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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 3, 2015 5:20:23 GMT -5
11/3 - Waterfront reports indicate that American Spirit is headed for an early winter lay-up at Sturgeon Bay. Indiana Harbor is headed to Duluth/Superior to lay-up. Roger Blough and Presque Isle are on their last trips of the season as well, with Edgar B. Speer also reported to be on or near her last trip of the season. The early lay-ups are likely a result of the downturn in the steel industry.
The outlook for U.S. Steel: bleak and bleaker
11/3 - Pittsburgh, Pa. – In two years as president and CEO of U.S. Steel, Mario Longhi has frozen the steel producer’s pension fund; jettisoned its hemorrhaging Canadian unit by putting it into bankruptcy; pulled the plug on steelmaking and most steel finishing operations at its Fairfield, Ala., mill; saved more than $800 million by cancelling a troubled project at its Gary, Ind., mill; and generated about $600 million in annual savings from his vaunted Carnegie Way initiative.
And still the red ink flows. U.S. Steel is expected to post its third consecutive quarterly loss this week as the fruits of Mr. Longhi’s labor have been overwhelmed by deeply discounted prices spawned by cheap imports, the strong U.S. dollar, an anemic energy market and a global glut of steel.
Analysts are also forecasting the Pittsburgh steel producer will record a loss for all of 2015. If they are right, it will be the sixth time in seven years that U.S. Steel has failed to earn a profit.
“Many things look very bleak,” said John Tumazos, an independent metals analyst from Holmdel, N.J. “Mario has done a lot of what he can do. I think they’ve done a good job not to be in worse shape.”
What ails U.S. Steel and other domestic producers is largely out of their control — China’s huge surplus of steelmaking capacity.
Mr. Tumazos estimates there may be 700 million or 800 million metric tons of excess steelmaking capacity globally, with China accounting for 500 million to 600 million metric tons of it. By comparison, U.S. mills shipped 98 million tons last year.
“Until China closes a lot of capacity, the world steel situation cannot markedly improve,” said John Anton of IHS, an economics research firm. “If China doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t matter what anybody else does.”
With China’s steel demand expected to drop this year and in 2016, that country is exporting its excess to Europe and the U.S. where steel imports jumped 38 percent last year. Although they are off 5 percent this year, imports still control about 30 percent of the U.S. market.
The surge has left U.S. mills operating at about 70 percent capacity and has driven prices sharply lower. Many steel products cost about $200 a ton less than they did a year ago. Mr. Tumazos said some prices are at levels not seen since the 2003 steel recession, an event that drove several major steel producers into extinction.
Domestic producers have responded by filing complaints against China and other foreign producers, alleging they are dumping three types of widely used sheet products in the U.S. at unfair prices. They also allege some of the imports benefit from government subsidies.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to decide in December and January whether to impose duties on the imports. The higher the duties or margins, the more the sanctions will curb imports.
“If positive results come from these trade cases, it could help the industry out,” said Matt Miller, a metals analysts with S&P Capital IQ.
Mr. Anton said favorable decisions could boost steel prices by as much as $50 a ton, but he believes increases of $25 or $30 a ton are more likely. Rulings in other recent trade cases involving steel imports have not generate the magnitude of relief U.S. producers were looking for, he said.
The slump has taken some of the sheen off the Carnegie Way, the centerpiece of Mr. Longhi’s plan for making U.S. Steel capable — as he says — of “earning the right to grow.”
In July, the company said the effort was expected to generate $590 million in savings this year.
Since then, market conditions have deteriorated, prompting U.S. Steel to consider putting 2,000 people out of work by temporarily idling its Granite City, Ill., mill. The plant supplies the company’s tubular business, which is struggling because of the collapse of oil prices. Once U.S. Steel’s most prosperous unit, the tubular business lost $66 million before interest and taxes in the first half. Shipments tumbled 64 percent from year-ago levels.
“I don’t see any scenario where the tube business is good next year,” Mr. Tumazos said.
U.S. Steel laid off salaried personnel in September, but a spokeswoman declined to say how many. Current and former employees who asked not to be identified put the number at about 100. The continuous belt-tightening — much of it spawned by recommendations from outside consultants — has damaged morale, according to the former employees. It’s also jaded opinions of the Carnegie Way.
“In 2014, everybody was buying into it because they were seeing the positive results,” said one former salaried worker who spoke on the condition that she not be identified. “Everybody loved the Carnegie Way then.”
A former operations and maintenance employee who left voluntarily this year called the Carnegie Way “a big joke.” After purchasing officers in Pittsburgh ordered his mill to use cheaper oils to lubricate bearings, the bearings wore out more quickly, resulting in extra costs and longer down time for the mill, he said.
“I’m all about cost cutting, but not at the expense of operations and that’s what we were doing,” he said.
Analysts say the industry’s plight is more than another cyclical swoon. They warn that China, which accounts for half of world steel production, is structurally changing the industry — a fact U.S. producers must come to grips with.
Against this backdrop, U.S. Steel is negotiating a new contract with the United Steelworkers union, which is working under the terms of a labor agreement that expired Sept. 1. Union officials said if the company has its way, the next contract will have their members paying thousands of dollars more each year for health care and agreeing to concessions on overtime, contracting out work to non-union workers and other issues. The union estimates about 17,000 workers are covered by the contract.
Because China’s massive overcapacity augurs tough days ahead for U.S. steel producers, Mr. Tumazos believes the time is ripe for U.S. Steel to win concessions.
“The issue is: how long does the union maintain this illusion that business is temporarily bad,” he said.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lake Michigan water levels rising
11/3 - Chicago, Ill. – Water levels in Lake Michigan have been below average for several years, but that’s changing now. The long-term average is 579 feet, currently it’s up to 580 feet, CBS 2’s Mary Kay Kleist reports.
Because we are used to levels being down for a while, the change is more noticeable, especially on a day when there is a strong onshore flow, creating high waves.
“It’s less room for the dogs to run and get their exercise,” said dog owner Shelia Johnson, on a recent visit to Foster Beach. “It’s kind of disappointing; it’s such a beautiful lakefront.”
What causes the fluctuations in lake levels? Rain and snow over the lakes, evaporation, and runoff. It’s the long-term precipitation and temperature trends that make the difference. With a strong El Nino in place right now, that could mean a drier, milder winter. But would that have an effect on lake levels? Not likely, since the watershed is huge, covering thousands of square miles all the way up to Canada.
Forecasters say lake levels should remain above average through next summer.
CBS Chicago
On 03 November 1907, tug ESCORT (wooden propeller, 45 foot, 40 gross tons, built in 1894, at Port Colborne, Ontario) tried to pass the barge BENJ HARRISON at the mouth of the Niagara River. In a navigational error, the tug sheared under the barge’s bow, was run over and sunk. Three lives were lost.
B. A. PEERLESS sailed on her maiden voyage November 3, 1952, bound for Superior, Wisconsin, where 110,291 barrels of crude oil were loaded destined for British-American's refinery at Clarkson, Ontario. The PEERLESS was built for the express purpose of transporting crude oil from the Interprovincial / Lakehead Pipeline terminus at Superior to B / A's Clarkson refinery. The vessel lasted until 1991, when she was broken up.
On 3 November 1898, PACIFIC (wooden propeller passenger/package freighter, 179 foot, 918 gross tons, built in 1883, at Owen Sound, Ontario) caught fire at the Grand Trunk dock at Collingwood, Ontario. She burned to a shell despite a concerted effort to save her. She was later towed out into Georgian Bay and scuttled.
On 3 November 1855, DELAWARE (wooden propeller, 173 foot, 368 tons, built in 1846, at Black River, Ohio) was carrying general merchandise from Chicago to Buffalo with a stop at Milwaukee. She was driven ashore by a gale eight miles south of Sheboygan, Wisconsin and sank. Ten or 11 of the 18 on board lost their lives. Within a few days, only her arches were visible above the water.
Dismantling of the H. C. HEIMBECKER began on 03 Nov 1981, by Triad Salvage Company at Ashtabula, Ohio, and was completed the following year. This vessel was originally named GEORGE W. PERKINS (steel bulk freighter, 556 foot, 6,553 gross tons, built in 1905, at Superior, Wisconsin.)
1928: CANADIAN TRADER was Hull 39 of the Port Arthur shipyard. Following a sale to Japanese interests, the ship departed Seattle on this date in 1928 on its delivery voyage, still as c) GUILDA SCUDERI, and was never seen again.
1953: The tug J.A. CORNETT went hard aground about seven miles north of Clayton, NY and was leaking badly. The vessel was eventually refloated and survived at Port Dover, ON at least as recently as 2011. It has been laid up there since 1992 and is now in derelict condition.
1965: The tug MISEFORD was towing the barge CHARLES W. JOHNSON when they were caught in a storm on the St. Marys River. The tug was pulled over on her side and rested on the bottom. MISEFORD was salvaged in the spring of 1966 and remains in service in 2012 as a harbor tug at Thunder Bay, Ont.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 4, 2015 5:58:19 GMT -5
What a day!! 35 years ago the LAUREN CASTLE off LEE POINT in West Traverse Bay Mi. with my dad manning the engine room.
The Great Lakes Steamship Company steamer NORWAY passed downbound through the Soo Locks with 6,609 tons of rye. This cargo increased the total tonnage transiting the locks in 1953 to 120,206,088 tons – a new one-season tonnage record. Renamed b.) RUTH HINDMAN in 1964, she was scrapped at Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1978.
On 04 November 1883, MAYFLOWER (wooden propeller freighter “steam barge,” 185 foot, 623 gross tons, built in 1852, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying lumber when she stranded in a gale off Point Abino near Buffalo, New York where the waves pounded her to pieces. The crew made it to shore in the yawl. She was built as a very fine passenger steamer for the Western Transportation Line then in 1868, she was rebuilt as a “steam barge.”
On 4 November 1875, SWAN (wooden propeller tug, 11 gross tons, built in 1862, at Buffalo, New York) caught fire while lying out in the Saginaw River near East Saginaw. She was abandoned by the crew and burned to the water’s edge.
JOSEPH G. BUTLER JR (steel bulk freighter, 525 foot, 6,588 gross tons) was launched on 04 Nov 1905, at Lorain, Ohio for the Tonopah Steamship Co. (Hutchinson & Co., mgr.). She lasted until 1971, when she was stripped of her cabins and scuttled, along with HENRY R. PLATT JR., at Steel Co. of Canada plant, Burlington Bay, Hamilton, Ontario, as breakwater and fill.
CARTIERCLIFFE HALL was registered at Toronto, Ontario, on 04 Nov 1977, but didn't enter service until the spring of 1978 because of mechanical difficulties during her sea trials.
On 04 Nov, 1986, TEXACO CHIEF was renamed A.G. FARQUHARSON. She was renamed c.) ALGONOVA (i) in 1998.
CALCITE II departed Cleveland at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, 04 Nov 2000, on her last trip for USS Great Lakes Fleet. She sailed upbound for Sarnia, Ontario, where she spent the winter in lay-up. Grand River Transportation had entered into a sale agreement with USS Great Lakes Fleet, Inc. for the purchase of the CALCITE II, GEORGE A. SLOAN and MYRON C. TAYLOR. Built as the WILLIAM G. CLYDE in 1929, CALCITE II is awaiting scrapping as c.) MAUMEE.
HERON BAY proceeded under her own power to Lauzon, Quebec, for her final lay-up on November 4, 1978.
CSL's NIPIGON BAY was launched November 4, 1950.
CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON developed a sizable leak and almost sank November 4, 1925, during her tow to Superior after she struck a reef a few nights before.
ROBERT C. STANLEY's keel was laid November 4, 1942.
UNITED STATES GYPSUM of 1910 grounded at Toledo, Ohio, on November 4, 1972, resulting in damage totaling $125,000. Her propeller was removed and the rudder shaft was locked in position to finish the season as a manned barge on the coal run from Toledo to Detroit, Michigan.
JOSEPH H. THOMPSON became not only the largest vessel on the Great Lakes but also the longest dry bulk cargo vessel in the world when it entered service on November 4, 1952, departing Chicago on its first trip.
Setting the stage for the fateful storm that followed less than a week later that sank the EDMUND FITZGERALD, many locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin were setting all-time record high temperatures for the month of November during the period of November 4-6, 1975. Grand Marais, Minnesota, reached 67 degrees on November 5 and Superior reached 74 degrees on November 6, both all-time records for the month. Many other notable Great Lakes storms, including the Armistice Day storm of 1940, and the storm that sank the HENRY STEINBRENNER in 1953, were proceeded by record-setting warm weather.
On 4 November 1877, MARY BOOTH (wooden scow-schooner, 132 tons, built in 1857, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying maple lumber in a storm in Lake Michigan. She became waterlogged but her crew doggedly clung to her until she appeared ready to turn turtle. Then her crew abandoned her and she rolled over. She drifted in the lake for several days. The crew landed at White Lake, Michigan and they were near death.
The Port Huron Times of 4 November 1878: "The propeller CITY OF MONTREAL is believed to have gone down on Lake Michigan on Friday [1 NOV 1878]. The schooner LIVELY, laden with coal for Bay City, is reported ashore 6 miles above Sand Beach, having gone on at 12 o'clock Sunday night [3 NOV 1878]. The schooner WOODRUFF, ashore at Whitehall, is a total loss. Two men were drowned, one died from injuries received, and Capt. Lingham was saved. The tugs E M PECK and MYSTIC, which went from the Sault to the assistance of the propeller QUEBEC, were wrecked near where she lies, one being on the beach and the other sunk below her decks. Both crews were rescued and were taken to St. Joseph Island."
On 4 November 1856, J W BROOKS (wooden propeller, 136 foot, 322 tons, built in 1851, at Detroit) was carrying provisions and copper ingots to Ogdensburg, New York in a storm when she foundered on Lake Ontario, 8 miles northeast of False Ducks Light. Estimates of the loss of lives range from 22 to 50. In July 1857, she was partially raised and some of her cargo was recovered. She only had a five year career, but besides this final incident, she had her share of disasters. In July 1855, she had a boiler explosion and in May of that same year, she sank in Canadian waters.
In 1980 the tug LAUREN CASTLE sank while towing the AMOCO WISCONSIN near Lee Point in Traverse Bay. Engineer William Stephan was lost.
1891: The iron freighter NORTH, which had become the first ocean ship to be cut in two and brought to the Great Lakes, arrived at Collingwood to be rebuilt as b) CAMPANA for the passenger & freight trades on the upper lakes.
1898: The wooden passenger and freight steamer PACIFIC burned at the Grand Trunk Railway dock in Collingwood along with the freight sheds and their contents. The blaze had begun the previous evening and roared for hours. The vessel was valued at $65,000.
1959: WESTRIVER arrived at Halifax for repairs after an earlier engine room explosion on Lake Superior had left the ship with significant damage.
1967: PEARL LIGHT, a World War II Empire ship, came through the Seaway for one trip in 1965. It was wrecked off Vietnam as g) HABIB MARIKAR while enroute from Dalian, China, to Chittagong, Bangladesh, with bagged cement. One life was lost.
1972: INLAND TRANSPORT went aground off Garden Island Bank, near Little Current, Manitoulin Island, and received major hull damage that led to the retirement of that Halco tanker after one more trip.
1991: CARLI METZ struck the wall below Lock 2 of the Welland Canal and the vessel had to go to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs. It had been inbound for the first time earlier in the year and returned in 1992. It was scrapped at Chittagong, Bangladesh, as d) METZ ITALIA in 2001.
1993: ZIEMIA ZAMOJSKA, while under tow, struck the raised 106th Street Bridge on the Calumet River at Chicago resulting in damage to the structure and traffic problems. The corn-laden vessel received a hole in the port bow, which was repaired at Montreal.
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Post by skycheney on Nov 4, 2015 21:21:23 GMT -5
What a day!! 35 years ago the LAUREN CASTLE off LEE POINT in West Traverse Bay Mi. with my dad manning the engine room. I just watched the whole video. I can't imagine being there while they filmed it. |
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 5, 2015 5:51:55 GMT -5
Iron ore shipments down; future bleak
11/5 - Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes were considerably down in September, which is not at all surprising considering some Iron Range taconite plant operations are also temporarily offline. The Lake Carriers’ Association reports that September shipping of 5.6 million tons of iron ore was 20 percent below September 2014.
“We’re off more in the iron ore commodities end,” said Adele Yorde of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
September is typically the time of year when shipping of iron ore into the lower Great Lakes is at a high level. Steelmakers can then get through the winter break in shipping when the Soo Locks close for two to three months. But not this year.
“This would be the time where they’d be building inventories on the lower lakes and we’re just not seeing that really high demand that we have in other years this time of year,” said Yorde.
State and federal lawmakers say illegally subsidized steel in the U.S. market is a big cause for the iron ore and steel woes.
