With a focus on Wisconsin and Michigan, Great Ships on the Great Lakes explores the history of the region's rivers, lakes, and inland seas--and the people and ships who navigated them, from the first peoples in birch bark canoes to schooner crews of the 1800s to present-day Coast Guard rescue boats. Using illustrations, maps, sonar images, and color photographs, upper elementary readers read tales of danger and rescue on the low seas, and follows as underwater archaeologists uncover long lost shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.

Catherine M. Green is an underwater archaeologist specializing in outreach and education programs with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Cathy combines her background in nautical archaeology with her experience teaching in shipboard education programs to bring the maritime heritage resources of the sanctuary to a wide audience. Jefferson J. Gray has served as the superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, since 2002. The sanctuary protects the Great Lakes and their rich maritime history through research, education, and resource protection so this and future generations can enjoy these underwater treasures.
Bobbie Malone, former School Services Director at the Wisconsin Historical Society, wrote and edited many books for classrooms, including the fourth grade textbook, Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story; the New Badger History series; and the Badger Biographies series. She now consults with school districts and museums and is busily working on a biography of author-illustrator Lois Lenski.