WEBVTT - The 1913 Storm 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:14.680 This is our American stories. In nineteen thirteen, the Sixteenth 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.919 Amendment was passed and Woodrow Wilson became president. But tragedy 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.920 also struck the Great Lakes. Here's our own Monte Montgomery 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.720 with more on that event. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.760 In sixteen seventy nine, the Great Lakes were changed forever 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.480 for the first time as Lesals Griffin departed from Port, 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.760 becoming the first ship to ever sail on the Great Lakes. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.120 And in eighteen forty one, the Lakes were yet again 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.960 changed when the Vandalia set sail, the first propeller driven 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.720 ship to do so. An industry took off, and by 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.680 nineteen thirteen the Great Lakes had become a major and 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.320 still developing transportation hub. Here's Rick Mixer of Lake Fury 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:00.080 with more. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:06.200 That in nineteen thirteen, we're talking about a mix of 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.399 different types of transportation on the lakes. The sail was 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.880 still somewhat viable. Most of those old sailing vessels, the schooners, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.200 had been turned into barges and were being towed by 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.000 the more efficient steamers that didn't have to wait for 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.959 the winds to be correct. But there were no highways 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.920 at that time, so everything had to be moved, especially 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.959 these amazing commodities we have on the Great Lakes, coal, 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.560 iron ore, grain, All of this stuff was moved in 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:37.240 huge amounts, bulk amounts on these freighters and barges. There 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.600 were literally thousands of ships on the Great Lakes, hundreds 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.440 that were regularly being used, many that were also laid up. 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.720 It would go by the flow of how much iron 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.080 ore needed to be moved, or later in the season, 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.640 as you got the grain cargoes coming in, the coal 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.640 that had to be stocked up for the winter time, 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.440 so you'd see more ships come out. And many of 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.760 those ships weren't in perfect condition. They were whatever could float. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.480 They could get these cargoes in before the lakes froze 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:08.160 up and then all that commerce stopped. There weren't a 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.760 lot of safety regulations. I mean, the ultimate safety is 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.880 in the captain himself. He makes the call that will 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.280 bring his ship and his crew in. Every one of 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.840 the captains on the Great Lakes are the most experienced meteorologist. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.200 I would replace anyone on television with a ship captain 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.040 because their lives literally depend on their ability to be 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.080 able to read the storm. But there were bonuses and 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.639 incentives that sometimes helped to fight against that common sense 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.040 that put many of these ships on the bottom. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.160 And on November sixth, nineteen thirteen, those incentives were working 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.919 against the better judgment of many captains trying to get 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.520 one last run in before the end of the season. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.200 For large storm was brewing on the Great Lakes, a 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.200 storm that would go down in history as the big 0:02:52.240 --> 0:03:01.520 blow for simply the nineteen thirteen storm. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.320 The nineteen thirteen storm is one of the few storms 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.560 where we had a dozen ships lost with all hands 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.960 everybody vanished. We don't see that very often on hurricanes, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.600 much less on the Great Lakes. And we also had 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.520 storms and especially snow that paralyzed many of the largest 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.000 cities on the Great Lakes, including Cleveland. So now couple 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.800 that with the fact that today we're still missing three 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.640 of those wrecks. We don't know where they're at, actually 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.239 leads into an amazing story that I think it still 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:40.000 is interesting to tell today. The nineteen thirteen storm really 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.680 started off of Lake Michigan, and as it swept up 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.480 it devastated two wrecks that were there, the Louisiana, which 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.200 was actually a vessel that made it into the safety 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.440 of Washington, Bay on Washington Island, and it met up 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.160 with the Halstead that had already been pushed ashore, and 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.680 the crew would have been fine except some kind of 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.640 a lantern or something fell over to cause fire on 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.640 board and they had to abandon ship. So the Louisiana 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.040 burned right to the waterline right there as one of 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.520 the first casualties of the nineteen thirteen storm. Then just 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.520 north of there, that's where the Plymouth vanished, was seven 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.680 Lives being towed by a very underpowered tug. The Plymouth 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:18.720 was one of the vessels that was empty when it 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.200 was lost. It was going up to the straits of 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.480 Mackinaw to pick up a cargo of cedar posts, and 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.320 it was pulled by a very small tug called the 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.479 James Martin. There was a bunch of legal disputes that 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.360 were happening with the company that was actually ordering the logs, 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.200 the Hubal Company. This was to the point of them 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.159 actually libeling the ship, meaning they put a lawsuit against 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.400 the Plymouth, and the only way to protect it, to 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.039 make sure that they wouldn't be scuttled for insurance or 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.119 somehow damaged, you know, to protect their interest, they moved 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.840 an under sheriff who became a US marshal, and Chris 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:56.560 Keenan came on board the ship to guard it. They 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.800 were towing from Menominee and they got up around the islands. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.200 The storm hit and it came out of the south 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.320 at first, so they moved around Saint Martin's Island and 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.840 had dinner there and basically had everybody aboard the Plymouth 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.240 where there was more room. And once the storm exposed 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.359 their safe harbor, where now it's coming out of the 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.040 north and starting to build to sixty miles an hour, 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.120 they all jumped onto their respective ships. And they asked 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.119 Keenan if he wanted to come on board the tug 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.760 and he thought his chances were better on the Plymouth. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:27.719 He said, no, I'll stay on board this. He knew 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.480 the ship had been rebuilt, it had just been recockt 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:32.880 They really thought, because it was larger, that that would 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.400 be the safer vessel. But as they pulled through the 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.000 straits and they got just below Poverty Island, a massive 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.080 storm hit them. At sixty miles an hour. The tugboat 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.359 had to order the schooner to drop its anchor, a 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.520 three thousand pound anchor to lock it into place so 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.039 they could take off and reach safety. There was just 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.280 no way they could pull through those waves. Afterwards, they 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.760 came back to find the plymouth, and they found nothing, 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.680 but later on a bottle washed ashore and man of 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.320 Steem and eventually Chris Keenan's body. The bottle spelled out 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.360 exactly what had happened during that horrible storm, and. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.479 The message in the bottle was written by Keenan, the 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:11.560 unlucky Marshall. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.560 He wrote, Dear wife and children, we were left here 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.279 by McKinnon, the owner of the tug Martin. He never 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.719 said goodbye or anything to us. Basically, they laid out 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.240 that they lost another man during the night and that 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.880 the Hubole company owed him thirty five dollars. So it 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.120 was this note of just tragedy, of this despair of 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.240 being lost, but also enough to tell his family, hey, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.080 by the way Hubel owes money. 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.080 And as it turns out, messages and bottles weren't that 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.600 rare in nineteen thirteen, or the stuff of urban. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.080 Legends if you think about it. In nineteen thirteen, there 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.359 was no radio, There was no way to get a 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.000 message out, and many of them had obviously galleys on 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.839 board that would have bottles, and mustard bottles have been used. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.920 Pickled bottles have been used, but certainly wine bottles too 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.280 have been used to put these messages in, and many 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.599 times they'll put who's on board. Sometimes they would put 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.720 you know, we're disappearing forever and a goodbye to their family. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.760 And we also saw you know, blame in some of 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.880 them as well. But during the nineteen thirteen storm, at 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.480 least four messages came ashore, and the majority of them 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.680 were found to be not real. The one that came 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.320 from the Plymouth, though, was written on a coal receipt 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.200 that was actually from the coal company that gave coal 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.760 to the Plymouth, so it lend a lot of authenticity 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.440 to it. And also when the family saw it, they 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.520 really believed it was Chris Keenan's handwriting as well, except 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.960 for a bottom part that had been written by another 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.280 crewman and he had noted in there. I felt so 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.120 bad that another man had written this for me. So 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.680 this is one of those those true notes that came 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.080 out and really an eyewitness account from you know, twelve 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.920 ships that vanished without any kind of a survivor. This 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.680 was the voice that they finally got from what exactly 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.640 happened during one of these devas dating sinkings, but. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:03.760 The storm wasn't yet done. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.040 All of a sudden, the storm rushes past that lake, 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.440 goes all the way up into Lake Superior. That's when 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.160 it sinks the HB. Smith. It puts the Turret Chief ashore. 