“Part of the reason for the dumping is that the economies of, like, in China have slowed down, so China isn’t using steel and instead they’re sending it and dumping it,” said U.S. Sen. Al Franken.
In March of this year, at the annual State of Steel hearing, chief executives from the U.S. leading steel companies told members of Congress that the government needs to get serious about enforcing its trade laws in order to save steel jobs.
But so far it’s been all talk and no real action from the hateful muslim traitor administration and Congress. Yorde says, “Once the country and the global commodity situation gets figured out in terms of trade agreements, then we can stop the inflow of those foreign steel products.”
Meanwhile, industrial metals and mining was the worst performing sector in London last week, as angst about China’s slowdown swung back into focus.
Led by mining giants Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the sector crumbled by a weighty 10.25 percent by late last Tuesday afternoon.
Traders and investors fear a longer-lasting slump in copper and iron ore prices as a result of deceleration in China’s domestic steel use and increasing production from Australia.
Ratings agency Moodys took a dim view of the sector, offering a dreary outlook for base metals with a weak outlook for the sector as a whole on the basis of slowing growth in both China and Brazil, muted conditions in Europe and weak recovery in the U.S.
Furthermore, after a second recent trip to China, analysts at Exane BNP Paribas said, “The outlook for steel and steelmaking raw materials looks even more dreadful as there is no evidence of production cuts commensurate with the excess capacity.”
Mesabi Daily News
U.S. Steel plants are on a layoff spree. Here’s why
11/5 - Washington, D.C. – For those who find the idea of a rapidly growing China to be cause for concern – because with economic size comes political and military power – the news that its meteoric rise is leveling off might be welcome. But for a lesson in how the global economy works in sometimes unexpected ways, consider what that's doing to steelworkers across the South and Midwest.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the problem isn't just that China's economy is cooling off. It's also that its state-owned steel mills, which produce as much steel as the rest of the world combined, haven't slowed down to match demand. Rather, China's mills have stayed in high gear, which means the rest of the world has been flooded with cheap Chinese steel, with U.S. imports rising 68 percent last year alone.
Imports of steel have been on the rise for years now, contributing to a long decline in industry employment and perennial calls for trade sanctions against overseas competitors that U.S. producers suspect are keeping prices artificially low. A surging dollar and plunging energy prices have made this situation even worse.
Now, with consumption slowing in China, real downsizing has begun. U.S. Steel, the 13th-largest steel producer in the world, has been on a pink slip spree, idling plants and cutting staff as part of an "ongoing adjustment" to accommodate for lower demand. So far this year, it's laid off workers in Alabama, Texas, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, amounting to a few thousand out of its 23,000 employees in North America.
U.S. Steel, the largest business enterprise in the world when it launched in 1901, suspected this might be coming. "Steel production capability, especially in China, now appears to be well in excess of home market demand," the company wrote in its most recent disclosure for investors. "Any excess Chinese supply could have a major impact on world steel trade and prices as excess and subsidized production is exported to other markets."
What can the steel industry do about this? Basically the same thing it's done for years: Ask the federal government to investigate whether China's steel sales qualify as "dumping," or selling into a market at below-market value, which would allow the United States to place duties on Chinese exports. The American Iron and Steel Institute's annual policy agenda also made the case for laws that strengthen tariff enforcement and trade agreements that crack down on currency manipulation that makes foreign goods even cheaper, a tactic that the hateful muslim traitor administration has steadfastly refused to consider.
All of these processes take a long time, though. In the meantime, laid-off workers will have to figure out something else.
Washington Post
Lake Superior drops to near average
11/5 - Duluth, Minn. – The water level of Lake Superior dropped 3.5 inches in October, a month it usually drops one inch, thanks to lower than normal water supplies, including rainfall and river flow.
The lake now sits 4 inches above its normal level for Nov. 1 but 5 inches below the level at this time last year.
Lakes Huron-Michigan also received below normal water supply in October and dropped 4 inches, compared to the usual 3-inch drop. The lakes now sit 6 inches above normal for Nov. 1 but just a half-inch above the level at this time last year.
Duluth News Tribune
No oil leak found in sunken barge at bottom of Lake Erie
11/5 - Toledo, Ohio – The U.S. Coast Guard says divers haven’t located any active oil leaks from a barge that is believed to have sunk in Lake Erie in 1937. But underwater contractors did find four open hatches on the wreckage near the U.S.-Canadian border.
Coast Guard crews began monitoring the site after a petroleum-based solvent was spotted on the surface late last month. The substance was believed to be coming from the barge, which is on a federal registry of the most serious pollution threats to U.S. waters.
The Coast Guard says tests on water samples show that the substance is a light to medium oil. Divers completed their first check of the barge earlier this week. The Coast Guard says it’s now waiting on test results from sediment taken from around the open hatches.
AP
At 2 a.m. 05 November 1884, the steamer GRACE GRUMMOND (iron side-wheel excursion steamer, 138 foot, 250 tons, built in 1856, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the survey steamer JEFFERSON DAVIS, specifically for the survey of the Great Lakes) burned at Grand Haven, Michigan. Her cargo of apples, pears and potatoes was also destroyed. No lives were lost. After the fire she was towed to Chicago to lay up until it was decided what to do with her. It is not known if she ever operated as a steamer again, but in 1887, she was rebuilt as a schooner at Milwaukee. She was one of the only sizable iron-hulled schooners ever used on the lakes. In 1904, as a tow-barge, she was sold Canadian and renamed BALTIC (C.116760). She was later used as a breakwater at Clear Creek, Ontario and was finally scrapped in 1939.
On 05 November 1852, BUCKEYE STATE (3-mast wooden bark, 132 foot, 310 tons, built in 1852, at Black River, Ohio) stranded off S. Milwaukee Point on Lake Michigan in a storm and was then broken up by waves. This was her first year of operation and she had been in service less than three months.
LOUIS R. DESMARAIS cleared Owen Sound, Ontario on her maiden voyage November 5, 1977, bound for Thunder Bay, Ontario, to load 27,117 gross tons of iron ore for Stelco at Hamilton, Ontario. Her forward end was replaced at Port Weller in 2001, and renamed b.) CSL LAURENTIEN.
On her final trip, the IRVIN L. CLYMER passed up bound at the Soo on November 5, 1990, and arrived at Duluth two days later to unload limestone at the Hallet Dock #5, after which she moved to her final lay-up berth at Fraser Shipyard and tied up, blowing one last three long and two short salute from her whistle. In 1993, she was sold to Azcon Corp. of Duluth, Minnesota for scrapping.
GRAND HAVEN was raised on November 5, 1969, from the Old River Bed, where she sank on September 19, 1969. She was raised for scrapping.
Mr. J. W. Isherwood visited the Great Lakes Engineering Works shipyard on November 5, 1910, and personally inspected the hull which was being built according to his patented design. This vessel, the WILLIAM P. PALMER, was the first vessel on the Great Lakes built to the Isherwood system of longitudinal framing.
On 05 Nov 1917, a foggy and rainy day, the JAMES S. DUNHAM (steel propeller bulk freighter, 420 foot, 4,795 gross tons, built in 1906, at W. Bay City, Michigan) sank in a collision with the steamer ROBERT FULTON (steel propeller bulk freighter, 424 foot, 4,219 gross tons, built 1896, at Wyandotte, Michigan) just below Grassy Island on the Detroit River. Repairs for both vessels totaled $125,000.
On 5 November 1896, ACADIA (iron-framed wooden propeller, 176 foot, built in 1867, at Hamilton, Ontario) was driven ashore and broke up in a gale near the mouth of the Michipicoten River in Lake Superior. Her crew made it to shore and five of them spent more than a week trying to make it to the Soo.
The Port Huron Times of 5 November 1878: "The schooner J. P. MARCH is reported lost with all on board. She was lost at Little Traverse Bay on the northern shore of Lake Michigan. The MARCH was a three-masted schooner and was owned by Benton & Pierce of Chicago."
On 5 November 1838, TOLEDO (2-mast wooden schooner, 98 foot, 215 tons, built in 1836, at Buffalo) was carrying dry goods valued at more than $100,000 up-bound on Lake Erie when she was driven ashore by a gale a half mile east of the mouth of the Grand River. She broke in two. No lives were lost.
On 5 November 1869, TITAN (wooden schooner, 132 foot, 361 gross tons, built in 1856, at Oswego, New York) was carrying 17,500 bushels of wheat on Lake Michigan in a terrific gale. She was driven toward shore. Her anchors were dropped as she came close in and they held for about an hour. However, the ship finally dragged ashore, losing both of her masts and breaking up as she struck. Of the nine on board, only one survived and that one was found crawling along the beach in a dazed state. When she was new, TITAN broke the record by completing the trip from Chicago to Oswego in only 8 days and 4 hours. Her record only lasted one day since the schooner SURPRISE broke it by 6 hours the following day.
In the summer of 1875, the propeller EAST ran down and sank the tug JOE MAC, not even pausing to save her crew from drowning. The following winter Messrs. Seymour & Co., owners of the JOE MAC, obtained a judgment in a U.S. Court against the owners of the EAST. Since the EAST was a Canadian vessel, they were unable to seize her because the judgment could only be effected in American waters. On Sunday morning, 05 Nov 1876, the steam tug SEYMOUR, with a United States Marshal and posse on board, proceeded up to Allen's (presumably at Ogdensburg, New York), and there lay in wait for the EAST, which went up by the Crossover light channel into American waters. The SEYMOUR ran out and captured the vessel and brought her to Averell's wharf in U.S. waters to await justice.
CALCITE II arrived in Sarnia at 6 a.m. on Sunday, 05 Nov. 2000, for lay-up. After leaving Cleveland the previous day, she anchored in Western Lake Erie, so she could arrive at the North Slip in Sarnia when shoreside personnel would be on-hand to assist. A chartered bus from Rogers City left about noon to take many of the crew home. Around 4:10 p.m., the downbound MYRON C. TAYLOR passed her fleetmate CALCITE II, perhaps for the last time in USS Great Lakes Fleet colors, and she blew her sister an extended 3 long and 2 short master salute. The TAYLOR was bound for Cleveland with a load of stone.
1885: The Canadian Pacific passenger and freight steamer ALGOMA cleared Owen Sound on its final trip with 11 passengers and headed for the Canadian Lakehead.
1897: IDAHO departed Buffalo and was caught in a wild storm on Lake Erie. The wooden passenger and freight carrier fell into the trough and only two survived. They had climbed the mast and were plucked from the crow's nest the next morning in a heroic effort by the crew of the MARIPOSA.
1940: SPARTA was wrecked near the Pictured Rocks after stranding on a reef in a heavy gale. The hull was abandoned on November 11 but salvaged in 1941 and never repaired.
1957: The Finnish freighter KORSO struck a drifting World War Two mine off Cape Mondjego, Portugal, and sank as a belated casualty of the conflict. The vessel had been built at Kingston, ON in 1942 as H.M.C.S. IRONBOUND and converted for mercantile use in 1948.
1962: EDWIN REITH, a West German salty, grounded near Tibbetts Point, Lake Ontario, and had to be lightered to P.S. BARGE NO. 1. It was released and came to Toronto to unload on November 14.
1967: The Canadian laker MOHAWK DEER, enroute to La Spezia, Italy, for scrapping, ran aground in the Gulf of Genoa near Portofino, Italy, and sank the next day.
1987: CATHARINA WIARDS sank in the Red Sea as d) TRADER after the engine room flooded during a voyage from Augusta, Italy, to China. The vessel was a year old when it came through the Seaway for the first time in 1970.
1991: OLYMPIC PEACE, a Seaway trader for the first time in 1976, arrived at Piraeus, Greece, with damage to the main engine cooling system as c) FREE PEACE. It was later seized by Banco-Hellenique and sold at auction. The ship was scrapped in China during 1994 as e) PATMOS I.
11/5 - Detroit, Mich. – A more than 100-year-old vessel that once carried passengers from Detroit to Boblo Island was moved Wednesday morning.
The 105-year-old steamer Ste. Claire was towed by the tugs Colorado and Superior from her longtime dock in Ecorse to Detroit. It is now moored at the Detroit Lime Dock just south of the Dix Avenue Bridge in the Rouge River.
Restoration work will continue at the new location, according to Dr. Ron Kattoo, who bought the deteriorating boat in 2007.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 5, 2015 5:56:01 GMT -5
What a day!! 35 years ago the LAUREN CASTLE off LEE POINT in West Traverse Bay Mi. with my dad manning the engine room. I just watched the whole video. I can't imagine being there while they filmed it. Knowing that you've been down the bay several times, you know that it can be rougher than a cobb! 500 feet deep and a few miles wide is a lousy combination! Ppat and I went out with the survey crew and couldn't drop the ROV since it was so gnarly. That video was the result of 3 or 4 attempts... ws |
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 6, 2015 6:02:30 GMT -5
Lakes iron ore trade down 23 percent in October
11/6 - Cleveland, Ohio – Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled 5.3 million tons in October, a decrease of 23 percent compared to a year ago. Shipments were down 9 percent from the month’s 5-year average.
Loadings at U.S. ports totaled 4.6 million tons in October, a decrease of 27.4 percent compared to a year ago. Shipments from Canadian ports totaled 725,000 tons, an increase of 24 percent.
Through October, the Lakes/Seaway ore trade stands at 44.4 million tons, a decrease of 6 percent compared to the same point in 2014. Shipments are down 6.6 percent compared to the 5-year average for the January-October timeframe. Loadings at U.S. ports are down 9.6 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. Shipments from Canadian ports are up 29 percent.
Lake Carriers’ Association
Big tariffs to be imposed on Chinese steel
11/6 - After thousands of layoffs, idled mills, huge steelworker rallies and three separate trade cases, the federal government is going to start cracking down on imported steel.
The U.S. Department of Commerce made a preliminary determination that corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy and South Korea are getting government subsidies that are illegal under international trade laws. The U.S. government will start imposing tariffs as high as 235.66 percent in the case of China.
"AK Steel is pleased that the Commerce Department has made a preliminary ruling that imports of corrosion-resistant steel are being unfairly subsidized," AK Steel President and Chief Executive Officer James Wainscott said in a statement.
"These determinations are an important step in ensuring that our foreign competitors play by the rules of fair trade. Action is urgently needed to counteract the significant injury that is being caused by unfairly traded imports."
The domestic steel industry suffered a painful contraction in the spring and filed a trade case in June. Major domestic manufacturers, including ArcelorMittal USA and U.S. Steel, filed complaints against nearly every major importer of corrosion-resistant, hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel after imports market share hit a record 28 percent last year and rose even higher in 2015.
In the corrosion-resistant case, the Commerce Department found against every major steel importer except Taiwan. The ruling was that Taiwan got subsidies of less than 1 percent, exempting it from tariffs. The hot-rolled and cold-rolled cases are being pursued separately.
A final ruling on corrosion-resistant imports is expected around Dec. 21. Duties could apply retroactively through Aug. 4.
Imports have gobbled up 30 percent of market share and also caused flat-rolled prices to fall by $20 per ton in the third quarter, largely because China is dumping steel internationally for an average of $75 less than what it costs to make.
NWIndiana Times
40 years later, Edmund Fitzgerald remains a mystery
11/6 - It has been called the “Titanic of the Great Lakes” and ranks among the most famous shipwrecks in American history. Nearly 40 years after the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the legend lives on and continues to intrigue the public.
Even for those too young to remember the 1975 Michigan maritime disaster, Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting ballad immortalized the Nov. 10 tragedy when “the gales of November” came early and the massive freighter sank in Lake Superior with all 29 crewmen aboard.
The sudden disappearance of the 729-foot ore carrier — the “Queen of the Great Lakes” — confounded experts four decades ago. And, despite a flood of official reports, underwater investigations and theories (including UFO’s and space aliens), it’s still a mystery today.
“In my research, every shipwreck is invariably caused by a chain of circumstances,” says Great Lakes historian Frederick Stonehouse of Marquette, author of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: 40th Anniversary Edition” (Avery Color Studios, $17.95). “Forty years later and no one can definitively say why the Fitzgerald sank – it remains an open question.”
As part of next week’s 40th anniversary observances, Stonehouse will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the annual Edmund Fitzgerald memorial ceremony in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. An overflow crowd of some 200 is expected at the Upper Peninsula museum, located 17 miles from where the ship, broken in two pieces, rests in its watery grave, 535 feet below Lake Superior’s surface.
About two-dozen relatives of the Fitzgerald’s crew, including extended family from as far away as South Carolina, plan to attend the public service and traditional “Call to the Last Watch Ceremony.” The Fitzgerald’s restored bronze bell — retrieved from the shipwreck in 1995 — will toll 29 times for the missing crewmen plus a 30th time to honor all the estimated 30,000 mariners lost on the Great Lakes.
