Robert DeMont Graham was a 1961 graduate of St. Lawrence University. In 1954 and 1955, he spent two summers working aboard the Halco Corporation freighter Eastcliffe Hall, sparking a lifelong interest in shipping. In 1976, thanks in part to an association with the Augsbury family, owners of Halco Corporation, Bob was engaged to write a 50th anniversary brochure for Halco. This successful project led to an invitation to write a longer, more comprehensive history of the shipping company. Halco Corporation failed in the late 1980s and Graham’s book project was shelved, but a desire to finish what he had started resulted in an unpublished manuscript, HALCO: The Odyssey of a Canadian-American Maritime Enterprise.
Drawing of the Eastcliffe Hall, on which a young Robert Graham sailed in 1954 as a teenager. The ship and nine people on board were lost in a 1970 accident in the St. Lawrence River near Louisville, NY.
Robert Graham, 1971
Collection Overview
The collection consists of photographs, notes, clippings, memorabilia, correspondence and research files associated with Robert Graham’s trips aboard various Halco Corporation vessels in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s that are associated with his research and writing of the Halco book manuscript. Included are numerous photographs that were to illustrate the book; files of photographs of each of the Halco Corporation’s ships; government reports and supporting documentation for several accidents that damaged or destroyed a number of Halco vessels.
Files on another unpublished manuscript, Elmer W. Jones: A Life of the Double-end Diesel Ferry and an Overview of the 20th Century Morristown, NY-Brockville, Ontario Ferry Service, are also included, along with numerous articles written by Mr. Graham for various boating publications.