Sesquicentennial Minutes: 1942 | Great Lakes Shipping

[jazz music]
- Marcus Meyer: 1942, there were around 400-some boats on the Great Lakes.
As of today, we're down to about 50 to 60. Sometimes I would leave in March,
and I wouldn't get home until maybe the following January. Nine, ten months, and we worked seven days a week. No time off. My shift, I would go to work at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and work till 8 o'clock	that evening. Then I would get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and go on at 4 o'clock and work to 8:00 in the morning.
That was my eight hour day. Today I still wake up at 3 o'clock and I haven't been able to break it after 33 years. I-- my wife kind of gets teed off at me a little bit on that deal.

[jazz music]