page_title: Great Lakes Patrol
section_title: Nellie Johnson Mutiny
hierarchical_section_title: Great Lakes Patrol / Operations / Nellie Johnson Mutiny
caption_attribution_description: English: USRC Tuscarora, circa 1902
context_page_description: The Great Lakes Patrol was carried out by American naval forces, beginning in 1844, mainly to suppress criminal activity and to protect the maritime border with Canada. A small force of United States Navy, Coast Guard, and Revenue Service ships served in the Great Lakes throughout these operations. Through the decades, they were involved in several incidents with pirates and rebels.
  The patrol was ended in 1920 when the US Coast Guard assumed full command of the operations as part of the Rum Patrol. This was initiated during the Prohibition era to try to reduce or end liquor smuggling from Canada across the rivers and lakes, a difficult task.
context_section_description: Captain Dan Seavey is the most remembered pirate to sail the Great Lakes. He was born in 1867 and briefly served in the United States Navy before becoming a criminal. Seavey was known as a fighting man for many exploits, including bar fights and episodes of that nature. His ship was the small fourteen-ton topsail schooner named Wanderer, which was allegedly armed with a cannon at one point. She was built around 1900 and originally intended for the Pabst family who owned the Pabst Brewing Company. It is not known how Seavey acquired her. Other than sneaking into a port at night and stealing freight from the docks, Captain Seavey had several different, legitimate professions over the course of his lifetime. He owned a saloon at one point, worked in the timber trade, and participated in the Yukon Gold Rush from 1896 to 1899. Seavey also claimed to have sunk a rival fishing ship with his cannon, killing everyone on board. While it is not known if this story is true, according to author Fred Neuschel, Seavey was guilty of manslaughter at least. The most remembered story of the pirate was that of the schooner Nellie Johnson, on which Seavey was a crewman. In 1908, Seavey was serving on the Nellie Johnson when he decided to incite two of his fellow crew members to mutiny and take the schooner from either Grand Haven, Michigan or Chicago, depending on varying sources.
  Some sources say the pirate acted alone. Seavey supposedly provided the ship with alcohol and one night, when most of the crew were drunk, he threw all of them from the ship and sailed the vessel out of the harbor. In response, the captain of the Nellie Johnson contacted the authorities who dispatched the revenue cutter USRC Tuscarora to find the ship. The Tuscarora was a small steam-powered vessel launched in 1901 and she went after the pirates for a few days until they abandoned their prize and escaped to shore. According to Neuschel, there are several exaggerated accounts of the chase. Some said that the Tuscarora found Seavey and opened fire, but the captain was able to steer the schooner out harm's way. Others said that after a warning shot Seavey surrendered and the Nellie Johnson was boarded by the Tuscarora's crew. Neither story is true. Seavey was eventually apprehended on land by a United States Marshal. He was arrested for "mutiny and revolt" but was released when the ship's owner failed to press charges. Seavey became a marshal himself and he is generally accepted to have retired to his home somewhere around Beaver Island in the 1920s.
caption: USRC Tuscarora, circa 1902
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