In his latest book, Stonehouse lays out the myriad theories surrounding the Fitzgerald disaster, including unsecured hatch covers, deferred maintenance, a trio of 30-foot-plus rogue waves known as “Three Sisters,” and the notion that the ship either was structurally unsound or off course.
“Others have talked about space aliens that supposedly were seen on the northern shore of the lake,” Stonehouse said dismissively in a recent telephone interview with The Detroit News.
After years of research, he’s inclined to believe that the ship likely hit a shoal and took on dangerous amounts of water even as it was buffeted by hurricane-force winds and blinding snow squalls. Stonehouse said he came to that conclusion gradually, based on conversations with Capt. Bernie Cooper, who was the last to speak to the Fitzgerald’s captain. Cooper’s ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, was closest to the Fitzgerald during the treacherous storm.
“In my mind and if I were to put money on it, she probably hit Caribou Shoal,” Stonehouse said, emphasizing, however, that there’s no proof of that. “She bottomed out and continued forward for a while before the damage finally broke her up. The damage, in combination with the extreme storm, caused the ship to dive to the bottom.”
Commemorative events
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum A 40th anniversary observance begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the main gallery of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in U.P. A “live feed” will be shown at several sites on the museum campus. Go to shipwreckmuseum.com; (906) 492-3747.
Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle A sellout crowd of more than 150 is expected for the annual “Lost Mariners Remembrance,” beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Edmund Fitzgerald anchor outside of the museum at 100 Strand Drive, Belle Isle, Detroit, 48207. The anchor, which was lost in the Detroit River years before the fatal voyage, was retrieved in 1992. Great Lakes balladeer Lee Murdock will perform. Go to Detroithistorical.org/dossin-great-lakes-museum; (313) 833-1801.
Mariner’s Church in Detroit The annual Great Lakes Memorial Service and bell-ringing, honoring the Edmund Fitzgerald crew and all lost Great Lakes mariners, will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, at the church, 170 E. Jefferson Ave, Detroit, 48226. Go to marinerschurchofdetroit.org; (313) 259-2206.
Fitzgerald trivia from the book: The Fitzgerald was bound for Detroit with 26,116 tons of taconite pellets — enough to produce approximately 7,500 automobiles (1975 size). Since entering service in 1958, the ship completed 748 trips covering more than one million miles and hauling an estimated 19 million tons of taconite.
Detroit News
On 06 November 1880, the W. R. HANNA (2-mast scow-schooner, 86 foot, 103 gross tons, built in 1857), carrying 1,600 tamarack railroad ties to Toledo, sank in Lake Huron in a snowstorm. She sprang a leak off Pointe aux Barques and filled so fast that the pump was of no use. She broached to and rolled over when about 5 miles north of Sand Beach, Michigan, (now Harbor Beach). s the sun set the snow storm turned into a blizzard. The icy waves swept over the hull while the crew clung on as best they could. Four hours later, they drifted past Sand Beach, not 500 feet from the breakwater. They shouted for help, saw lights moving here and there on the breakwater, but no help came. When the wind shifted and started to blow the vessel out into the lake, the skipper cut away the weather lanyards and the vessel righted herself and they dropped the anchor. The weather was freezing cold; and there was no dry place left. The cabin was gone and the only spot out of water was on one side forward - a space about four feet wide by ten feet long. The waves kept washing over the waterlogged vessel, drenching the crew. The crew survived through the night. Heavy snow kept falling, cutting visibility to almost zero. Finally, at 10 a.m., the following morning, the storm broke and the propeller H. LUELLA WORTHINGTON (wooden propeller freighter, 148 foot, 375 gross tons, built in 1880, at Lorain, Ohio), which was in the harbor, saw the wreck and rescued the crew. The skipper of the WORTHINGTON stated that he had heard the cries of the crew throughout the night, but couldn't navigate in the blinding snowstorm. He was awake all night waiting for the storm to break so he could rescue the crew.
On 06 November 1867, ALBEMARLE (3-mast wooden schooner, 154 foot, 413 gross tons, built in 1867, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Cleveland, Ohio in a storm when she stranded and wrecked near Point Nipigon in the Straits of Mackinac. This was her first year of operation. She had been put into service just the previous July.
The US266029, a.) WILLIAM CLAY FORD was towed from Nicholson's River Rouge dock November 6, 1986, by tugs TUSKER and GLENADA to Port Maitland, Ontario for scrapping.
On November 6, 1913, the J. H. SHEADLE left Fort William, Ontario bound for Erie, Pennsylvania, with grain and encountered fog, gale winds and a snow blizzard in one of the fiercest storms of the century.
On November 6, 1925, the Northern Navigation passenger steamer HAMONIC lost her propeller 20 miles west of Caribou Island in Lake Superior and was wallowing in gale force winds with gusts to 80 m.p.h. She was towed to safety by Pittsburgh Steamship Co.’s RICHARD TRIMBLE.
On 06 Nov 1985, Desguaces Heme began scrapping the LEON FALK, JR. in Gijon, Spain. This vessel was built in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1945, as the tanker a.) WINTER HILL, (504 foot, 10,534 gross tons) and then was converted to a 710 foot, 12,501 gross ton bulk freighter in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1960-61.
On 6 November 1872, the wooden propeller tug MILDRED, while towing a vessel out of Alpena, Michigan, had her engine fail. Soon she was in trouble and sank. The crew was saved.
On 6 November 1827, ANN (wooden schooner, 53 foot, 58 tons, built in 1819, or 1821, at Black River, Ohio) was carrying salt, general merchandise and passengers when she was driven ashore on Long Point almost opposite Erie, Pennsylvania. 7 Lives were lost, including 5 passengers. 6 survived.
In 1912, the Pere Marquette Railroad announced plans to build a new roundhouse at Ludington, Michigan. It still stands today.
On 6 November 1874, The Port Huron Times listed the following vessels lost in the month of October and in the first week of November of that year: Propellers - BROOKLYN, FRANKFORT, NEW YORK; tug DOUGLAS; schooners - CITY OF PAINSVILLE, WANDERER, PREBLE, THOS S MOTT; and barges - CLIFTON and SHERMAN.
On 6 November 1883, GUIDING STAR (3-mast wooden schooner, 139 foot, 324 tons, built in 1869, at Oswego, New York) was carrying coal to Milwaukee in fog when she went ashore 12 miles north of Milwaukee. Four of the crew made it to shore in the yawl, but it was wrecked in the process. The rest of the crew was finally rescued by the Milwaukee Lifesavers.
Crews began painting the hull of the SAGINAW (formerly JOHN J. BOLAND) in the colors of Lower Lakes Towing Ltd. (gray) on 06 Nov 1999, at Sarnia, Ontario. The vessel had recently been purchased from American Steamship Co. Inside the vessel, crews were gutting the living quarters to remove asbestos and add fireproof walls and new flooring. The engine room equipment and the unloading gear were also refurbished.
On November 6, 1897, the Minnesota Steamship boat MARIPOSA (steel, 348', 2898 gross tons, built in 1892, Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio) under the command of Capt. Frank Root, rescued the two remaining survivors of the wreck of the package freighter IDAHO (wooden package freighter, 220', 915 gross tons, built in 1863, Peck & Masters, Cleveland, Ohio.) off Long Point, Ontario on Lake Erie. The MARIPOSA'S first mate, Capt. Myron K. Chamberlain, had sighted the two Idaho survivors clinging to the 100' spar of the sunken IDAHO. Gale winds and seas of 12'-15' overtook the IDAHO taking with it to their deaths 19 crewmen including Captain Alexander Gillies. "In what is considered one of the greatest accomplishments of ship handling and rescue by a major Great Lakes vessel,” Capt. Root and his crewmen were able to turn the MARIPOSA around ("rolling her rails under") three times in the midst of a gale, bringing their vessel right up to the spar where IDAHO Second Mate Louis LaForce Jr. and Deckhand William Gill were pulled "half dead" on board the MARIPOSA by the officers and deck crew. Both LaForce & Gill recovered. An appreciative City of Buffalo, (hometown to most of the IDAHO crew), and the Minnesota Steamship Company awarded Capt. Root a gold watch, and instructed him to award his first mate and chief engineer each an extra month's pay, and the MARIPOSA crew each an extra half month's pay for a job well done.
At 10 p.m. on November 6, 1975 the newly refurbished sidewheel ferry TRILLIUM was towed from the drydock at Ramey's Bend, Ontario, down the Welland Canal by the Canada Dredge & Dock tugs G. W. Rogers and BAGOTVILLE, arriving at Toronto on early on a foggy November 7.
1918: CHESTER A. CONGDON cleared Fort William with grain and stranded on Canoe Rock, Isle Royale in rough weather and poor visibility. The crew was rescued but the ship broke up and was listed as the first $1 million dollar loss in Great Lakes’ history.
1928: A.W. THOMPSON served as a Great Lakes consort barge before going to the Atlantic in 1918. The vessel foundered 60 miles south of Brunswick, GA, enroute from Wilmington, DE to a Gulf of Mexico port.
1968: OAK HILL visited the Great Lakes for seven trips in 1961-1962. It arrived at Singapore under tow as c) AGENOR on this date with leaking in the engine room while on a delivery trip to Chinese shipbreakers at Whampoa. The vessel was resold for scrapping in Singapore.
1969: REINHART LORENZ RUSS made 22 trips through the Seaway from 1960 through 1966. It sank as b) NAIS one mile off Raffles Light, Singapore, after a collision with the Norwegian tanker BERGEBRAGD (68/80,003) and one life was lost.
1981: LA LOMA, an early and frequent Seaway trader, arrived at Cape Town, South Africa, with hull damage as e) AEGEAN SUN. The ship was traveling from China to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It was assessed as beyond economical repair and laid up at Mombasa. The vessel was eventually sold to Pakistani shipbreakers and arrived at Gadani Beach under tow on April 18, 1985, for dismantling.
1983: EVA MARIA C., a Seaway caller in 1976, developed leaks as c) LAGADA BEACH and sank about 200 miles northeast of Aden. The vessel was enroute to Bandar Abbas, Iran, with iron and steel products.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 9, 2015 7:43:44 GMT -5
Hundreds in Muskegon watch big freighter bring last coal to closing electric plant
11/9 - Muskegon, Mich. – Hundreds of people turned out to the channel Sunday, Nov. 8, to get pictures of what's expected to be the last large freighter to deliver coal to the B.C. Cobb electric plant in Muskegon.
Consumers Energy plans to shut down the plant on Muskegon Lake in 2016, in part because of tightening federal restrictions on power plant emissions.
The 1,000-foot-long lake freighter James R. Barker of the Interlake Steamship Company docked at the B.C. Cobb about 4:15 p.m. Sunday to deliver roughly 59,000 tons of low-sulphur Western coal.
"I've lived here for 70 years and seen a lot of them come and go," said Herb Huch, age 70, of Fruitland Township. "When you get to be our age, you've seen a lot of change."
Huch and his wife, Jean didn't view the change as a totally negative, though, talking about future horizons in energy and ecology. "There'll be other boats," he said. "Time goes on, time marches on. The saying goes, 'The best thing about the good old days (is), they're gone.'"
North Muskegon's Brian Zuber climbed a dune near the channel with his 4-year-old son, Isaac, to watch the ship roll in. "He thought it was great," Zuber said of his son. "He was afraid it was going to be too loud."
Even Zuber, at age 36, expressed some fondness for the old power plant – even as he said its closure will probably be a good thing because less sulfur and mercury will be released into the air.
"The coal plant's always been there, and so have the boats," he said. "I know (for) the city of Muskegon, it's a huge chunk of their tax base, so I don't know how they're working that out."
People stopped on both sides of the channels and at parks and other spots overlooking Muskegon Lake to get a view of the ship.
"They appreciate what I would call the maritime history of this community," said Consumers spokesman Roger Morgenstern. He said a number of retirees were turning out to the plant to see the boat. "Lots of pride in this plant," Morgenstern said.
Huch said he hopes the beach, dunes and wildlife in Muskegon County are preserved for the future. "I hope the future generations get to enjoy it I just like I and my wife have," he said.
A community open house at the plant is being planned for January 2016.
M Live
Forty years after the sinking of the Fitzgerald, untold stories emerge
11/9 - Duluth, Minn. – The day after the SS Edmund Fitzgerald went missing on Lake Superior with its crew of 29 men and a full cargo of taconite pellets, the haunting aftermath was in full bloom for those involved in the search.
Every hour, two or three times an hour, there were radio calls for the Fitzgerald and scratchy broadcasts explaining she was overdue. If anybody sighted the ore carrier or its survivors they were to contact the U.S. Coast Guard immediately.
But the scene on the remote eastern neck of the lake belied the hope inherent in the radio communications. Everybody out there 40 years ago this week seemed to know the ship was gone.
As the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Naugatuck turned the corner at Pointe Louise on the St. Marys River and headed west out into the wide expanse of the lake, a young Shawn McKenzie took stock of the day. A 20-year-old apprentice quartermaster in the pilothouse of the vessel, McKenzie remembered the reflections in the glassy water that swelled like “taking a piece of sheet metal and bumping it,” he recalled.
The spinning anemometer readings of wind velocity the day and night before, on Nov. 10, 1975, had reached frightening levels, requiring lines to be tripled up at the dock lest the 110-foot Naugatuck blow away. But the morning after, there was hardly any wind at all.
“I can’t believe it’s been 40 years,” McKenzie said in a booth at a downtown Duluth diner, across the bridge from his Superior home.
The Naugatuck was based in Sault Ste. Marie and had been considered the primary rescue vessel to the tragedy that started to unfold on Nov. 10. But circumstance and mechanical hang-ups rendered that particular mission moot. By the time it arrived to the scene just after noon the next day there was vessel traffic crisscrossing everywhere, including aerial support. McKenzie even spotted a B-52 from nearby Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
The Naugatuck was quickly dispatched to its own section of the search grid and came upon oil slicks and wreckage from the Fitzgerald’s weather decks — life rings and jackets, a propane tank and oars, anything that blew off the ship or would float. The collected debris was strewn about the deck of the Naugatuck over the course of three days.
The crew tracked oil throughout the Coast Guard ship on their boots. When the Fitzgerald left Superior on the afternoon of Nov. 9 bound for Detroit, it had more than 26,000 tons of taconite iron ore pellets and the equivalent of almost 1,200 barrels of fuel oil on board.
McKenzie recalled seeing the bow of a Fitzgerald lifeboat strung to the side of another impromptu recovery vessel; the lifeboat had been torn apart like an aluminum beer can and is now a museum piece in Sault Ste. Marie.
Making their way aboard a Naugatuck motor boat toward the shoreline, McKenzie and a boatswain’s mate were waved off a directive by a beach party that had also spotted a canopied canister raft washed ashore on the Canadian shore. The rafts come encased in hard plastic and are designed to pop free in the event of a ship’s sinking.
“Of course, they didn’t find anybody in there,” McKenzie said. “I’m glad I didn’t have to go in and take a look.”
The accumulated wreckage was taken to a shed in Sault Ste. Marie before making its way to a warehouse in Cleveland for the investigation that followed the wreck.
The radio transmissions both calling for the Fitzgerald and urging others to report sightings of survivors lasted until about 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, 1975 — 72-plus hours after the Fitzgerald had last been heard from with Capt. Ernest McSorley’s final transmission to the trailing steamer Arthur M. Anderson: “We are holding our own.”
From his booth seat on a rainy day in Duluth, McKenzie wondered aloud if the transmissions kept coming as a way to respect the families who’d lost so much.
Because after considering that “jeepers, maybe she ran aground on the Canadian shore,” as the Naugatuck made its way toward the Fitzgerald’s last known location, McKenzie needed little further evidence once he’d arrived to see the busy scene with his own eyes. A feeling came over him.
“I had the sense,” he said, “that this is a historic event.”
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located in Paradise, Mich., at Whitefish Point, a spur of the Upper Peninsula that serves as a makeshift ground zero for the Edmund Fitzgerald for being only about 20 miles southeast of the wreck and serving as the resting place of the ship’s original bell.
The bell was recovered during a diving expedition in 1995 and replaced with another bell inscribed with the names of the seamen buried at the wreck, including eight men from the Northland.
Some 65,000 to 70,000 visitors have passed through the museum so far this year, a 17 percent increase over 2014.
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is the No. 1 reason people visit the shipwreck museum and 2015’s 40th anniversary bolstered that interest, said executive director Bruce Lynn.
“People who come and visit want to learn more about the Fitzgerald,” Lynn said, “and without going overboard we try to give people that.”
Time serves curiosity well. It gives perspective and loosens restrictions on information. It also loosens tongues. Lynn likened the wreck of the Fitzgerald to a maritime version of the Kennedy assassination that came a dozen November months before it.
