Canals

[Jabberwock]

February 7, 1863 - In a letter to Secretary Mallory, a daring plan for a raiding expedition on the Great Lakes was proposed by Lieutenant William H. Murdaugh, CSN. Four naval officers would make their way to Canada and purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians, and reveal the object of the cruise only when underway. The crew was to be armed with revolvers and cutlasses. The steamer was to carry torpedoes, explosives, and incendiary materials.
At Erie, Pennsylvania, Murdaugh planned to carry U.S.S. Michigan by boarding, and then advance on Lake Ontario through the Welland Canal to destroy locks and shipping. The scheme was to pass through Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, and make for the great city of Chicago. At Chicago burn the shipping and destroy the locks of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. . .

[Jabberwock]

The Erie Canal (1825) - Mohawk River to Lake Erie through upstate New York: 9.5'
The Second Welland Canal (1848) - Lake Erie to Lake Ontario through Ontario, Canada: 9'
The Illinois & Michigan Canal (1836) - Chicago to the Illinois River: 6'
The Ohio & Erie Canal (1832) - the one you can use in the game . . . when it works: 4'

Dates provided are when end-to-end transit was possible at the given depth.

Draft of the USS Michigan (1844): 9'

Michigan's mission was to patrol the often volitile Great Lakes region, quelling port town civil disturbances, while at the same time rescuing both Canadian and American ships in distress. During the course of it's duty ship and crew engaged in battling lumber pirates, The Mormon tyrant (King) Jesse James Strang of Beaver Island as well as Miners and conflicts associated with the Civil War. The MICHIGAN was on duty on the Great Lakes during the Civil War but never engaged in battle. In March 1864 Secretary Welles ordered Commander John C. Carter to have USS Michigan "prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit." Michigan, an iron side-wheel steamer, was at Erie, Pennsylvania, and it was rumored that the Confederates were planning a naval raid from Canada against a city on the Great Lakes.

The Michigan was built in pieces in Pittsburg, and assembled in Erie, PA. It was never intended to sail out of the Great Lakes.

[Jagger]

Four naval officers would make their way to Canada and purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians, and reveal the object of the cruise only when underway

I like the part about informing the Canadian crew of their suicide mission against the Union once the ship was underway.