Scott's New Coast Pilot for the Lakes

Summary

Scott’s New Coast Pilot for the Lakes is a mariner’s reference compiled by George Scott of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, “Licensed Pilot of all the Lakes,” covering every light, fog signal, buoy, harbor and life-saving station on both the American and Canadian shores of the Great Lakes, together with compass courses, distances and sailing directions “corrected for magnetic variation of the compass.”¹ The copy held here is the sixth edition, “revised and enlarged, with maps, diagrams and illustrations,” printed in Detroit by the Free Press Printing Company in 1902, running to 393 pages. It is the primary documentary source held here for the exact light characteristics, fog signals and sailing directions around the Beaver Island group circa 1902. Page citations in this article are printed folios, read off the running headers; the scan carries 51 pages of front matter, so a printed folio is 51 less than the image index in the reader.

History

The title page states the work was “compiled from the most reliable sources, and from personal notes and observations of over forty years’ experience on the lakes” by George Scott.¹ The digitized copy carries a Bentley Historical Library (University of Michigan) bookplate noting its conservation was funded in part by the Friends of the Michigan Historical Collections; it was digitized by Google as part of a library-preservation program.²

Contents relevant to Beaver Island

Within the volume, Beaver Island group content is concentrated on pp. 139-141 (Straits of Mackinac / Lake Michigan light-house listings, including Beaver Island Harbor Light and Beaver Island Light Station), p. 169 (Squaw Island Light Station), pp. 262-265 (compass sailing directions to and from Beaver Harbor, including the prose description of the anchorage in “the bight on the east side of the island” and the warning on Gull Island Reef: “This very dangerous shoal, with only 5 feet of water… bears S.S.E. ¾ E., 4 miles, from the south point of Gull island”), pp. 273-276 (further Lake Michigan compass courses referencing Beaver Island light as a bearing mark, and a table of magnetic declinations giving “Beaver Island Light 0°.2 E.” for 1900), and p. 310 (Appendix, the Life Saving Service district list naming Owen Gallagher as keeper of the Beaver Island station — see Beaver Island Life-Saving Station).³

Significance

This is the single richest primary source held for the mechanical detail of the three Beaver Island group light stations — exact tower heights, colors, light characteristics, fog-signal timing, and compass bearings between them — and for the composition of Great Lakes sailing routes threading the archipelago. Cross-referencing it against the independently-surveyed North End of Lake Michigan Including the Beaver Island Group, 1855 Lake Survey chart (47 years earlier) shows at least two lights (the Beaver Island Harbor Light and the Beaver Head Light) were re-equipped between the two dates, and that the Squaw Island light did not yet exist as of the earlier chart.

Sources

Read the document

393 pages, rendered from the held scan. The printed folios run -50–342; the scan's own images run 1–393.

Jump to a page — 393 in all

-50-49-48-47-46-45-44-43-42-41-40-39-38-37-36-35-34-33-32-31-30-29-28-27-26-25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-14-10-6-2261014182226303438424650545862667074788286909498102106110114118122126130134138142146150154158162166170174178182186190194198202206210214218222226230234238242246250254258262266270274278282286290294298302306310314318322326327328329330331332333334335336337338339340341342

135 of 393 pages linked here — every page to 32, then every 4th, then the last 16. With JavaScript, every page.

Added 28 July 2026 · revised 9 August 2026. Recent changes