Dan Seavey

Dan Seavey (March 23, 1865 – February 14, 1949), also known as "Roaring" Dan Seavey, was an American sailor, fisherman, farmer, saloon keeper, prospector, U.S. marshal, thief, poacher, smuggler, hijacker, procurer, and timber pirate in Wisconsin and Michigan and on the Great Lakes in the late 19th to early 20th century.

Early life Seavey was born in Portland, Maine, on March 23, 1865. He left home at age 13 and became a sailor, serving for a short time in the United States Navy. He moved near Marinette, Wisconsin in the late 1880s, where he married Mary Plumley and had two daughters. The family later moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Seavey fished, farmed and owned a local saloon. In 1898, Seavey left his family in Milwaukee to participate in the Klondike Gold Rush.

A significant amount of Seavey's profit was made from venison poaching. When a company called Booth Fisheries attempted to compete with his illegal venison trade, he attacked one of its ships with a cannon, killing everyone on board. he came aboard in Grand Haven, Michigan with a large amount of alcohol, which he offered to share with the crew. Once they became intoxicated, Seavey tossed them overboard and sailed the Nellie Johnson to Chicago, where he attempted to sell the cargo. and taken to Chicago in irons. but he was officially charged with "unauthorized removal of a vessel on which he had once been a seaman".

Seavey and the Wanderer feature in "Pirates of the Great Lakes" (January 7, 2019), episode 10 of season 12 of the Canadian television period drama Murdoch Mysteries. Seavey is played by Canadian actor Hugh Thompson.