Index to "Schooner Days";
a series of articles that appeared in the former Toronto Telegram
authored by C.H.J. Snider
The Jerry Snider Special issued by The
Telegram on his 90th Birthday, May 26th, 1969. This is an Adobe PDF file.
Index compiled by Robert Townsend
Converted from the original FormBase format by Gene Clevenger
Note: This file is an index only and does not contain the actual article.
C.H.J. Snider was a great marine researcher and artist who worked aboard schooners in his youth and studied first-hand the development of the Great Lakes region.
His columns called "Schooner Days" were written for the Toronto Telegram (long gone) between 1931 and 1954, 1,303 articles. He was born in 1879 and died in 1971.
The best source for these articles is the Ontario Archives in Toronto where you can consult or purchase a microfilm of the articles. A number of institutions have the microfilm copy in their holdings. Hundreds of individuals clipped the articles on a weekly basis. Many of these clipping collections have found their way into museum and archival collections. The
microfilm and clipping collections can be found at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes. A selection of articles has been published. "Tales from the Great Lakes" based on C.H.J. Snider's "Schooner Days", Introduced and edited by Robert Townsend and published by the Dundurn Press Limited, 2181 Queen Street East, Suite 301, Toronto, Ontario. M4B 1E5. This book is also sold in the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes bookstore. More books are planned.
Although 'sail' was a passion, C.H.J. Snider also conducted interviews of people who were in sail and steam; shipwrecks, yachting and commercial shipping in general. An important part of "Schooner Days" was the "Passing Hails" - letters of comment and inquiry he received from his many readers. Initially his articles tended to be ignored by the "serious marine researcher", probably due to Snider's journalistic style of writing rather than content. Today his work is seen as important documentation.
Finally, here is the last stanza of a poem sent to "Schooner Days" by Charles Joyce from Meldrum Bay, in February, 1951.
Now they're gone, almost forgotten,
Officers and men and sails of cotten;
Their hulks abandoned, timbers rotten,
A memory of by-gone days.
With thanks to Bob Townsend for the above information.