Minnesota Trivia Don'tcha Know! - Softcover

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Brett Ortler is an editor at Adventure Publications. While at Adventure, he has edited dozens of books, including many field guides and nature-themed books. His own work appears widely, including in Salon, Good Men Project, The Nervous Breakdown, Living Ready and in a number of other venues in print and online. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and their young children.

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There were once pirates on the Great Lakes
When you think of pirates, you probably think of frigates bristling with cannons plying the waters of the Caribbean, but piracy also occurred on the Great Lakes. Of course, the pirates on the Great Lakes were not the flawed-but-admirable figures like Disney’s Captain Jack Sparrow. Just as their Caribbean counterparts were often murderers and slavers, the Great Lakes pirates were often little more than thieves, and the primary loot that they were after was hardly the stuff of the Spanish Treasure Fleet. On the contrary, the pirates of the Great Lakes often raided ships carrying cargo with a distinctively Northwoods flair, especially timber and venison.

“Roaring” Dan Seavey: the most infamous pirate on the Great Lakes
Perhaps the most famous pirate of the Great Lakes was “Roaring” Dan Seavey, an almost legendary figure best known for inciting a mutiny on a merchant vessel, the Nellie Johnson and then leading the U.S. cutter Tuscarora on a week-long chase through Lake Michigan. As you might expect, this tale was immediately embellished by national newspapers, and the existing accounts differ wildly about the details. The New York Times reported that Seavey was taken into custody after a shot was literally fired over his ship’s bow, but this doesn’t actually seem to be the case, as the Tuscarora’s captain’s log indicates that Seavey simply surrendered and was arrested by the U.S. Marshal on board. Seavey later escaped indictment thanks to a favorable grand jury.

“Moon Cussing”: a shady tactic to wreck ships—and steal their cargo
Moon cussing was a tactic that Dan Seavey was no doubt familiar with. “Moon cussers” created fake navigational lights or extinguished existing ones, causing ships to be run aground on rocks or shoals. The pirates would then salvage the cargo from the disabled ships. This technique gets its name because the would-be wreck scavengers “cuss the moon” when its light prevents them from illegally salvaging a wreck in secret.

TRIVIA TIDBIT: The Great Lakes Distillery even named one of their rum varieties after “Roaring Dan Seavey.” They’ve also created a special drink, the “Moon Cusser,” in his honor. Appropriately enough, it is served on the rocks.