Loved this book. Growing up by Lake Michigan, I could relate to the book. I now want to do a Great Lakes tour and check out the Shipwreck Museum. ( )

From the disaster reading list, subset shipwrecks. From November 8 to November 10, 1913, two storm systems swept across the Great Lakes, sinking twelve boats with all hands (nine were modern steel lake freighters) and driving thirty-one more ashore. Somewhere around 250 sailors died (crew records were less meticulous in 1913 than they are now). It was already late in the season, but the weather had been mild and most boats (in an appendix, author David Brown covers some differences between lake and saltwater terminology; among other things, lake vessels are “boats”, not ships) were scheduled to make on more trip before laying up for the winter. Weather forecasting was still more of an art than a science in 1913 and while there was some warning of deteriorating conditions it wasn’t enough to deter the captains; they were expecting some nasty weather, but not the worst storm in Great Lakes history.

Although all the lakes – even Lake St. Clair – except Ontario had sinkings, most of the losses were on Lake Huron. Lake boats of the era were underpowered compared to modern vessels, and while their engines were adequate for routine trips they couldn’t make headway against the winds from the west. Several upbound boats turned around and headed for the supposed safety of the St. Clair River (another curiosity of Great Lakes terminology; destinations are specified by elevation, not direction; thus a boat heading through the Straights of Mackinac toward Chicago is “upbound” if it started in Cleveland but “downbound” if it started in Duluth). Unfortunately, most boats couldn’t maneuver well enough to make it and piled up on shore or just disappeared, perhaps capsized or broken up when they were trying to come about. At least one boat that made it to Lake St. Clair from Huron discovered that it was more or less held together by the thick ice coating it had accumulated; when the ice was steam-hosed off there were cracks almost all the way through the deckplates.

Author David Brown is a lake mariner, and does a quite credible job narrating the disaster. He tells his story in short sections, first arranged chronologically, then by location, then by the boats involved. For example: “Sunday Evening – Lower Lake Huron – George C. Crawford and Argus” discusses the reactions of the crew of the first ship as they watched the Argus, just barely visible through the storm, “crumple like an eggshell” and disappear with all hands. This style works well, keeping things immediate and reminding the reader that a whole lot of boats were in trouble at once.

One of the legends of the storm is discussed in an “Aftermath”. Bodies from the Canadian package freighter Regina and the straight-deck bulk carrier Charles S. Price washed up together in Ontario – and one of the crewman of the Price was wearing a Regina life vest. There was a lot of speculation in the press at the time – did the ships collide? The wreck of the Regina was discovered in 1986, resting upside-down in 80 feet of water. Although there was some damage from grounding, there was no sign of a collision – and the Regina was anchored. Brown speculates that, after grounding, the crew of the Regina left their sinking ship in a life boat (the captain probably remaining on board – his body washed up in Michigan in August 1914) and attempted to make shore. The Price saw them – unlikely in the visibility conditions but not impossible – and capsized while trying to pick them up; a survivor off the Price was then picked up by the Regina’s lifeboat and given a life vest, only to die with the others. However, Brown also notes that the supposed identification of the Price crewman wearing a Regina life vest isn’t ironclad. The divers that found the Regina in 1986 removed an electrical switch from the captain’s cabin and presented it to Aileen McConkey Reeves, the 77-year-old daughter of Captain McConkey of the Regina; she had last seen her father when she was four years old.

A whole chapter discusses the storm’s effect on Cleveland, where it dumped 24” of snow in a few hours. Interesting but peripheral; I’ve been through lots of storms that bad in Chicago, upstate New York, and Denver.

While the sea story narrative is exciting, Brown doesn’t do quite as good a job discussing the weather. He hints that the US Weather Bureau could have done a better job of warning; weather reports then appeared twice a day – at 10:00 am and 10:00 pm – and the storm developed between those times. However Brown notes that Lake sailors of the era ignored the weather reports anyway. Brown provides contemporary weather maps; because frontal systems hadn’t been described yet in 1913 the maps are confusing to someone used to The Weather Channel, and the text doesn’t make anything clearer. Brown complains that the US Weather Bureau still won’t refer to a Great Lakes storm as a “hurricane” for warning purposes, even though hurricane force winds are involved (the Canadian weather service does). Brown also describes the storm as “apocryphal” – presumably meaning “apocalyptic” – and mentions lake boats carrying coal from the “open pit” mines of Ohio and West Virginia (open pit mining is completely unsuitable for coal; Brown is probably thinking of strip mining, which wasn’t widespread in 1913). Minor quibbles in an otherwise recommended book. ( )

This was the story of the tremendous storm that raged over the Great Lakes in November, 1913. The storm began to be felt in small ways on Friday, Nov. 7th and from Saturday, the 8th, through Monday, Nov. 10th, 12 of the huge freighters were sunk and 31 more were run aground. 253 sailors were lost. But these figures are not the total because in 1913 no single body was responsible for keeping track of ships and lives lost. It also did not take into account fishermen or casual boaters out on the lakes or people who died on land. The storm was called the 'white' hurricane because it was accompanied by snow and ice which not only ravaged the ships but also brought the towns along the Lakes to a standstill. Cleveland had over 21 inches of snow fall. Waves were 35' high. Downed telephone and telegraph lines ashore hampered getting information to life-saving stations.

As with all disasters, press and politicians are desperate to point the finger of blame and the Weather Bureau took most of the blame. But in all fairness, in 1913 the methods of forecasting were very basic as was the current knowledge of what made weather patterns. The Gulf Stream was unknown, for example. Fingers were also pointed at the ship owners who pressed their captains to get in as many trips as possible. In fairness to the captains, if they had forecasts that really indicated how bad the storm was many of them might not have sailed.

The storm, which was actually two storms that followed one another, was unprecedented when it occurred and there has not been a storm to match it since.

I found the title of the book a bit confusing however. Does anyone fact check any more??? Perhaps it was the deadliest disaster caused by weather; it certainly was not America's deadliest. The SS Sultana was near Memphis TN on April 27, 1865 when three of her boilers exploded and she sank with the loss of 1800 lives. It never received much publicity as it occurred the day following the shooting of John Wilkes Booth, so perhaps the author can be forgiven his extravagance. ( )