It’s an apt comparison in some respects. Both events produced definitive causes that have been roundly debated and, in the Fitzgerald’s case, debunked, adding to their mystery and creating a cottage industry out of speculation. For Kennedy, it’s the lone gunman theory. For the Fitzgerald, it’s the original Coast Guard theory that water entered the ship through poorly tended cargo hatches.
But for Kennedy’s assassination, there were material witnesses galore and startling film of the event. For the Fitzgerald, there were no surviving eyewitnesses to the ship’s foundering. One moment the ship was there and nine seconds later, said Mel Sando, executive director of the Lake County Historical Society, the Fitzgerald was gone.
“Nobody wanted to admit it was gone,” said Sando, who operates three museums in Two Harbors, including the 1892 Two Harbors Light Station.
Sando was a schoolboy in Two Harbors on the day of the wreck. He remembers being let out early on what started out as a balmy November Monday. Everybody knew the storm was coming, rolling up from the plains and bearing down on the Great Lakes. The kids that lived in far-out communities such as Brimson and Toimi needed to get home safely.
“It was a touchy subject around here for a long time,” said Sando, 53. “Most people who celebrate it are usually people who aren’t from around here. They have a romantic notion of it. But there were guys (aboard) from Knife River and Superior and relatives from Two Harbors. People really didn’t sit around and discuss it.”
The mystery surrounding the Fitzgerald has fueled a parade of authors willing to pinpoint and posit at her fate. Sando’s and Lynn’s museums sell a lot of books and shipwreck maps from their gift shops, where they say the most popular topic by far is the wreck of the Fitzgerald.
There are more than 20 books on the topic — so many, said Lynn, that “we’ve stopped counting at this point.”
In an effort to illuminate the wreck and its mystery on the 40th anniversary, the News Tribune reached out to three Northland men, who — were they on a radar screen — wouldn’t have been the closest blips to Fitzgerald’s history. But they weren’t off the screen either.
Concentrically and radiating outward from the wreck, McKenzie, 60, Bob Hom, 66, and Jim Woodard, 73, are something akin to character witnesses offering circumstantial evidence. They shared rare glimpses into the wreck, the captain and the ship, respectively. Of them, only Hom has previously spoken publicly about the wreck. Early on in his previous interview, Hom learned that author’s main intent was to fault Capt. McSorley and take the angle that he shouldn’t have been out there in the storm.
The author had picked the wrong man to help support that theory.
Hom grew up on Duluth’s Park Point, during a time when residents buried garbage in the sand on the lake side and tossed it into the bay on the harbor side. But he was always around the water and that was enough for him. Today, as a tugboat captain in the port of Duluth-Superior, he’s living out a dream.
He enjoys being out on the water in the middle of winter when it’s 20 degrees below zero and his Heritage Marine tug, in its telltale autumnal colors, is the only operating vessel in sight.
“It’s kinda fun, breaking 3 feet of ice,” he said. “It’s cold and nasty work. You either like it or you don’t. Most people wouldn’t.”
Growing up, Hom didn’t know anybody in the maritime industry. But he owned the wanderlust required to work on the water and it was later Capt. McSorley who took him under his wing.
Fortunate to have a high Vietnam draft number, Hom recalled the day he made up his mind and left his University of Minnesota Duluth classroom never to return again. He was bent on sailing and got a job aboard the Armco, working first as a deckhand and then as deck watch under McSorley. Like the Fitzgerald, the Armco was a ore carrier owned by Oglebay Norton Co. out of Cleveland.
Deckhands tie the boat when it docks. They do a lot of chipping and painting, and when the ship is underway it’s the deckhands that hose down and clean the weather decks that become filthy during loading and unloading.
A graduation to deck watch meant watching from the bow for other vessels in the fog, checking running lights and hollering “lights abright!” to the pilot house and taking regular depth soundings of the ballast tanks to see that they weren’t taking on added water. In the Fitzgerald’s final hours it’s widely believed some of her ballast tanks — eight total, located outside of and below the ship’s cargo holds — took on thousands of gallons of water, far more than pumps could handle and causing the starboard list McSorley reported to the trailing Anderson’s captain, Bernie Cooper, at 3:30 p.m., about 3 hours, 40 minutes before the wreck.
The deck watch is an obsolete job now, but when it existed one of its chores was to make the coffee in the pilothouse. It was there that Hom grew to know McSorley, finding him to be a patient — and humorous — leader of men.
Hom was a 21-year-old sailing in 1970-71, feeling like an insider among rugged and veteran merchant marine officers. The Armco’s third mate, Delmar Webster, would drill Hom on which boat was ahead of the Armco or passing it, and Hom learned to identify the ships even under the cloak of night by their light signatures.
But it was McSorley who would let Hom get behind the wheel of the then-647-foot Armco, which was later lengthened by Fraser Shipyards in Superior and ultimately renamed the American Valor.
“I didn’t know anything but I wanted to learn and he was happy to teach,” Hom recalled. “He liked you if you showed interest and I did; I really was interested.”
McSorley would take the boat off autopilot in the middle of the lakes and allow Hom to zigzag across the open water as he learned how to make the hulking vessel go straight. There’s a trick to driving a ship, Hom said, describing how a person has to put a lot of wheel on it to get it to start moving, then put opposite rudder on it to re-center it. It takes time to learn and not every captain cared to participate in the driver’s education of a deck watch.
McSorley grew comfortable with Hom. He showed the sailor from Duluth a side of himself that not many people saw. McSorley is widely noted to have been a man of few words — private and determined with an elusive personality. Hom said McSorley had a special bond with the late Webster, a “hillbilly from West Virginia by his own admission,” Hom added, who would go on to become a captain himself. It was with Webster that McSorley revealed a mischievous side.
Hom was wheeling once with Webster in the captain’s chair, which was OK if the captain wasn’t on deck, when McSorley came crawling on his hands and knees. He snuck in from behind, grabbed Webster by the ankles, yanked him from the chair and with a “Boom!” Webster hit the floor. Another time, McSorley caught Hom’s eye and made a motion to Hom to plug his ears before tossing a cherry bomb into the pilothouse in the pitch black of night, startling Webster yet again.
“Who does that?” Hom laughed, his tall frame relaxed in his living room in Superior. “The guy had a sense of humor. He liked messing with Delmar, but they were pretty good friends.”
Hom left shipping before he had a chance to follow McSorley onto the Fitzgerald. Hom was set to marry and didn’t want to endure the tough life of being away from family for long stretches.
“It’s a great job if it’s just you,” said Hom, who spent 33 years as the director of operations for the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center before retiring and finding his way behind the wheel of a tugboat.
There’s one story Hom has carried with him throughout his life and never told the author who once interrogated him about McSorley. Hom bristled at the author’s approach and didn’t want to share “the biggest bit of insight I’ve got on McSorley,” he said.
Hom told of working alongside the captain on the Armco when they passed the Fitzgerald going the other way on Lake Superior.
“McSorley looked over and said, ‘Boy, I’d hate to be on there in a big storm,’” Hom recalled. “‘They got it all worn out from years of overloading it.’ He said that five years before it sunk. He knew it was all wore out.”
Built in 1958, the Fitzgerald launched to great fanfare as the longest and grandest ship on the Great Lakes — featuring a now old-fashioned forward pilothouse and a 729-foot hull.
“I always said she wore a work hat,” said Woodard, a retired lifelong sailor whose father, Cedric Woodard, first appears on page 31 of the Coast Guard’s Marine Casualty Report of the wreck. “That’s what her pilothouse looked like: a little bill on her hat.”
The Fitzgerald’s namesake was an insurance magnate with deep maritime roots whose son of the same name was later partly responsible for bringing a professional baseball franchise back to Milwaukee. Both men were better known for their connection to the ship.
The Fitzgerald was indeed a workhorse, breaking her own tonnage records several times, becoming a sort of Babe Ruth of the Great Lakes. Ruth sparkled but later paid the price for hard living and so did the Fitzgerald. Oglebay Norton was proud of its flagship’s capabilities and accomplishments, but to hear the sources in this story tell it, the Fitzgerald was taxed with a heavy physical toll. The ship was lost despite having only 17 years on the water.
“They were killing the boat,” Hom said. “It was designed to haul a certain amount and they kept getting the Coast Guard to increase the load line.”
“That’s one of the things that’s been mentioned that perhaps she was loaded a little bit too deep for the conditions,” McKenzie said, “but I don’t know that for a fact.”
The higher the load line, the lower a boat goes in the water. A prevailing theory nowadays is that the ship rode the peaks and troughs of 25-foot waves amid snowfall and howling winds on its way to striking the ominously named Six Fathom Shoal, puncturing the boat and creating the fatal listing as water poured into the vessel.
As the theory goes, to escape the lake’s naked wide open, McSorley had wended the ship northeast but, with some failing instruments and inconsistent U.S. and Canadian mapping, drew closer than would have been recommended to Caribou Island. The shoal theory is what Cedric Woodard — piloting the Swedish vessel Avafors on Lake Superior and in contact with McSorley during the storm — believed when he died and it’s what his son believes to this day.
But, for Jim Woodard, there was always something else — an eeriness elicited by the Fitzgerald he was not afraid to talk about.
“I called her a wet ship even in the ’60s,” said Woodard, who sailed aboard the Fitzgerald in 1961-62 and again in 1974-75. “She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her; we always had to go down and pump them out. I didn’t like her then and I didn’t like her when I was on her before then. I had a gut feeling about her.”
In telling his story from his home deep in the woods between Duluth and Two Harbors, Woodard’s dining room table looked out on a foggy, misty morning. He knew most of the 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald when it wrecked and seemed most fond of third mate Michael Armagost, a precocious sailor and well-known and deeply mourned husband and father from Iron River, in Bayfield County.
On the fateful day 40 years ago, the storm descended on the Northland and it got dark in a hurry. By then, Woodard had left the Fitzgerald in favor of the Sylvania, which was itself in a pitched battle with the storm on Lake Erie, rocking so hard it was blowing off anchor before sending the vessel into safe harbor at Pelee Point in Canada, where it struck the buoy on the way in.
Around 11 p.m. word reached the Sylvania that the Fitzgerald was likely lost. “Holy Jesus,” Woodard recalled thinking.
He had been a temporary wheelsman on the Fitzgerald when, two months before the wreck, she pulled into port ahead of the Sylvania — an older and much smaller ship with a long history of accidents.
The Fitzgerald was a frequent visitor to the Northland and Silver Bay, specifically, but it didn’t matter to Woodard. He wanted off the Fitzgerald and would leave the comforts of home and family if need be. A buddy aboard the Sylvania told him she needed a full-time wheelsman for its big 6-foot wheel. Oglebay Norton’s Columbia Transportation Division operated both boats. Woodard called management and said if they didn’t give him the job he’d quit; he could just as easily go to the labor hall and hire out on the Sylvania, he reasoned. The company obliged and, just like that, Woodard’s wish was granted.
Several weeks later and just days before the wreck, the two vessels were in port together again and Woodard recalled a harrowing last brush with the men.
“God strike me dead if I’m lying,” Woodard said, his spontaneous laughter checked. “We pulled in behind them and everybody I saw on that crew had an aura around them. That’s the honest-to-God’s truth. They glowed, just like a little brightness, you know what I mean?”
When asked if he was benefiting from hindsight and imagination, Woodard said, “I’ve never seen that since.”
The night of the storm, with everyone fearing the worst, McKenzie and others assigned to the Naugatuck got busy in a hurry.
The boat that ran supplies and relief crews to lighthouses on Lake Superior had been in “Charlie status,” meaning it was out of service. It was getting its engines rebuilt and berthing area redone. A call to go on stand-by at 7:47 p.m. changed all that.
Nobody had been living on the ship. Crewmembers, about half with families, had been holed up in apartments in Sault Ste. Marie. Hoofing back to the ship, McKenzie leaned hard into the violent winds.
Upon his arrival at the dock, he learned the Fitzgerald was missing and presumed to be in trouble at the very least.
Dropping fast as it rode 20-foot waves, the historian Sando believes the Fitzgerald succumbed to a finishing wave that slammed the back of the pilothouse and shoved the once majestic ship’s nose into the water for a dive to the bottom more than 500 feet down.
The Naugatuck crew raced to try to meet her. They threw the bunks that hadn’t yet been reattached and everything else that wasn’t nailed down off the vessel and onto the dock. Engineers scrambled to get the two engines back together. The cook ran into town to gather a bunch of food because there had been nothing on board. Because the water tanks were laced with chlorine, 5-gallon jugs were brought aboard for drinking water. Life jackets were arranged on the berthing room floor and covered with sleeping bags for makeshift sleeping quarters.
By about 10 or 11 p.m., the Naugatuck fired its engines, but the oil pressure spiked on the starboard main and it had to be shut down. The crew was anxious to get out on the lake to help in the search; they did not yet know that the Fitzgerald and its men were gone, or that the events of that night would become known around the world and remembered for decades.
“The oil-pressure problem basically knocked us out of getting underway that night,” said McKenzie, now a Great Lakes pilot who has spent his lifetime as a merchant seaman. “We had to have two engines. We got out the next day. Hardly anybody slept.”
Duluth News Tribune
Bells toll at Mariners' Church of Detroit for lives lost on Fitzgerald, Great Lakes
11/9 - Detroit, Mich. – A legendary folk song about the SS Edmund Fitzgerald's watery demise in Lake Superior tells of a rustic old hall in Detroit where bells chime to honor the 29 lives lost.
Forty years after the mysterious shipwreck, bells tolled Sunday at the church Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot referred to in "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
Lightfoot sings:
"In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the maritime sailors' cathedral,
The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald."
That rustic old hall actually is called the Mariners' Church of Detroit.
The Mariners' Church of Detroit was founded at Woodward and Woodbridge streets in 1842. That's when, according to the church, "all life in Old Detroit was then contained in that area," and "all life stemmed from the river."
A landowner named Julia Anderson established it to serve as a mission to seamen. The completion of the Erie Canal was bringing more maritime traffic to Detroit, which then had a population of about 10,000 people.
The Rev. William Fleming, the church's rector, said Sunday that Anderson wanted the church to serves as a beacon of hope, a safe, spiritual enclave and a house of prayer for all people.
The present structure was built in 1849 in the Gothic Revival Style, with Calvin N. Otis and Hugh Moffat as architects. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971, the church also is a former stop on the Underground Railroad.
The gorgeous building, which was saved from demolition in the 1950s, is wedged next to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel along Detroit's riverfront and dwarfed by the Renaissance Center.
The Mariners' Church of Detroit holds a Blessing of the Fleet every March for all seabound travelers, and it hosts a Great Lakes Memorial Service every November for all who have perished at sea.
On Sunday, the bell also tolled in memory of all who have died on the Great Lakes and its tributaries, and for all military personal who lost their lives fighting for their country.
M Live
Today in Great Lakes History - November 9
In 1971, the French freighter PENCHATEAU unloaded 3,000 tons of fluorspar at Erie Dock at Cleveland. This was (1) the first salty unloaded at this dock, (2) the first cargo handled from directly overseas, and (3) the first time Huletts unloaded directly into trucks. The operation required 9 hours (previous efforts using clamshell buckets to unload required two days).
On 09 November 1869, EXCELSIOR (wooden propeller river steamer and ferry, 40 foot, 28 tons, built in 1861, at Lewiston, New York) caught fire and was destroyed while taking on wood. She was owned by Samuel Hunt of St. Charles, Michigan and was primarily used as a ferry on the Saginaw River.
EDWIN H. GOTT's keel was laid November 9, 1977, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
The aft section of the ATLANTIC SUPERIOR (Hull#222) was launched at Collingwood, Ontario by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd. November 9, 1981. The section was towed to Thunder Bay, Ontario for completion.
In the fall of 1962, the W.F. WHITE left the Lakes, under tow of the tug MARION MORAN, for coal shuttle service in the Chesapeake Bay area passing down the Welland Canal November 9th. She returned to the Lakes under tow of the DIANA MORAN in 1965. Sold Canadian in 1976, renamed b.) ERINDALE, she was scrapped at Port Colborne, Ontario in 1985.
The keel for the GEORGE M. HUMPHREY was laid November 9, 1953, at Lorain, Ohio.
NORMAN B. REAM was laid up at Duluth, Minnesota on November 9, 1960. In 1965, she would be sold and renamed b.) KINSMAN ENTERPRISE.
In 1971, the CITY OF MIDLAND 41 was laid up due to coal strike.
On 9 November 1923, AZTEC (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 180 foot, 835 gross tons, built in 1889, at Marine City, Michigan) was destroyed by fire at her home port of Marine City. The wreck lay in the Belle River until dynamited in the 1930Õs, and what was left was placed on the previously raised barge PROVINCE which was then towed up the St. Clair River, into Lake Huron and scuttled.
