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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-11-04, Page 1f -I ... •" 1 u 9. 3 ' y 4?y..; t. x' a i' �� 5 .Hm' treat• 344.;.„1, The f uryo. ;,?'-‘,^4e• K•. the Great Lakes is incredible THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1976 SECOND SECTION • B'4' RILL HUMPHRIES Perhaps the greatest 'storm in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes occurred or November 9, 1913.,This was a major stormof major •importance which by law and engineering "flanges produced ships and harbors providing greater safety and a. ess for zna, iners. This was nut the only storm to ravage the Great I akes during .the month of November. During November 15 - 24. The Edmund, Fitzgerald was built in i958 and was lost November 10, 1975 with all 29 crewmen aboard... Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Edmund Fitzgerald" has recently made the hit parade and the story of the ill-fated ship has become a•legend. The Edmund Fitzgerald .was 729 feet• three inches long; she had a beam of 75 feet and a depth of 39 feet. She was powered by 7500 hp. teal _fired steam turbines. She was located and photographed June 1976: She was broken in half, stern upside down; bow upright. (photo courtesy Bill Humphries)' • TRi4SP;;fi7.1.10ti CORPORATION Sixty years of service prpeeeded the sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell, built she broke in wff Harbor Beach, tVliohigan,; on November 1'7,. '1986. - for Cambria Steam Ship Company in 1908. She was launched on August 22 'There -:was one survivor out of 33 of that year. Her length was 600 feet, her beam 58 feet, her draft 32 feet: Humphries) , crew mezribers, (photo .courtesy Bili The Bethlehem Transportation C'orporatidn operated her from 1924 until • 1879, a"serjes of storms wrecked a tot of 65 vessels. November 11, 1883` a storm swept the lakes and la•'sted nearly two weeks with the loss of the ' passenger vessel "MANISTEE and the "H.C. ACKLEY" to mention only two. The loss of 29 ships resulted froth a gale during November 17, 18&6, and during November 5, 1897 there •was a wreck of the "IDAHO" off Long Point which involved the historic rescue of two crew members. November 25, 1905, a storm to be remembered, with the sinking of two vessels and the wrecking of nine others. This blow also claimed 35 lives, The Armistice Day Storm of 1940 claimed three ships and their crews. Two men survived the sinking of the "CARL D. BRADLEY" during a gale November 18, 1958, while only One man survived the sinking of the- >"DANIEL -J:. MORRELL" on November 29,1966. The loss ' of the "EDMUND FIT ZGERALD" November 10, 1975 with the loss of all crewmen is the latest victim of the November gales, The gale of November 1913 originate over Lake Superior on Friday November 7. . Blinding snow .ac companied winds of 70. mph producin high seas and making navigation nears impossible. On Sunday the storm struck Lake Huron and tore across South Western Ontario to Lake Erie. Telephone,• telegraph wires and other forms :..of communication were destroyed. For the better part of two days vessel owners did not know the whereabouts of their vessels orb of the extent of the lasses. As information became available i was apparent that the storm had take its toll. the like of which had never bee experienced before. Ten vessels ha totally dissappeared leaving nosur vivors, six were beached. and becam total losses, •fifteen had been drive ashore, entailing:heayy damage• an -many others had to go•to shipyards a have rivets tightened. Many ,stories and articles have; bee written in regard- to losses.. By the use photos and original news. articles '1 hav covered these losses in my book "Gre Fofurythestorm: thus presenting a differen't.aspe al Thunder Bay. From our soundings when we got. to Thunder.:Bay. at 8:35 a.m. we were about two miles outside of•'•our regular : course down- Lake Huron, having steered. southeast :y south oue-, eighth south. The barometer at this tizfie...': was below normal, but stationary. "fn an hour and a half after pissing - Thunder Bay Island the wind had in- creased and there was a strong wind fronorth north-east with snow, The' sea kept on increasing and the wind changed'to due north, blowing a gale. "Atli :30 a.m. the course was changed to south by east one=half east in order to bring the`'ship .more before the sea, and we continued to shift from a half to a point -as the sea increased so as to keep the ship running practically. dead before it; .also to keep the ship from rolling and the seas from breaking over the decks. "We got the regular soundings at 'Pointe _Mix Barques that we had been getting on previous trips, • and by the soundings- and. the time we could tell when' we were abreast of the Pointe: It was snowing a blinding .blizzard and we could not see anything. , - "According -to the soundings we got by the deep sea sounding dead we were. . . abreast of Harbor Beach at 4:50 p.m. We and three: miles outside ,e regular • course we take during the .summer..At this time the wind was due north and at. Harbor. Beach we changed our cour. se to due south running dead before the sea and wind. DINNER WASHED AWAY • "The .bell. rang for supper at 5 :•45 -p.m., which was prepared and the tables "set, when a gigantic sea• mounted our'stern, t blooding the fantail, sendirigtorrents.of • n water through the passageways'on each n side of ,the cabin,.concaving. the cabin, d breaking the windows in the after cabin, washing ' our'provisions out of the' e refrigerator and practically destroying n 'them all, leaving us .with one ham and a d few potatoes. We had; no tea or .coffee.' an d g y Our ,flour . was turned into dough. The supper was swept off the tables and :all n the dishes smashed.: of . "Volumes of water came down on the e engine through the upper skylights-, • aid at at tunes there were from four to six ft. •of •...: ct w:ater'" in the cabin. 