that is very positive. I also read during the winter items on what makes a good blog, so I will be posting every other day with new material. Some long, some short, some simply being updates.