On 9 November 1877, The Port Huron Times announced that the Lake schooners W C GRANT and CITY OF GREEN BAY had left Montreal on a voyage to Europe.
The Big Storm of 1913: On November 7, 1913, the storm responsible for sinking or damaging more vessels than any other began a six-day assault on the Great Lakes. The "Big Blow" of 1913, struck Lake Superior on November 7 and reached Lake Michigan by November 8.
At 10:00 p.m. on November 9, 1913, the HOWARD M. HANNA JR was blown broadside onto the Port Austin Reef (off the tip of Michigan's thumb on Lake Huron) by northerly winds in excess of 60 mph during the Great Storm of 1913. The ship finally lost power and was driven onto the reef where she broke in two at hatch number seven.
On November 9, 1913, while down bound with ore, the FRED G. HARTWELL encountered very strong southwest winds in Lake Superior. She reached a position one mile east of Iroquois Point, on Whitefish Bay and dropped her anchor to ride out the storm. Her anchor began to drag when the winds shifted to the north and increased to unprecedented gale-force velocity. This was the beginning of the "Great Storm" of 1913, which drove her aground onto a rocky bottom. The seas pounded her until her bottom plates were torn open and she sank the next day in 26 feet of water.
On November 9th during the Big Storm of 1913, the MATTHEW ANDREWS was down bound in Lake Huron with a cargo of iron ore. Captain Lempoh decided to drop anchor rather than risk trying to enter the St. Clair River during the fury of the storm. Taking bearings for anchorage from LIGHTSHIP 61 (stationed at Corsica Shoal), which unknown to him had been blown two miles off station, the MATTHEW ANDREWS grounded heavily on Corsica Shoal.
Below is a first hand account of the storm from the journal of John Mc Laughlin transcribed by his great grandson Hugh Mc Nichol. John was working on the steamer E.L. WALLACE of the Dearborn Transit Co., during the Storm of 1913. The boat was captained by John Mc Alpine and Harry Roberts as Chief Engineer. The boat was loading iron ore in Escanaba when the storm started on November 8th.
Sunday, November 9, 1913 I got up at 12 a.m. and went on watch. They were loading us but awful slow. It is blowing hard and some snow falling and colder. We got away at 11:35 a.m. There is a heavy sea on and blowing a gale. We ain't making much headway, about 2 miles in 4 hours.
More entries from the Storm of 1913 tomorrow.
SS Badger to head to Wisconsin this month for 5-year inspection
11/8 - Ludington, Mich. – Just like an adult should get a physical exam every year, the 62-year-old SS Badger is required to undergo hull inspections and more every five years. Sometime after the deer season opener Nov. 15, Selvick Marine Towing tugs will arrive in Ludington to tow the 410-foot Ludington-based carferry to Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
After some in-water inspections, the Badger will be moved to drydock, now scheduled for Nov. 20. Water will be pumped out from beneath the Badger and the black-hulled icon of Ludington will rest atop blocks for routine, but involved, inspections.
The Badger’s two 13-foot, 10-inch propellers, each weighing almost seven tons, will be removed for cleaning and dressing up. Pits and mars in the surface of the propellers will be filled and ground back down.
“Some are required, some just make sense to do,” Chuck Leonard, Lake Michigan Carferry vice president of navigation, said.
Ludington Daily News
Fitzgerald memorials stretch from Minnesota and Michigan to Ohio
11/8 - The 40th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking is Tuesday and the passage of time hasn't lessened the famous shipwreck's legacy.
Here is a list of events dedicated to remembering the 29 lives lost in a storm on Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.
Saturday, Nov. 7
• A panel discussion of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald at the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association's Gales of November Conference in Duluth, Minnesota. Registration for the event is required.
Sunday, Nov. 8
• The Great Lakes Memorial Service will take place at the Mariners Church in Detroit. The 11 a.m. service honors all sailors who have served on the Great Lakes.
Monday, Nov. 9
• The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band will present a concert to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald at 7:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center of Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. Proceeds will go to benefit ongoing historic restoration efforts at Whitefish Point. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $100 for special patron seating.
Tuesday, Nov. 10
• The Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, near Whitefish Point, will host its annual memorial ceremony at 7 p.m. in the Shipwreck Museum Main Gallery Building. There will be music, reflections and a Call to the Last Watch Ceremony.
• The Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors, Minn., will host a commemorative beacon lightning ceremony from noon to 6 p.m. featuring costumed guides and tours of the light. At 4:30 pm, the lighthouse will close temporarily while the names of the crew members are read to the tolling of a ship's bell. Cost is $9 for adults, $7 seniors and college students.
• The Michigan State University Main Library will host a panel to commemorate the sinking as part of their "Iron Hulls and Turbulent Waters" exhibit. The panel will start discussion at 7 p.m.
• The Dossin Great Lakes Museum in Detroit will be hosting its annual "Lost Mariners Remembrance" from 6 to 8 p.m. The event will feature a lantern vigil and a performance by Lee Murdock. Admission is $10. Before the memorial, visitors can go learn about the history of the ship at an exhibit.
• The Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City is holding an annual Mariners Memorial at noon. One of the academy cadets perished on the Fitzgerald. The event honor mariners who have perished on the Great Lakes and oceans and is sponsored by the Student Propeller Club, Port 150.
• The Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven will host "Gales of November: The 40th Anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at 7 p.m. Jim Spurr will discuss the historic difficulties of traveling the Great Lakes. Admission is $8.
• The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio is showing the premiere of the documentary "A Good Ship and Crew Well-Seasoned: The Fitzgerald and her Legacy" at 7:30 p.m. A reception is at 6 p.m. and a remembrance ceremony is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $45 for members and $60 for nonmembers.
• The River Rouge Historical Museum will be hosting an Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Service at Belanger Park on the Detroit River at 6 p.m. It will be held in a heated tent and lanterns will be placed along the dock.
• A staged reading of Shelley Russell's "Holdin' Our Own" at the Jamrich Hall Auditorium at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich. The show will start at 7:30 p.m.
M Live
Gordon Lightfoot song immortalized ore carrier sinking
11/8 - Detroit, Mich. – There’s no doubt that Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” helped keep the story of the doomed American ore carrier alive since it sank on Lake Superior during stormy weather on Nov. 10, 1975.
Twenty-nine men lost their lives in the wreck in Canadian waters after fighting 80-mph winds and 25-foot waves. The ship was one of the largest to sail the Great Lakes. Lightfoot, 76, first heard about the shipwreck when he saw it that evening on the TV news.
He’d been wanting to put lyrics to the mournful melody of an old Irish folk song he remembered hearing in his toddler days, growing up in Orillia, Ont. He explained his decision to write the song in a 2014 Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session:
“When the story came on television that the Edmund had foundered in Lake Superior three hours earlier, it was right on the CBC here in Canada, I came into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and saw the news and I said, ‘That’s my story to go with the melody and the chords.’ ”
A Newsweek article about the tragedy also was influential. Lightfoot started writing in late November of 1975 and the opening lyrics echoed the first sentence of the article, written by James R. Gaines and Jon Lowell: “According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee ‘never gives up her dead.’ ”
The singer/songwriter felt the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. “The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself,” said Lightfoot in the Reddit interview.
“And it was quite an undertaking to do that,” he continued. “I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about 31/2 years old. I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music.”
Lightfoot was moved to change the lyrics after a 2010 documentary, “Edmund Fitzgerald,” that aired on the show “Dive Detectives” on the History Channel revealed that the cause of the wreck wasn’t crew error, but that the ship broke in half, which caused it to sink. It was thought originally that the crew failed to secure the hatches, reflected in Lightfoot’s original line:
“At 7 p.m. a main hatchway caved in, he said, ‘Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.’ ”
The line didn’t overtly blame the crew, but in a 2013 interview with The Detroit News, Lightfoot explained some family members of the crew told him they were bothered by the lyric. The mother and daughter of two of the deckhands in charge of the hatches told him they cringed every time they heard the lyric. And it was about the only place in the song, Lightfoot acknowledged, where he took any poetic license. “I said, ‘I can’t change what’s on the record, but at least I can change what I do in concert.’ ”
It took Lightfoot a long time to figure out how to rewrite the line, and he took suggestions from fans, but ultimately, it was thinking about how early darkness falls in November that influenced the rewrite.
The revised line: “At 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then he said, ‘Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.’ ”
“I figured that by November it would be getting dark at about the time that ship sank,” Lightfoot told a News reporter, “and so that’s what I did. And that replaced ‘At 7 p.m. the hatchway caved in.’ ”
While he won’t change the copyrighted lyrics, he will always do it live this way. “So I always do it that way, and I’ve done it 200, 300 times now, because we do that song every night.”
Gordon Lightfoot and ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’
• “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was Lightfoot’s second most successful song, after “Sundown,” but as his own website points out, the “Edmund Fitzgerald” is probably his best-known song.
• In November 1976, the song topped out at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, kept from the No. 1 spot by Rick Dees’ “Disco Duck” one week, Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night” another.
• Irish Republican Army leader Bobby Sands borrowed the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” melody and wrote new lyrics for his song, “Back Home in Derry.” The song was recorded by folksinger Christy Moore, among others.
• In the song, Lightfoot mentions the service the Mariner’s Church on Jefferson in Detroit held (now dubbed the “Great Lakes Memorial”) in honor of the wreck and the sailors who perished: “In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, in the Maritime Sailors Cathedral. The church bell chimed, it rang 29 times, for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Lightfoot has appeared at some of the Mariner’s Church November gatherings, although in recent years he is more likely to meet family members of the crew in Whitefish Bay, Mich.
• This year’s Mariner’s Church Great Lakes Memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Sunday at the church, 170 W. Jefferson, Detroit. • In late October, Lightfoot was back in his hometown of Orillia, Ont., for the unveiling of a 13-foot-high bronze statue depicting him in his 20s. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played in the background during the ceremony.
• The Canadian mint struck a $20 silver-colored coin commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking, as part of a “Lost Ships in Canadian Waters” series. The coin features a vivid scene of the ship being swept by the perilous waves.
• Cleveland-based Great Lakes Brewing Co. makes an Edmund Fitzgerald porter, “a bittersweet tribute to the legendary freighter’s fallen crew — taken too soon when the gales of November came early.”
• A Toronto group, Cadence, launched a gofundme campaign to fund a video to go with their version of Lightfoot’s “classic Canadian folk song” about the tragedy.
Detroit News
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 10, 2015 7:13:16 GMT -5
On this day in 1892, whaleback barge 102 loaded 2,073 tons of iron ore at Superior consigned to Cleveland. This was the first shipment of Mesabi Range iron ore carried by Oglebay Norton.
On 10 November 1901, the ROBERT A. PACKER (wooden freighter, 209 foot, 921 tons, built in 1882, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was found by the wrecking tug RUMBLE eleven miles north of off De Tour, Michigan, ablaze and abandoned by her crew. Captain Isaac Zess of the RUMBLE fought the flames for four hours and then was helped by the THOMAS W. PALMER. The fire was speedily extinguished with both vessels pouring water on the flames and the PACKER was tied up at the dock in DeTour, Michigan.
On 10 November 1887, A. BOODY (wooden schooner, 137 foot, 287 gross tons, built in 1863, at Toledo, Ohio) struck the Port Austin reef on Lake Huron and was declared a total loss. However, after ten days of hard work, the BOODY was finally pulled off the reef.
The EDMUND FITZGERALD foundered on Lake Superior during a severe storm November 10, 1975, at approximately 7:10 p.m. about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan, at position 47 0'N by 85 7'W in Canadian waters.
IMPERIAL ST CLAIR (Hull#57) was launched November 10, 1973 , by Port Weller Drydocks at St. Catharines, Ontario. Renamed b.) ALGOSAR in 1998, sold off the lakes, renamed c.) GENESIS EXPLORER in 2005.
The STEELTON sailed on her maiden voyage for Bethlehem Steel Corp. on November 10, 1943.
The ROBERT C. STANLEY, in her first season of operation, on November 10, 1943 during a Lake Superior storm, developed a significant crack across her spar deck and 12 to 14 feet down both sides of her hull. As the hull worked in the heavy seas, the crack widened to as much as three to four inches. The crew ran cables between the fore and aft winches that maintained a force sufficient to hold the hull together.
November 10, 1972, in the vicinity of the entrance to the East Outer Channel near Amherstburg, Ontario, the UNITED STATES GYPSUM collided with her towing tug MAINE and as a result her bow was punctured. The GYPSUM was beached to prevent sinking.
Pittsburgh Steamship's WILLIAM A. IRVIN (Hull#811) was launched November 10, 1937, at Lorain, Ohio. The IRVIN serves as a museum ship in Duluth, Minnesota since 1986.
November 10, 1892, the carferry ANN ARBOR NO 1 left the shipyard in Toledo, Ohio, bound for Frankfort on her maiden voyage. In 1895, the first major accident caused by cars coming free on the car deck of a rail ferry happened when the ANN ARBOR NO 1, was on an eastbound voyage. Approaching Frankfort in a northwest gale, she rolled so violently that many of the car fastenings broke and the cargo began to move about on the car deck. None of the early rear-loading car ferries were equipped with a sea gate to protect the stern from the seas, and seven cars of flour and butter went off the deck of the NO 1 into the lake. Captain Charles Moody resigned from the Ann Arbor as a result of this incident and returned to the Pere Marquette and Goodrich lines.
ATLANTIC (formerly MANITOULIN, wooden propeller passenger/package freight, 147 foot, 683 gross tons, built in 1880, at Owen Sound, Ontario) was bound for Byng Inlet with lumber camp supplies when she was caught in a storm and grounded in the lee of Pancake Island in Georgian Bay. Her cargo and aft cabin were thrown overboard to lighten her, but she caught fire and was destroyed. Her passengers and crew took to her boats and survived.
On 10 November 1856, ST JOSEPH (wooden propeller steam barge, 170 foot, 460 tons, built in 1846, at Buffalo, New York) stranded and was wrecked near Fairport, Ohio. No lives were lost.
November 10, 1911 - The ANN ARBOR NO 4 was back in service after damaging several plates in October. The tanker MARIA DESGAGNES struck bottom in the St. Lawrence Seaway on 10 November 1999. After temporary repairs were made, the vessel was cleared to proceed to Hamilton, Ontario, to discharge its cargo of jet fuel. A survey of the seaway was completed with no indications as to what caused the vessel to ground.
On 10 November 1887, BLAZING STAR (wooden schooner, 137 foot, 265 tons, built in 1873, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin) was sailing on Lake Michigan in fine weather with a load of lumber. However, she grounded on Fisherman Shoal near Washington Island, Wisconsin even though the wreck of the steamer I N FOSTER was in full view on that reef. The captain was unable to locate a tug to pull the BLAZING STAR off and later she broke up in heavy weather. No lives were lost.
Below is a first hand account of the Storm of 1913, from the journal of John Mc Laughlin transcribed by his great grandson Hugh Mc Nichol. John was working on an unknown vessel during the Storm of 1913. The boat was captained by John Mc Alpine and Harry Roberts as Chief Engineer. The boat was loading iron ore in Escanaba when the storm started on November 8th.
Monday, November 10, 1913: I got up at 12 a.m. and went on watch. We were laying at anchor. It was blowing a living gale and kept it up. They hove up the anchor near 10 o'clock but monkeyed around until after dinner. We got under way. We passed the Light Ship about 3, and White Shoal at 5:15.
More entries from the Storm of 1913 tomorrow.
1900: The iron package freighter ARABIAN went aground 8 miles west of Whitefish Point, Lake Superior due to heavy weather. The ship was salvaged with only minor damage. It was later part of the Canada Steamship Lines fleet and was broken up about 1939.
1903: The passenger and freight steamer ATLANTIC was destroyed by a fire on Georgian Bay enroute to Parry Sound. The blaze apparently started in the cargo of hay that had become soaked with coal oil while riding out a late fall storm off Spruce Island west of its destination.
1922: Fleetmates GLENMAVIS and GLENCLOVA were in a collision at Montreal. Both were repaired and remained as part of the Great Lakes fleet for years as ACADIAN and GEORGE HINDMAN (ii) respectively. 1936: SIR WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN was upbound in Lake Huron and ran into a fall storm that damaged 62 automobiles as part of the deckload of new Packard & Chrysler cars.
1968: MANTADOC and FRANCOIS L.D. collided in heavy fog on the Seaway and sustained considerable bow damage. Both were repaired and the former still sails as d) MANITOBA while the latter was scrapped at Alang, India, as b) CINTA in 1987.
1989: ELPIS, Freedom Class deep sea freighter, first came through the Seaway in 1978. It raised considerable ire after stranding on a coral reef off Key Largo, FL while carrying sugar to Mexico. When it was refloated on November 12, the ship was seized by U.S. Marshals until assessment of the damage to the delicate coral reef could be made. The ship was later released and survived further trading until being scrapped at Alang, India, as c) CITY OF HOUSTON, in 2001.
