Across the Great Lake by Lee Zacharias

The great lakes are fresh water lakes. Fresh water freezes at thirty-two degrees fahrenheit, a few degrees warmer than the temperature where salt water freezes. This increases the likelihood that freshwater ice will form quicker and be thicker, which is a problem for ships crossing Lake Michigan.

Across the Great Lake is the story of Manitou, a railroad ferry, in service in the early twentieth century. Railroad ferries were huge boats designed to carry railroad cars. Train engines would load the cars onto tracks built on a deck in the boat, then other engines would unload them when the boat reached the other side of Lake Michigan. This way the railroad could avoid traveling a huge distance to go around the lake.

Manitou was nicknamed the Bull of the Woods because it was a sturdy boat, capable of breaking through thick ice. It had such a great reputation for this it was often sent out to free other ferries trapped in the ice.

Lee Zacharias' novel is written from the point of view of Fern, the five-year-old daughter of the captain of the Manitou. The book has been thoroughly researched and is beautifully written, describing all the details of the boat and of the problems the crew takes on as they cross this massive body of water. By choosing to look at the boat through the naive eyes of a child and have her speak with experienced seamen, Zacharias is able to explain everything from the most elementary details to the more complicated ones. I knew very little about this part of American history and I was fascinated by it. She also managed to accomplish this without stopping the flow of the story.

At the beginning of the book Fern's mother is depressed because she has just lost a baby at the end of her pregnancy. She cannot find the strength to get out of bed to take care of her daughter, so Captain Halvorsen is left with no choice other than to take Fern on his scheduled journey across the lake. Once on board he assigns Alv, a fourteen year-old-boy, the youngest member of the crew, to watch out for her. Their relationship pushes the story along on a personal level.

The narrative bounces back and forth between Fern at age five and Fern as an adult looking back on her experiences. Among the characters other than Fern, Alv is the most important, but we also follow her relationships with her father, her mother, her stepmother and many of the members of the crew. This book captured me and I recommend it highly.

Across the Great Lake won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction, a Michigan Notable Book Award and a silver in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.