'Considerable damage was done to the interior of the. cabin and fixtures. ' "The after steel bulkhead of the cabin • was buckled. All the skylights and ` -t< f windows were • broken jn: 'A small e working boat on the top of after cabin • and the mate's chadburn were washed away. t "It was blowing about 70 miles an hour at this time, With high, seas, one wave s' -following another very closely, Owing,to the sudden force of the wind the seas had not lengthened out as they .usually do . when the wind increases in the ordinary way. "In about four hours the wind had come up from 25 to 70 miles an hour, but Ido not think exceeded 70 miles an hour. "Immediately after the first sea swept over our stern, I ordered the boatswain to take sufficient men and shutters to close all windows in the after cabin. The .1 men forced their, way aft, braving the, wind, sleet' and seas, one hand grasping "the life railand the -other the shutters. "Reaching the after cabin._ in safety, they began securing the shutters, when. another tremendous sea swept over the vessel, carrying away the shutters,.. The men were forced to cling to whatever' was nearest to them to keep .from being washed overboard;' immediately' a third sea, equally as severe, boarded the vessel, flooding the fantail' and 'hurricane"deck. - "The men.attempted to , reach the crew's dininroom, but could not make it, and only saved themselves by grip- ping ping the nearest object they could reach, • indeed one of the wheelsmen was only saved from going over by accidentally falling as he endea"ored to grope his wayto the rail, his foot catching in one'of the bulwark braces, preventing Whim from being swept off. "Another monster sea boarded the boat, tearing the man loose -from the - brace and landing him in the after tow line, which had• been washed from its rack and was fouled on the deck. - "The men finally made the shelter of ' the dining room and galley. One of the oilder stood watch at the dining room door, closing it when the boat shipped a sea and opening it when the decks were Clear to let the water out of the cabins. UNCOMFORTABLE BtJT ALIVE "The steward and -h-is wife were standing knee-deep in the icy water. The steward's wife was assisted into the engine room, the steward remaining in the dining room, securing furniture and the silverware, • "The firemen and seaineri were comfortable in their rooms, as they - Were not touched, Some of the outfit of the private dining room was washed into the mess roan , the.steward's trunk was. (continued on page 22 A) MOST INFORMATIVE STATEMENT Rather than reproduce' the events o .the•, storm - from a tragic point .th following is the statement of Capt: S.A Lyons of the steamer "J.H. SHEADLE" I. do believe this statement to be a mos informative 'statement of conditions experienced throughout the storm. Thi. . statement ' from the Marine Review March 1914:• "We loaded. grain at Fort' William and left there 8 p.m. the night of November 6. The captain of the James Carruthers and I were in the shipping office together and intended to come down together as we were going'to •.get away at about the same time, but evidently he did not get out until some tithe after T did. . "When.I left, the barometer was below no 1nal, but stationary, and the wind had been blowing for some time. After getting.outside of Thunder. Cape was a ',heavy •sea running from the southwest and a strong, breeze. I went back under Pie Island: letting go anchor at 10 o'clock and laying there•until 3:30 the morning of the 7th, when the wind, went north and we proceeded on our voyage. "On arriving at White Fish, it shut in very thick and foggy,, which held'"us, there the balance of the night and 'until about 8 o'clock the following morning, November 8. . • "There were' a number of steamers -laying at anchor further down the Bay and they, of' course, locked down ahead of the Sheadle. The James Carruthers' locked down just ahead 'of -us, then we followed at 8:30 p.m., with the Hydrus immediately after us," both of which vessels were lost. It had been snowing, having commenced along • in the 'af- ternoon, -It was snowing some while we were in the lock but' had cleared up when we left the .lock. EARLY NOV. 9, 1913 "I had wired the office I would not. leave, but as it clearedup, we continued on down the rivet, passing out into Lake. Huron at 1:53 a.m. the morning of November 9, with the 'wind•'light north :forth -east.. "The only variations in our course from that time until 'practically • within two miles of Thunder. Bay was . one• -eighth of a point. As we approached the fuel dock of Messrs Pickands, Mathers and to., we sighted the Carruthers taking on fuel; she left the dock,rounded to, and • entered Lake Huron shortly • before we did. "Before we - arrived al Presque isle, Lake 1•Iuz•on, it commenced to snow some; sometimes it would clear up so that we could pick up the land;. we saw Presque Isle, Middle Island, and •