Dossin Museum offers Fitzgerald programs today, free webcast this evening
11/10 - Detroit, Mich. – Today, before this year's Lost Mariners Remembrance, visit the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and learn more about the Edmund Fitzgerald on the 40th anniversary of her loss.
• Museum docents will provide information about the William Clay Ford pilot house and what is known of the Edmund Fitzgerald and her last voyage.
• From 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., see a brief film covering the Edmund Fitzgerald’s launch at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in 1958, which includes images of the assembled crowd and a flotilla of small craft, as well as the “Raising of the Anchor” video produced by WDIV-TV, which documents the recovery of the anchor from the Detroit River.
• At 1:30 p.m., Pam Johnson, whose father was cook aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald when it sank, will discuss her relationship with the Fitz and with other families of those lost on board.
• Throughout the day, visit a small display of framed illustrations and photographs of the Edmund Fitzgerald from the Detroit Historical Society’s collection.
Note that the museum will close for final event setup between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., when doors will reopen for the annual Lost Mariners Remembrance ceremony.
Starting at 6:20 p.m. the Lost Mariners Remembrance webcast will be streamed from the museum starting with a concert by Lee Murdock followed by a program featuring renowned marine artist Robert McGreevy tells the story of the brave lifesaving crews who patrolled the Great Lakes.
Visit detroithistorical.org/dossin-great-lakes-museum/events-calendar/events-listing for details
Detroit Historical Society
11/10 - If people want to know what the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck looks like, there are numerous drawings, photos and models online that show the ill-fated carrier in its final resting place.
Veteran diver Terrence Tysall, however, has seen the looming hull of the famous shipwreck with his own eyes.
"It reminded me of an ice breaker cutting through large blocks of mud and clay," said Tysall, a Florida diving instructor who is one of two people to ever scuba dive the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank 40 years ago on Tuesday. "I'm assuming she nosed-in pretty hard."
On Sept. 1, 1995, Tysall and fellow diver Mike Zee, of Chicago, became the first and only people to ever scuba dive the Fitzgerald. The deep-water expedition landed the two men in the technical diving history books – and in hot water with some of the lost crew members' families, who consider the wreck a gravesite.
The Fitzgerald, the best known of all Great Lakes shipwrecks, sank suddenly in a gale on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 men aboard died, and their bodies are entombed inside the wreck, 530 feet under the surface.
Tysall called diving the ship one of the most significant accomplishments in his lengthy career, which includes more than 8,000 dives for the U.S. Navy, NASA, NOAA and other organizations. He and Zee set a record for the deepest scuba dive on the Great Lakes, and the deepest scuba dive on a shipwreck.
Prior to that, a handful of expeditions – Jacques Cousteau in 1980 among them – had involved heavy dive suits, remotely operated vehicles and submersibles. But scuba? Too deep, everyone said. Zee, a student of Tysall's, thought differently.
"We wanted to prove it could be done respectfully," Tysall said.
The two picked a date, arranged a team and drove a small pickup truck from Florida to Michigan, taking turns sleeping on the oxygen tanks in the truck bed. When they arrived in the Upper Peninsula, the weather gave them a window of one morning when the water was millpond calm for the expedition.
All told, it took about six minutes to descend and three hours to ascend from the shipwreck using a trimix gas mixture. Between that, Tysall and Zee spent a grand total of 15 minutes on the bottom with the wreck.
On the lake bed, the pair saw a hull towering above them, illuminated by heavy-duty lights they'd dropped on a camera line. The lights gave them about 60 feet of visibility on the bow area and of the iron ore scattered around the bottom. They floated up the hull side, past the words "Edmund Fitzgerald," to the pilothouse.
"Her paint is as perfect as when she went down," Tysall said. "The only time I think I've felt smaller on a wreck was when we dove some World War II wrecks in Guadalcanal."
Due to the strict dive timeframe, Tysall and Zee didn't get as much time as they would have liked to explore the shipwreck. Every minute on the bottom at that depth lengthens the time needed to decompress on the ascent. The duo had a finite amount of breathable gas mixture, and Lake Superior allows little room for error.
Just before leaving, Tysall reached out and grasped the port side rail with two neoprene-gloved hands. It was a reverent moment filled with emotion, he said. For the first time in 20 years, living hands touched the ship.
"It was a connection," he said. "It wasn't disrespect. Two people risked their lives to pay respects to those 29 men."
Afterward, the dive team visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. They planned on a full week of diving, but the weather closed in. The one dive was all that Mother Nature allowed.
Family members who were already pushing the Canadian government for a ban on expeditions to the wreck criticized Tysall and Zee in the weeks following the dive. A few months prior, the ship's bell had been recovered during an expedition blessed by family members who wanted a tangible, symbolic memorial on land.
In 1994, an expedition led by Fred Shannon captured video of a preserved body on the wreck. Shannon's intent to distribute the image sparked outrage and, eventually, a legislative ban on photography of corpses on Michigan bottomlands.
Tysall said the dive boat did not anchor to the wreck and the team went through the proper channels for a dive license required by the Ontario Heritage Act. Subsequent amendments to the act have effectively banned diving of any kind on the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck without approval by the Canadian government.
The Fitzgerald dive fueled debate over what proper respect should be shown a shipwreck, with divers and shipwreck hunters likening the expedition to visiting a cemetery and others calling it a macho stunt done in poor taste.
After their accomplishment became known, Fitzgerald family members called Tysall. They were concerned about his footage getting into the hands of tabloid TV shows. Tysall stressed the dive was not a publicity stunt and promised to hold onto the footage, which has never been released despite numerous requests.
"I think they understood the spirit of the dive after that," he said.
Tysall, a military veteran diver, said he's been a part of restricted expeditions before, including a sanctioned dive on the USS Arizona, a Navy battleship that sunk in the 1941 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor with nearly 1,000 men inside. He's helped recover bodies and has dove on sites where shipmates died, he said.
In Orlando, Tysall co-founded the Cambrian Foundation, a nonprofit group that does technical diving for scientists, archaeologists and governmental agencies. He led the team that recovered artifacts from the USS Monitor, a Civil War ironclad that sunk in 230 feet off Cape Hatteras in 1862.
In an era when people can experience so many things virtually, Tysall said he considers diving a way to maintain a physical connection with history.
"The Fitzgerald was another step in that for me," he said. "I think it was important for us to be there.
MLive
11/10 - A Metro Detroit shipwreck diver announced this week the discovery of a Great Lakes iron ore freighter lost on Lake Huron during the famous Great White Hurricane of 1913. Using side-scan sonar, David Trotter and a team of shipwreck sleuths this summer found the Hydrus, a steam-driven freighter that eluded discovery for 102 years.
The 416-foot long, 4,700-ton ship was discovered sitting upright on the bottom and identified by a sign bearing the ship's name found inside the engine room.
Trotter, who has been hunting Great Lakes shipwrecks for 40 years, is holding onto the exact location of the wreck for now. The ship was thought to be lost off Sanilac County, but Trotter would only say its 32 miles offshore, mid-lake, in deep water. "We've got some work to do on it yet," he said.
The Hydrus sank while making for shelter on the St. Clair River during a hurricane-force blizzard that battered the region between Nov. 7 and 11. Twenty-two crewmen died on board, and another five died in a lifeboat.
The epic storm is considered the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit the Great Lakes. Periodic lulls in the storm deceived captains into venturing from sheltered berths. More than 250 sailors died and 19 ships were lost, 12 with all hands. Wave gusts to 90 mph and 35-foot waves were reported on Lake Huron.
"The storm of '13 is absolutely the most horrific storm to ever hit the lakes," said Trotter, a retired Ford Credit executive who has searched more than 2,500 square miles of Lake Huron in his 32-foot dive boat, the Obsession II.
When Trotter's team found the wreck in July, it was sitting upright on the bottom facing west. The ship was downbound (steaming south) with a load of iron ore. The port side anchor, stern ventilation shafts and stern skylights are missing.
The crushed smokestack is lying next to the ship, on the starboard side. The missing anchor "says a lot," said Trotter.
In the Great Lakes, captains cannot let a storm push a vessel around indefinitely. At some point, ships must maneuver in order to avoid being run aground. Trotter surmised the Hydrus was caught in a wave trough and the captain dropped the anchor in a bid to swing the ship back into the storm and take seas over the bow.
The wreck is facing west, indicating the turn may have been successful. But at some point, the chain broke. Given the beating and likely flooding coming in from the open stern vents, the ship's crew was unable to keep the boilers stoked. Once the engine went out, "the demise of the ship is pretty much in the cards."
"I can picture the crew furiously trying to throw coal on the boilers to keep the engine running," Trotter said. "Eventually, they just can't outrun the water coming in."
At least one lifeboat was launched, but the crew inside had no hope. They were found frozen on the Canadian shoreline after the storm. Because there were no survivors and ship-to-shore communication of the time was primitive, it was hard to know exactly when the Hydrus went down. The peak of the storm was the evening of Nov. 9. That's when Trotter thinks the ship was lost.
The Hydrus was of fairly common freighter design of the time. The ship was built as the R.E. Schuck in 1903 by American Shipbuilding Co. of Ohio for Gilchrist Transportation of Cleveland. The Interlake Steamship Company was owner at the time she sank.
Other ships lost in the "meteorological bomb" include the Henry B. Smith, discovered in 2013 in Lake Superior. In 1985, Trotter discovered the John A. McGean, another victim of the storm, which sank in Lake Huron killing 22 men.
The Hydrus is the last ship sunk on the U.S. side of Lake Huron during the storm to be discovered. Others were discovered upside-down, or "turtled," on the bottom, making their inside difficult to explore. The Hydrus, by contrast, is upright.
Trotter and his team plan to go back with a remotely operated vehicle and penetrate the pilothouse. He wants to see the clock and ship gauges. There's more to learn about the storm based on details the wreck can yield.
"It would be interesting to correlate the those against the velocity of the storm during peak periods," he said. "We're not done with it."
MLive
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 11, 2015 6:49:05 GMT -5
The Port of Huron, Ohio received its first grain boat in seven years when Westdale Shipping's AVONDALE arrived at the Pillsbury Elevator on November 11, 1971, to load 200,000 bushels of soybeans for Toronto, Ontario.
On 11 November 1883, NEMESIS (2-mast wooden schooner, 74 foot, 82 gross tons, built in 1868, at Goderich, Ontario) was wrecked in a terrific storm that some called a hurricane. She went ashore near Bayfield, Ontario, on Lake Huron. She may have been recovered since her registration was not closed until 1907. In 1876, this little schooner rescued all but one of the crew from the sinking freighter NEW YORK.
The Armistice Day Storm of November 11, 1940, was one of the worst storms in the recorded history of Lake Michigan. In all, the storm claimed 5 vessels, and 66 lives. The storm hit late Monday afternoon, November 11th, with winds of hurricane proportions. The winds struck suddenly from the southwest at about 2:30 p.m. and were accompanied by drenching rain, which later changed to snow. The winds reached peak velocities of 75 miles per hour, the highest in local maritime history.
Some of the vessels affected were: CITY OF FLINT 32: Beached at Ludington, no damage. Jens Vevang, relief captain, in command. Her regular captain, Charles Robertson, was on shore leave. Also: PERE MARQUETTE 21: Blown into a piling at Ludington, no damage, captained by Arthur Altschwager. She had 5 passengers aboard. CITY OF SAGINAW 31: Arrived Milwaukee 6 hours late with over a foot of water in her hull. The wireless aerial was missing and her seagate was smashed by the waves. She was captained by Ed Cronberg. Ann Arbor carferry WABASH: A railcar broke loose from its moorings on her car deck and rolled over, nearly crushing a crewman. The steamer NOVADOC: Ran aground at Juniper Beach, South of Pentwater, Michigan. Two crewman (cooks) drowned when the ship broke in half. Seventeen crewman, found huddled in the pilothouse, were rescued by Captain Clyde Cross and his 2 crewman, Gustave Fisher and Joe Fontane of the fishing tug THREE BROTHERS. CONNEAUT of 1916, ran hard aground on Lansing Shoal near Manistique, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. She reportedly had lost her propeller and rudder. Two days later she was pulled off. The SINALOA had taken on a load of sand near Green Island and was heading for Chicago through Death's Door on Wisconsin's Door Peninsula when the November 11th Armistice Day storm of 1940, struck in upper Lake Michigan. During the storm the SINALOA lost her rudder. The anchor was dropped but her anchor cable parted. In this helpless condition she ran aground at Sac Bay on Michigan's Garden Peninsula. Fortunately the stricken vessel was close to shore where the Coast Guard was able to rescue the entire crew. Declared a constructive total loss, her owner collected the insurance and forfeited the vessel to the Roen Salvage Co.
ANNA C MINCH: Sank South of Pentwater with a loss of 24 lives.
WILLIAM B DAVOCK: of the Interlake fleet, Capt. Charles W. Allen, sank in 215 of water off Pentwater, Michigan. There were no survivors among the crew of 33.
The fishing tugs INDIAN and RICHARD H: Lost with all hands off South Haven, Michigan.
On 11 November 1872, the schooner WILLIS collided with the bark ELIZABETH JONES on Lake Erie and sank in a few minutes. The crew was saved.
On 11 November 1936, J. OSWALD BOYD (steel propeller fuel tanker, 244 foot, 1,806 gross tons, built in 1913, in Scotland) was carrying 900,000 gallons of gasoline when she stranded on Simmons Reef on the north side of Beaver Island. The U.S. Coast Guard from Beaver Island rescued the entire crew of 20.
On 11 November 1890, BRUNO (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 136 foot. 475 gross tons, built in 1863, at Montreal) was carrying coal to Cleveland with the schooner LOUISA in tow when she struck Magnetic Reef, south of Cockburn Island in Georgian Bay and sank in rough weather. No lives were lost.
On 11 November 1835, the 2-mast wooden schooner COMET was carrying iron and ashes on Lake Erie when she foundered in a gale, one mile northwest of Dunkirk, New York. Just her topmasts protruded from the water. All seven on board lost their lives, including a passenger who was a college student bound for Vermont.
In a storm on the night of 11 November 1874, The schooner LA PETITE (3-mast wooden schooner, 119 foot, 172 gross tons, built 1866, J. Ketchum, Huron, Ohio) was on Lake Michigan carrying a cargo of wheat and corn from Chicago when she sprang a bad leak and tried first to reach Ludington, then Manistee. Before reaching safety, she grounded off Big Point au Sable, eight miles from land, in eight feet of water. Previous to striking, the vessel had lost her bowsprit and foremast. After she struck, her main and mizzenmasts went by the board, and the schooner began to break up rapidly. The crew clung to the forecastle deck, and when that washed away, four men were drowned. Captain O. B. Wood had his arms broken by the falling off a square-sail yard. When he fell into the water, the ship's dog jumped in and kept him afloat until they were rescued by the crew of the steam barge CHARLES REITZ. Of the 10 crewmen, six were saved. The LA PETITE was salvaged and repaired and lasted until 1903, when she was lost in another storm.
On 11 Nov 1999, the Maltese flag bulk carrier ALCOR was examined by personnel from Transport Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, a salvage company and the vessel's owners in hopes of forming a plan to save the vessel. She ran aground on a sand bar off the eastern tip of d'Orleans Island on the St. Lawrence River two days earlier. This vessel did not visit Great Lakes ports under the name ALCOR, but she did so under her two previous names, firstly as PATRICIA V and then as the Soviet flag MEKHANIK DREN. The Groupe Desgagnes finally refloated the ALCOR on 05 Dec 1999, after part of the cargo of clinker had been removed. The ship was then towed to Quebec City. Later, it was reported that Groupe Desgagnes purchased the ALCOR from its Greek owners.
Below is a first hand account of the Storm of 1913, from the journal of John Mc Laughlin transcribed by his great grandson Hugh McNichol. John was working on an unknown vessel during the Storm of 1913. The boat was captained by John McAlpine and Harry Roberts as Chief Engineer. The boat was loading iron ore in Escanaba when the storm started on November 8th.
Tuesday, November 11, 1913: I got up at 12 a.m. and went on watch. We were above Presque Isle. It is still blowing hard and quite a sea running. Presque Isle at 1:45 a.m., Thunder Bay Island at 4:30 a.m., Harbor Beach at 1:00 p.m., we are about in the River at 7:05 p.m. It is fine tonight, wind gone down.
1940: The famous Armistice Day storm claims the ANNA C. MINCH, WILLIAM B. DAVOCK and NOVADOC (ii), on Lake Michigan and leaves CITY OF FLINT 32 and SINALOA aground and damaged.
1946: The former Canada Steamship lines bulk canaller LANARK was scuttled off the coast of Ireland with a load of World War Two bombs.
1977: The 380-foot, 8-inch long West German freighter GLORIA made 4 visits to the Great Lakes in 1959-1960. It went aground on the Adriatic at Sestrice Island as d) ARISTOTELES. While the 25-year old hull was refloated, it was declared a total loss and towed to Split, Yugoslavia, for scrapping.
1980: The DINIE S. suffered an engineroom fire at Palermo, Italy and became a total loss. The ship had visited the Seaway as a) CATHERINE SARTORI (1959-1967) and b) CURSA (1967) and was sailing under a seventh name. It was scrapped at Palermo in 1985
1980: CITY OF LICHFIELD stranded near Antalya, Turkey, while leaving the anchorage in heavy weather as c) CITY OF LEEDS. The ship was refloated but never sailed again and was eventually scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey, in 1984. The ship had visited the Great Lakes in 1964.
1995: JAMES NORRIS was loading stone at Colborne, ON when the wind changed leaving the hull exposed to the gale. The ship was repeatedly pounded against the dock until it settled on the bottom. Subsequent hull repairs at Port Weller Dry Docks resulted in the port side being all welded while the starboard remained riveted.
1995: The Cuban freighter AREITO had a mechanical problem in the St. Lambert Lock and had to be towed back to Montreal for repairs. This SD-14 class vessel was scrapped at Alang, India, as e) DUNLIN in 2001.
Scientists confirm Lake Superior rogue waves
11/11 - Madison, Wis. – Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have confirmed the phenomenon of rogue waves on Lake Superior — waves double the size of others at the same time and which have been named as a potential cause of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Professor Chin Wu and research assistant Josh Anderson are studying rogue waves in the Apostle Islands area where they observed waves as high as 17.7 feet when the other waves at the time averaged only 8.9 feet.
The big waves, sometimes called freak or killer waves, tend to occur unexpectedly and with huge force that makes them especially dangerous.
Although the study is still in progress, preliminary results show an increase in the probability for rogue waves near reflecting walls — such as a shoreline cliff.
Wind speed and direction and currents are likely other factors, the researchers note. And they say one rogue wave probably means another is not far behind.
"They group together during certain wave conditions," Anderson told Wisconsin Sea Grant. "You might get three or four in an hour and then you won't get one for the rest of the day."
Great Lakes mariners and others have speculated that a group of three rogue waves — the so-called "three sisters'' phenomenon — may be a factor in the sinking of the Fitzgerald in a storm near Whitefish Point, Mich., 40 years ago Tuesday.
Captain Jesse B. "Bernie" Cooper of the Arthur M. Anderson, the laker closest to the Fitzgerald at the time it sank, reported that his ship was hit by massive waves not long before he lost contact with the Fitzgerald that went down with all 29 crew members.
In the book "Shipwrecks of Lake Superior," Cooper said of the unusually large waves that "we took two of the largest seas of the trip. The first one flooded our boat deck. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat. ... The second large sea put green water (the powerful center of a wave) on our bridge deck! This is 35 feet above the waterline."
Some have speculated that the rogue waves may have been the last straw for the Fitzgerald that was already taking on water and listing.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, rogue waves have been part of marine folklore for centuries but have only been recently accepted as a real phenomenon by scientists. Most reports of extreme storm waves say they look like "walls of water." They are often steep-sided with unusually deep troughs.
The big waves often form because swells, while traveling across the ocean, do so at different speeds and directions. As these swells pass through one another, their crests, troughs and lengths sometimes coincide and reinforce each other. This process can form unusually large, towering waves that quickly disappear. If the swells are traveling in the same direction, these mountainous waves may last for several minutes before subsiding.
Another cause is a "focusing" of wave energy. When waves formed by a storm develop in a water current against the normal wave direction, an interaction can take place which results in a shortening of the wave frequency. This can cause the waves to dynamically join together, forming very big rogue waves.
Wu and Anderson deployed wave and current-measuring instruments throughout the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. They examined the data for rogue wave patterns, looking at three possible causes — refraction on shoals, diffraction around islands and reflection off the sandstone bluffs so prevalent in the Lake Superior region. The largest rogue wave they observed at the sea caves area was 12.8 feet when the other waves around it were 6.1 feet.
Although the rogue waves observed in the Apostles aren't nearly as large as the offshore ones that hit the Anderson and may have doomed the Fitzgerald, "they're still dangerous to kayakers or sailboaters," said Anderson. "Waves are hazardous and we still don't know everything about them, so we're doing this research for public safety and to understand them better."
Wu and Anderson developed a computer model to calculate 35 years of waves on Lake Superior and found "the overall wave climate has been increasing on Lake Superior due to less ice cover and stronger winds in the winter, which generates larger waves," Anderson said.
Duluth News Tribune
Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy casts long shadow
11/11 - Whitefish Point, Mich. – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald wasn’t the deadliest shipwreck on the Great Lakes, didn’t occur during the worst storm and wasn’t shrouded in the biggest mystery. But it’s the one we remember.
And the crew’s families remember better than most. They lost fathers. They lost sons. And they never got a chance to say good-bye. Even after 40 years, the tragedy hasn’t lessened its grip on their hearts.
John O’Brien was 17 when his father, Red, died aboard the ship Nov. 10, 1975. “Anyone who loses their dad at that age knows that’s a big hole,” he said last week, growing emotional. “No one could ever fill it.”
Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the day the ship, traveling from Wisconsin to Detroit, disappeared in a storm on Lake Superior. The next day, sonar from a search plane spotted the freighter on the bottom of the lake. All 29 men aboard perished.
One doesn’t have to be a sailor or Midwesterner to know about Big Fitz. Its story is known far from the shores of the Great Lakes. It’s sinking launched a dozen books. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula draws curious visitors from all over the country.
“I find it amazing. The interest in the shipwreck never seems to wane,” said Bruce Lynn, museum executive director.
Much of the interest comes from a 1976 song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a Top 10 hit that radio often replays this time of the year. It’s bolstered by a mystery. After four decades, experts still don’t agree on why the ship sank. But the families didn’t need a pop song to learn about the tragedy. Their lives were defined by it. All it takes for them to remember is a stiff wind in November.
At one time, the Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and, though it lost that title, it still set records year after year for carrying more cargo than other freighters. The trip that began Nov. 9, 1975, was a routine run, one the Fitzgerald had done many times in 17 years. The laker was lugging 26,100 tons of iron ore pellets from Superior, Wisconsin, to a steel mill on Zug Island.
The trip came near the end of the shipping season, when the weather could turn dicey. But the sailors weren’t worried. The ship’s advanced technology and sheer size were more than a match for the elements, the crewmen told relatives.
Porter Nolan Church joked the Great Lakes didn’t have a hole big enough for the 729-foot Fitz to fall into, said his son, Rick. “He just never thought anything like that could ever happen,” Church said.
Nolan Church, 55, didn’t become a sailor until his 40s. Watching freighters pass his home in Silver Bay, Minnesota, he thought it might be a fun job, said his children. And he turned out to be right, they said. He loved his time on the water.
By contrast, Bob Rafferty had grown weary of the life. After 30 years, he stopped sailing full time and just filled in for others, said his daughter, Pam Johnson.
The Fitzgerald’s cook was on vacation and his replacement, who had an ulcer, decided just before the fateful journey that he wasn’t healthy enough to make it, Johnson said. That left Rafferty, 62, a jovial bear of a man from Toledo who loved to cook.
Johnson has reconciled with the series of circumstances that placed her dad on the ship. “I believe in a higher power,” she said. “God just needed my dad home more than I did.”
When the Fitzgerald left the city of Superior, just south of Duluth, Minnesota, on the afternoon of Nov. 9, the forecast wasn’t unusual. A storm was supposed to pass south of Lake Superior. The Fitzgerald hugged the northern coast but the storm moved north as well, according to a Coast Guard investigation.
Conditions worsened until the following afternoon, when the waves grew to 30 feet and gusts up to 96 mph. At 3:30 p.m. the Fitz lost a fence railing and two vent covers, according to the investigation. The listing ship was taking on water that two bilge pumps tried to discharge. Forty minutes later, the ship lost both radars, according to books about the wreck. It was sailing blind.
“The Fitz was out of options,” said a 2005 book by Michael Schumacher, “Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” “It rode perilously low in the water, helpless against the relentless onslaught of the storm,” Schumacher wrote.
The ship slowed so the Arthur M. Anderson, a freighter following behind, could get close enough to provide direction, said the book. The Anderson spotted the Fitzgerald on its radar and directed it toward Whitefish Point.
At 7:10 p.m., Fitzgerald Capt. Ernest McSorley told the Anderson, “We are holding our own,” according to the Coast Guard investigation. Ten minutes later, the Anderson lost sight of the Fitzgerald when it sailed into a snow squall. When the squall lifted, the Fitz was gone.
In Moquah, Wisconsin, a neighbor told Lorraine Wilhelm the 10 o’clock news had said something about the Fitzgerald being missing. Wilhelm’s husband, Blaine, 52, was an oiler on the ship. Wilhelm turned on the TV but had to wait for the end of a high school hockey game before the news came on, said her daughter, Heidi Brabon of Portage, Michigan.
“I remember being so scared,” said Brabon, who was 12 at the time. Her mother was on the phone most of the night, trying to find someone who knew something.
Like other crew families, the Wilhelms held out hope against hope that their loved one had survived. Maybe he had swum to safety. Maybe the ship had been knocked ashore. Maybe he had been plucked from the water by the Coast Guard, and was now drying off on its ship.
After getting the grim news, the family didn’t tell Brabon’s sister, who was about to give birth. The baby was born four days after Wilhelm’s death.
None of the sailors’ bodies was ever recovered from the wreck.
Among them was Oliver “Buck” Champeau, 41, a third assistant engineer from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. At 13, Champeau had quit school to help raise his four brothers and sisters after their father died. Years later, when his brother Jack prepared to fight in Vietnam, Buck came to his bedroom the night before the deployment.
Buck also had fought in a war, in Korea. His stocky, muscled frame had a Marine Corps tattoo on his left forearm. Buck promised that, if anything happened to Jack overseas, he would come get him. It’s part of the Soldier’s Creed. More than that, it was a fraternal compact.
After the Fitzgerald shipwreck, Jack wanted to do the same thing. He wanted to bring his brother home. But officials decided against the herculean task of retrieving the bodies.
“It still has a significant effect on our lives,” Champeau said about the tragedy.
The failure to recover his brother’s body gnawed at Champeau until 1995 when, with the crew families’ blessing, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society retrieved the bell from the sunken ship. In lieu of his brother, the presence of the 200-pound, bronze bell helped give Champeau some closure.
The families of the crew sometimes get together to mark anniversaries or special events related to the ship. In 1999, the shipwreck site was consecrated during a ceremony on Lake Superior attended by a dozen families.
Among the attendees was Bruce Kalmon, whose father, Al, was second cook. “That was my dad. He was the only one I had, and I’m sorry he’s gone,” said Kalmon, who was 11 in 1975. He scrawled a message on the side of a rock and, standing in a Coast Guard cutter, dropped it to his father 530 feet below.
Returning to Detroit, the cutter was passing through the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron when it was joined by another ship.
The crew of the freighter, looming high above the families, were all waving. In a twist of fate, it was the Arthur M. Anderson.
At first, families of the crew hated “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” They resented that Canadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot was profiting from their loss. But many have changed their mind. They like that the song, which has sold a million copies in the U.S., has kept the sailors’ memory alive.
Marilynn Peterson, a daughter of Nolan Church, said she was heartened the song will help her children and children’s children learn about him. “It’s part of history,” she said. “My grandkids will learn about him although they never met him.”
Preparing for her mother’s funeral in 1993, Peterson and two sisters were on their way to a florist in Two Harbors, Minnesota, when the song came on the car radio. The women began to cry. Peterson said it was like receiving a message from their dad that their mom was now with him.
Through the years, a number of theories have been posed about what caused the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald:
• Faulty hatch covers: As waves washed over the deck, water streamed into the cargo hold, pushing iron ore pellets toward the bow, which caused the rollicking ship to nose-dive. In its investigation, the Coast Guard listed this as the probable cause of the wreck.
• Shoals: The Lake Carriers Association, a trade group, believed the ship ran over shoals while hugging the Canadian coast to avoid the storm. The shoals punctured the ship, which caused it to slowly begin sinking as it sailed into the brunt of a storm.
• Rogue wave: Some authors who have written about the wreck believe the ship was struck by a quick succession of three larger-than-normal waves, which overloaded the deck with tons of water.
The Detroit News
Advances in technology make Great Lakes safer for ships
11/11 - Detroit, Mich. – In the 40 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank to the bottom of Lake Superior with 29 crew members aboard, advances in technology and weather forecasting have made shipping on the Great Lakes monumentally safer, say maritime experts, investigators and historians.
State-of-the-art radar tracks water depth and GPS systems are so sophisticated, even a person on shore can track a vessel with a smartphone or iPad. The wizardry of today’s weather forecasting lets ship personnel know the conditions they are facing days out.
Just ask Brad Newland, the captain of the 1,000-foot James R. Barker of the Interlake Steamship Company based near Cleveland.
“We have an incredible array of electronics up here that would just stagger (Fitzgerald Captain Ernest) McSorley,” said Newland, who was aboard his ship recently on a trip from Duluth, Minnesota, to St. Clair to load and unload coal. “To come up here and look at the tools that I have...he didn’t. He literally had an empty pilot house versus what I have. He had his eyes. He had radar that didn’t work.”
“I know where I am every second of the day. I have three GPS units. He didn’t have any,” Newland continued. “Back in those days, it was just your eyes.”
Jim Scheffer, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s product development division who once headed the investigative section of the agency, agreed.
“There has been, generally speaking, safety improvements in areas pertaining to the whole maritime industry internationally and domestically,” Scheffer said. “There are still very few cases today of where you have a complete loss of a vessel.”
Theories on ship’s sinking
No one really knows why the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank, but there are several theories. Among them:
• The official Coast Guard board of inquiry came to the conclusion that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank as a result of “massive flooding of the cargo hold,” saying that this likely resulted from “ineffective hatch closure.”
• Perhaps the most widely accepted of the several theories about the loss of the Fitzgerald is that the ship crossed Caribou Island’s Six-Fathom Shoal, with water as shallow as 26 feet. This contact or a near miss would damage the hull and allow water to begin accumulating inside the affected ballast tanks. Within a few minutes of passing the shoal, the Fitz’s Captain Ernest McSorley reported a starboard list, missing vents and a fence rail down.
• Another explanation is that the Fitzgerald suffered a stress fracture and broke apart on the surface from the effects of heavy seas twisting and flexing the hull in hurricane-force winds.
As a result of the Fitzgerald tragedy, Coast Guard officials now mandate more rigorous inspections inside and outside vessels and the use of depths finders. Survival suits and life rafts must be stocked on board.
Rick Minnick, an investigator with the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit in Toledo, said subsequent technological advancements, such as bilge alarms to warn if the engine rooms or cargo holds are flooding, are on all the navigation systems on board freighters.
“Their pilot houses are like a jet, you could say, compared to what it was like back then,” Minnick said. “They have electronic navigation. They have radars that track their position. The charts that they use are more updated as far as depth of water.”
Minnick said that although there appear to be fewer freighter disasters, weather can still present grave danger as it did last month when the El Faro cargo ship went down in Hurricane Joaquin off the coast of Florida.
“In my personal and professional opinion, things have improved to prevent accidents like the Fitzgerald from happening,” he said. “Of course, they are still going to happen just like with the El Faro, but they were also going through the middle of a very strong hurricane. It just goes to show you whether its 1975 or 2015, Mother Nature, I guess, still plays a role in the fate of these vessels.”
Still, when it comes to weather forecasting, shipping companies have everything at their disposal to see prohibitive weather coming several days in advance.
And that’s in part thanks to David Schwab, a longtime Great Lakes oceanographer and current research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Water Center, who helped develop a system that provides detailed forecasting maps on the lakes up to 10 days in advance.
A 2006 study he helped author on the weather conditions when the Fitzgerald went down had wind gusts of hurricane force at 70 mph and waves higher than 25 feet. “We showed that the Fitzgerald was in the worst possible place at the worst possible time,” Schwab said.“In 1975, the National Weather Service computer models for weather forecasting were stone age compared to what they can do now,” Schwab said. “So back then, they probably would be able to forecast how strong the winds would be in front of the storm and behind the storm but very little on the details of how fast the winds would be moving.”
Today, the technology can predict specific wind speeds and wave heights almost every hour, he said, and this technology is being used everyday on the Great Lakes. “I can’t say if they will go out or not,” Schwab said of freighters going out into storms, “but what I can tell you is that they will have extremely accurate forecasts of what conditions they will encounter.”
Mark Barker, the president of Interlake Steamship Company, said crucial to keeping ships safe is “operating them in the right conditions” and not taking chances beyond “your capability.”
“We always learn. This is an industry that doesn’t say, that happened, don’t talk about it,” Barker said. “Any incident we’ve ever had we learn from that. It’s unfortunate that sometimes you have to learn from tragedy. And that’s in the case of the Fitz...we did.”
Barker agrees that the weather that doomed the Fitzgerald would be avoided today with the state-of-the-art weather forecasting that didn’t exist went the ship went down.
“The weather, we understand it, and you end up putting the ships to anchor more than not,” Barker said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get there but we’ve got to do it safely. Safety is of utmost importance.”
The Detroit News
Fall storm: 12 to 20-foot waves in the forecast
11/11 - The National Weather Service has issued the following storm information: Fall Storm to impact Michigan Wednesday Night through Friday
• Long stretch of strong winds with the strongest occurring on Thursday
• Wind gusts of 45+ mph inland and around 60 mph at the lakeshore
• High risk for downed tree limbs and power outages
• Waves on Lake Michigan will reach the 12- to 20-foot range
• Beach and dune erosion expected with lakeshore flooding in spots
• Avoid piers on Lake Michigan as water pushing over them will cause life threatening conditions
Ludington Daily News
U.S.-flag lakers’ cargo down almost 14 percent in October
11/11 - Cleveland, Ohio – U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters carried 9.7 million tons of cargo in October, a decrease of 13.7 percent compared to a year ago, and a decrease of 0.6 percent compared to the month’s long-term average.
Iron ore cargos decreased 21.8 percent compared to a year ago. Coal cargos decreased 7 percent. Limestone loadings dipped a little more than 1 percent.
Year-to-date U.S.-flag cargos total 71.9 million tons, an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the same point in 2014, but a decrease of 1.3 percent compared to the long-term average for the January-October timeframe.
Iron ore cargos have decreased 6.3 percent compared to a year ago. Coal shipments are up 6.5 percent. Limestone loadings have increased 10 percent.
Lake Carriers’ Association
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 12, 2015 6:17:32 GMT -5
Lakeshore flood warnings issued; condition not seen in at least 15 years
11/12 - Grand Rapids, Mich. – A lakeshore flood warning has been issued for the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest Lower Michigan. This type of warning has not been issued by the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids since at least 2000.
A long duration of strong west winds gusting up to 60 mph at the shoreline will build high waves and shove lake water onto the beach and possibly adjacent roads.
The strong west wind from Thursday morning to Friday morning could cause a lake storm surge of six inches to a foot. This means six inches to a foot of water from the west side of Lake Michigan could be shoved over to the Michigan shoreline.
The combination of much higher lake levels now, 60 mph wind gusts and 24 hours of sustained strong west winds is the reason for the Lakeshore Flood Warning.
The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids thinks severe beach erosion is possible. They are also forecasting some lakeshore roads like Beach Street in Muskegon could have rising lake water cover part of the road. There is no forecast as to how high the flood waters will be.
Water will also be shoved into the rivers, and rivers in West Michigan could rise. Yards along the Grand River near Grand Haven and along the Kalamazoo River near Saugatuck could also flood.
The main safety tip is to use common sense Thursday and Friday. While Mother Nature will put on a real show at the lakeshore, don't drive on flooded roads. Try to stay inland away from the floodwaters.
M Live – Mark Torregrossa
'Landmark storm': 75 years ago, Armistice Day Storm engulfed the Great Lakes
11/12 - Muskegon, Mich. – The forecast for Nov. 11, 1940 was nothing out of the ordinary. It was unseasonably warm, with the high temperature pushing 60 degrees before noon. All throughout the Midwest, people left their homes in short sleeves and without coats, and, on the Great Lakes, freighters were in transit.
It was a seemingly normal day, and then it wasn't. The weather conditions changed. By 6 p.m., below-freezing temperatures and wind gusts up to 79 mph wreaked havoc on the region and many were caught in its fury.
By the time the storm had dissipated, three massive freighters, 64 sailors and four Muskegon-area residents would fall victim to one of the greatest storms in the history of the Great Lakes.
Wednesday marked the 75th anniversary of the fateful Armistice Day Storm of 1940.
"It really is the landmark storm of the last 100 years on the Great Lakes," said Bob Dukesherer, marine program leader at the National Weather Service Office in Grand Rapids. "Especially in the West Michigan region we're all so familiar with."
The storm is often grouped with other memorable November gales, including the 1905 Blow that destroyed or damaged nearly 30 vessels, the "White Hurricane" of 1913 and the 1975 storm that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Armistice Day Storm, however, hits particularly close to home since the only loss of life on the Great Lakes occurred on Lake Michigan between Little Sable Point and Big Sable Point lighthouses.
"This was not the worst storm but it was the one that we were caught off guard," said Valerie van Heest, a maritime historian and director of Michigan Shipwreck Research Association. "There was no time to prepare for this and that's why not only sailors died but many people on land died as well."
The Armistice Day Storm was caused by the collision of several weather systems, including a storm that began on the West Coast and caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Nov. 7, 1940.
It was forecasted that the storm would dissipate over the Rocky Mountains, but instead it continued to move east where it collided with an intense low-pressure system that had tracked from the southern plains northeastward and a cold arctic air mass from the north.
The timing of year is also significant since conditions in the Great Lakes are primed for storms in the month of November. It has to do with two main factors, according to MLive Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa.
"The Great Lakes water temperatures are usually still fairly warm in late October and early November. Many years there are still pockets of nearly 60 degree water still in early November," he wrote.
"Combine the warm water with blasts of winter-like cold, and you've got the recipe for intensifying storm systems. So take a deepening storm system coming out of the Plains, move that storm center over the warm Great Lakes, pull in very cold air from Canada, and watch a storm explosively deepen."
He added that the average strength of storm systems gets stronger on their own in late fall due to more powerful upper level winds; the jet stream.
National Weather Bureau records indicate a severe temperature drop and wind speed increase on the day of Nov. 11, 1940. The measured temperature at 10:35 a.m. was 56 degrees and by 11:35 p.m. the temperatures was 25 degrees.
A southeast wind of 13 mph measured at 10:35 a.m increased to a western wind of 61 mph by 5:35 p.m.
The 420-foot-long William B. Davock, 340-foot-long Anna C. Minch and the 250-foot-long Novadoc, as well as two smaller vessels, the Indian and the Richard H., were all lost beneath the waves. The entire 32-man crew of the Davock and the 24-man crew of the Minch died in the incident.
The cooks from the Novadoc – Joe De Shane of Toronto, and Phillip Flavin of Halifax, Nova Scotia – were both swept overboard while the rest of the 17-man crew was rescued by Clyde Cross, Gustav Fisher and Joe Fontain, the crew of a small fishing tug called Three Brothers II.
Together, the three braved the surf against Coast Guard orders to save a crew that had been huddling in the stern for 36 hours. Tom Peterson, 50, was one of the men who survived the ordeal.
A veteran sailor with more than 20 years of experience, he shared his story with Muskegon Chronicle reporter Dale Stafford in an article published on Nov. 14, 1940.
"I was in the stern with three others. The ship started breaking and water poured in on us. All Monday night, all day yesterday, through last night until this morning we had to keep bailing. We scooped water up in buckets and heaved it out the portholes. It was all we could do to keep ourselves from drowning."
"We didn't have any heat in the stern compartment," the account continued. "The rest were up in the bow and they had some heat and food...I was through a bad storm a few years back but I never saw anything like that. What I want now is a warm place, something to eat and some sleep."
While tragic, the Armistice Day Storm of 1940 effectively changed weather forecasting on the Great Lakes.
Prior to the event, all of the weather forecasts for the region originated at the National Weather Bureau in Chicago and were made during 12-hour days, six days a week. Forecasting responsibilities were expanded to include 24-hour coverage and more forecasting offices were created throughout the Midwest.
"In the case of so many accidents, if we can find good that comes out of bad, then we can realize that the people who died didn't die in vain," van Heest said. "In this case those who died prompted major changes with the National Weather Bureau that led to being able to predict the changing weather conditions more efficiently. Those people's lives may have saved many, many people in the years since."
Since then, no single weather event on the Great Lakes has claimed more ships or taken as many lives as the Armistice Day Storm of 1940.
M Live – Brandon Champion
Would the Edmund Fitzgerald have sunk with today's weather technology?
11/12 - Whitefish Point, Mich. – Technology advances have been tremendous in meteorology since 1975. It begs the questions: Would the Edmund Fitzgerald have sunk if the captain and ship had been armed with today's weather technology?
In 1975, there were two computer models used to make the daily forecasts. All we got for output back in 1975 was a model forecast for just a few layers in the atmosphere. The resolution was very low.
The Limited Area Fine Mesh (LFM) had a spatial resolution of around 113 miles. The output was a grid of squares across the United States. Each square was 113 miles by 113 miles. This model ran every 12 hours.
Today, we have handfuls of weather computer models. The highest-resolution model runs every hour and has a resolution of 1.8 miles by 1.8 miles.
In 1975, the farthest out in time a model forecasted was 48 hours. Now we have higher-resolution models forecasting out 16 days.
Would better forecasts have saved the Edmund Fitz? We'd need a modern storm system similar to the one that struck the Fitzgerald to compare whether safety is increased. Fortunately, we have such a storm.
On Oct. 26, 2010, a Great Lakes storm took a similar track to the one that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. But the 2010 storm was even stronger. The center of the storm dropped 22 millibars lower in air pressure than the 1975 Edmund Fitzgerald storm. The forecast was accurate and in place several days in advance.
Today, computer models are run more often. Back in 1975, we had to wait 12 hours to see another run of the models. Today, we get a look at new model runs at least every six hours. The highest-resolution model runs every hour.
I doubt the Fitzgerald would have left port if we had today's technology in 1975.
Modern forecasting models would have shown the strength and placement of the 1975 storm at least three days in advance. And, while day-to-day snow or rain forecasts can still be a little inaccurate, the general weather and wind pattern is depicted very accurately by computer models.
We see this time and time again with recent severe weather events. The weather event causes incredible destruction, but the lives lost stay at zero or very low.
I can confidently tell you taxpayer dollars spent on weather forecasting improvements have saved lives.
M Live – Mark Torregrossa
Oil leak in sunken Lake Erie barge patched with valve
11/12 - Kelleys Island, Ohio – A pinhole leak that developed in a sunken barge in Lake Erie was quickly repaired with a plug that also contained a valve that can be used to take samples of the contents, a Coast Guard spokesman said Tuesday.
Chief Petty Officer Thomas McKenzie said divers were preparing the Argo for a “hot tap,” creating two holes that would be used to extract what remains of the barge’s petroleum cargo, last week when the “pinhole-sized” leak was discovered.
The theory, Mr. McKenzie said, is that a failing hull rivet, held in place by marine growth on the sunken barge, came loose when that marine growth was disturbed.
During a dive Tuesday, the Lake Erie Barge Response Team spokesman said, a sample of the contents from the tank was taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Operations around the Argo were halted, Mr. McKenzie said, pending the return of those lab results and passage of a storm for which a gale watch has been posted for Thursday on Lake Erie.
But, he said, the barge was stable on the lake bottom and not leaking anything.
The Argo, which according to researchers was carrying about 100,000 gallons each of a crude light oil and benzol, capsized and sank about eight miles east of Kelleys Island during a Lake Erie storm in October, 1937.
It was found in late August by a shipwreck explorer. A subsequent survey of the wreck by a Coast Guard contractor determined that four of its 12 hatches were exposed to the lake, but the other eight appeared to be secure, presenting the possibility that much of its cargo was still on board.
Also still to be determined, Mr. McKenzie said Tuesday, is whether sediment on the lakebed nearby was, and remains, contaminated by pollution from the barge.
“If the sediment is contaminated, we have to deal with that first,” he said, noting that the precise chemical makeup of any contamination or barge cargo being handled determines the protective equipment needed by divers working at the scene.
Toledo Blade
In 1920, FRANCIS WIDLAR stranded on Pancake Shoal in Lake Superior and was written off as a total constructive loss of $327,700. The wreck was purchased by Mathews Steamship Company in 1921 and placed back in service as BAYTON. The BAYTON sailed until 1966, and the hull was later used as a temporary breakwall during construction at Burns Harbor, Indiana.
On 12 November 1878, JAMES R. BENTLEY (3-mast wooden schooner, 170 foot, 575 tons, built in 1867, at Fairport, Ohio) was carrying grain when she struck a shoal in heavy weather and foundered off 40 Mile Point on Lake Huron. Her crew was rescued in the rough seas by the bark ERASTUS CORNING.
On 12 Nov 1964, THOMAS F. COLE (steel propeller bulk freighter, 580 foot, 7,268 gross tons, built in 1907, at Ecorse, Michigan) collided with the British motor vessel INVEREWE off the south end of Pipe Island on the lower St. Marys River in foggy conditions. The COLE suffered severe damage to the port bow and was taken to Lorain for repairs.
On 12 Nov 1980, ALVA C. DINKEY (steel propeller bulk freighter, 580 foot, 7,514 gross tons, built in 1909, at Lorain, Ohio) and GOVERNOR MILLER (steel propeller bulk freighter, 593 foot, 8,240 gross tons, built in 1938, at Lorain, Ohio) arrived near El Ferrol del Caudillo, Spain for scrapping in tow of the FedNav tug CATHY B. Demolition by Miguel Partins began on 28 Nov 1980, at Vigo, Spain.
On November 12, 1919, PANAY, upbound on Lake Superior for Duluth, Minnesota, in rough weather, was one of the last vessels to see the down bound JOHN OWEN which, apparently later the same day, disappeared with all hands. Renamed b.) WILLIAM NELSON in 1928, and c.) BEN E. TATE in 1936. Scrapped at Bilbao, Spain in 1969.
On 12 November 1881, BRUNSWICK (iron propeller bulk freighter, 248 foot, built in 1881, at Wyandotte, Michigan) was carrying 1,500 tons of hard coal in a night of fitful squalls in Lake Erie. CARLINGFORD (wooden schooner, 155 foot, built in 1869, at Port Huron, Michigan) was also sailing there, loaded with 26,000 bushels of wheat. They collided. After the skipper of BRUNSWICK made sure that the sinking schooner's crew were in their lifeboats, he ran for shore with his sinking vessel, but sank a few miles off Dunkirk, New York. A total of 4 lives were lost.
On 12 November 1835, the small wooden schooner ROBERT BRUCE was sailing from Kingston, Ontario to Howell, New York when she was wrecked west of Henderson, New York. Her crew of 4, plus one passenger, were all lost.
On 12 Nov 1886, the tug WM L. PROCTOR (wooden tug, 104 foot, 117 gross tons, built in 1883, at Buffalo, New York) left Oswego, New York with the schooner-barges BOLIVIA and E.C. BUCK in tow before a big storm struck. During the snowstorm, the tug got lost and the towline broke. Alone, the PROCTOR finally made it to Charlotte, New York, badly iced up, but there was no word on the barges. They were presumed lost with all onboard.
1881: BRUNSWICK sank in Lake Erie after a collision with the CARLINGFORD. The wooden hulled, coal-laden steamer, made a run for the American shore but the effort fell short. Three lives were lost.
1914: The wooden steamer COLONIAL began to leak on Lake Erie and was beached in Rondeau Bay only to be pounded to pieces by gale force winds. All on board were rescued.
1967: The Swedish freighter TORSHOLM began visiting the Great Lakes as early as 1953. The ship was enroute from the Seaway to Stockholm when it ran aground near Uto, Sweden, and became a total loss.
1968: CLARA CLAUSEN, a Danish freighter, ran aground at Les Escoumins on the St. Lawrence and was abandoned. After being salvaged, the vessel came to the Great Lakes in 1970 and was rebuilt at Kingston as ATLANTEAN.
1974: BELVOIR (ii), enroute from Puerto Cortes, Honduras, to Corpus Christi, Texas, with a load of ore concentrates, struck a submerged object in the Gulf of Honduras and sank. Only 4 crew members are rescued while the other 21 were presumed lost.
1980: The former Lake Michigan rail car ferry PERE MARQUETTE 21 left the Great Lakes in 1974. It was lost on this date as the barge d) CONSOLIDATOR. It was hit by Hurricane Jean off the coast of Honduras while carrying a load of truck trailers.
2005: SPAN TERZA, an Italian freighter, first came through the Seaway in 1977 and returned as b) ANANGEL HORIZON in 1983. It was damaged on this date as d) SALAM 4 in a collision near Dondra Head, Sri Lanka, with SHANGHAI PRIDE and had to go to Colombo for assessment. The ship was repaired and eventually scrapped as e) ALINA at Xinhui, China, in 2009.
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