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.520 The L. C. Waldo was also pushed ashore on keewan 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.640 of Peninsula, and then Leefield was lost with all hands 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.040 up by Pick Island. The biggest story on Superior at 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.960 the time was the HB. Smith. The Henry B. Smith 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.480 was a large freighter, one of the largest lost in 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.760 the big storm. Captain billy Owen was in Marquette. The 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.960 legend and all the newspaper articles that I've read said 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.160 that billy Owen had been criticized for having lake cargoes 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.720 all season, and if you read the stories coming out 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.640 of Marquette, it really kind of plays out that Owen 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.040 was furious when the iron ore froze because of a 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.600 rain missed ice storm that kind of came in and 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.160 froze all of the iron ore into the cars that 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.560 they The captain ran out and said, you've got to 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.000 you know, heat up those cars, actually put flame to 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.880 the train car to get that cargo into his boat, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 and then when the storm hit, he ordered to have 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.040 the Smith to be literally tied to the dock so 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.440 that they could withstand the storm and still take the 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.400 cargo so he could get it down in a timely manner. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.719 Now people do talk nowadays that maybe most of those 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.400 stories weren't true, but there were a lot of boasting 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.840 headlines about how he feared no storm and took off 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.640 without even battening down all of his hatches, and as 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:27.800 soon as the big snow squall came in, the ship 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:32.000 vanished and we didn't find it for nearly one hundred years. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.840 And you're listening to Rick Mixter tell the story of 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:42.480 the nineteen thirteen storm that took down a dozen ships. 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.440 When we come back more of Rick Mixter on our 0:09:46.559 --> 0:10:12.439 American stories, and we returned to our American stories and 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.760 the story of the nineteen thirteen storm. When we last 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.360 left off, the storm had laid waste to Lake Michigan 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.520 and Lake Superior and had already sunk many ships, including 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:26.800 the barge Plymouth and the large freighter HB. Smith. Let's 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.880 return to the story. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.520 After ravaging Lake Superior. The storm would soon turn to 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:36.839 Lake Huron, where the bulk of the ship sunk in 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.760 the storm and meet their ends. One ship that did 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.360 not sink, though, was the HB Hoggod with Ed Konnabby 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:44.040 at the helm. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.840 Ed Caonabby was a local guy from the Thumb who 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.600 basically got sick of farming and went on board the 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.640 ships and moved very quickly up to Wheelman. I locked out. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.920 I mean, as a journalist, you know, you start, you know, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.559 going through the storm itself and then trying to hit 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.320 all of the anniversary newspapers. And that's where I found 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.640 ed was you know, during the fiftieth anniversary and then 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.080 the sixtieth anniversary, there were stories about this one guy 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.680 that was part of the storms. But when I called him, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.000 his daughter told me that he had had a stroke 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.040 and that he really probably didn't remember much about it, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.000 but she thought that he, you know, it would be 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.120 worth a try. So when I went to go talk 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.560 to him, he was very very hard of hearing, and 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.160 I had to, you know, I was shouting questions to him, 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.880 and finally his daughter had to shout tell him about 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.120 the storm, and he told such a riveting story that 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.720 the hair on my arm stood up straight. So he 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.559 was at the wheel when the HB Hagood is going 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.400 up and down the lakes. If you read the stories 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.000 of the ships that survived, that was the way that 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.120 they did it. They would stay out in the middle 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.680 of the lake as best they could, because running aground 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.760 would be devastating, and they would turn around, which was 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.760 the most difficult part in the storm, and they would 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.360 head back down the lake and then just keep trying 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.840 to keep their nose into the wind as best they 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.960 can can until the storm was over, hoping that it would, 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.840 you know, eventually fade out. Well, this storm went sixty 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.360 miles an hour for sixteen hours straight. So back and 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 forth the HB Hawgood went until finally they got to 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.560 the bottom of the lake and the captain ordered them 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.360 to turn around again. He could see the lights of 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.960 Point Edward. He knew he was close to Port Huron 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.680 going into the Saint Clair River, but he was not 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:25.760 going to turn around. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.800 Cannaby had other ideas. Here's ed with what he did instead. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:39.120 He said, got its different order heading into the wind 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:46.600 yessh but I really scared. I sat a chef. Oh no, 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:54.520 you don't no, there's larga of wors and to ship. 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:01.280 Control, they literally pitched up on the beach near where 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.800 a hotel was, so out of all of the ships 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.000 that were lost during the nineteen thirteen storm, it was 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.360 good news for the HB. Hawgood to be so close 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.920 to civilization. That wasn't the case for many of the 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:13.959 other ships. 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:16.240 Like the Charles S. Price. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:19.840 The Price had gone up and had gotten the storm 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.360 and somehow turned turtle and the air that was still 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.320 inside the vessel allowed it to float, So the bow 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.320 was floating, but the stern was dragging on the bottom 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.959 in about seventy feet of water, and it wasn't hard 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.600 to see this giant what looked like a whale of 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.160 a black bottom boat out there, and the newspapers guessed 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.959 for days on exactly what freighter it was. And they 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.360 couldn't get out there because the storm was still kind 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.000 of brewing, so as it calmed down, they finally hired 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.120 a diver named Baker to go down there, and he 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.600 dove down and realized that it was so murky because 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.319 of the storm tossed waters that he couldn't see, so 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.560 he felt the letters and it was Charles S. Price 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.480 upside down that he felt. He came back on board 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.760 and wouldn't tell them the name until he got paid. 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.760 That's how much he trusted the newspapers the ship itself. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.400 We still wonder what happened, but as we look at 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.640 the course of the HB. Smith, and we look at 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.040 several other ships that survived the storm by turning around. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.360 As they turned around, if they were iced or heavy 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.680 on top of their decks, which we've seen many big 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:28.760 storm victims, especially from nineteen thirteen, we've seen frozen pictures 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.120 of the ice that's accumulated on the decks, making them very, 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.240 very top heavy, regardless of the cargo that's below it. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.760 And as they try to make that turn to try 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.200 to you know, as they run out of the lake 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.000 and they want to come back down again, they make 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.120 that turn, they exposed themselves to winds that will push 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.240 these long, thin ships over. And that's what we think 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.520 might have happened, that it might have tried to turn, 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.200 and as it tried to turn, it rolled right over. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.960 We also know from the eyewitness accounts that there were 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.120 thirty five foot seas that were there. So add in 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.440 a top hand vessel that was never designed to carry 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.200 that much ice weight on top and a wind and 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.880 waves that were banging off of each shoreline in confused directions, 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.240 and it could be easily imagined that one of those 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.320 freighters would flip over, and the Price actually did. It 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.440 sat there and floated forever and well, it floated for 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.400 over a day, and many newspapers got pictures of it, 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.960 and then it slowly sank down to the bottom, so 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.240 they always knew where the Child's Price was. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:29.960 The Price was just one of the many ships that 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.760 sank during the nineteen thirteen storm. In total, twelve ships 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.600 would end up on the bottom of the Great Lakes, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.120 and countless others, like the Hawgood, would be beached and 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.080 battered on the shore. The storm was a truly horrific event. 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.680 The legacy of the storm is that over two hundred 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.360 and fifty sailors lost their lives, and the reality is 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.840 that without radio or without you know, really good accounts 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.800 of who was actually on board these ships, there was 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.880 times when sailors would just jump on board and there 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.480 would be no real, you know, real record of them 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.960 being on so we'll never know the exact amount of 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.480 people lost, or the names of everybody who was lost 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:10.720 but to think of it in the terms of two 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.720 hundred and fifty sailors, that's two hundred families that didn't 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.400 have loved ones that came home from that storm. It 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.640 was devastating to them. And then add in the devastation 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.080 that was felt by towns like Godrich where most of 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:28.480 that destruction, especially those human bodies came ashore. It was 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:32.160 horrible for them as well. And the pictures of the 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.080 long funeral marches that would go to the grave marker 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.560 that's now in god Rich, you can imagine what that 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.480 must have felt for them as well. The headlines and 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.520 the stories that came out of there, and the eventual 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.800 stories that would be generated from those later on also 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.680 add to the magnitude of what that storm was. It 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.320 was one of the worst, in many cases called the 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.560 King of storms on the Great Lakes. So it probably 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.040 will never be equalled. We now have better weather forecasting, 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.880 We have satellites that fly over the top of the ships, 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.879 we have communication via satellite and via radio. It's just 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.960 amazing what that technology is like today and forecasting. But 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.359 we still have people that will try to batter the lakes. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.040 You know, there's always that one that believes that they 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.040 can get in. Fortunately, or they are a thousand footers, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.280 they're a lot less susceptible to the waves. But you'll 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.120 be surprised that, you know, even the biggest of all freighters, 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.040 including the Edmond Fitzgerald, were lost just because the captain 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.119 made a bad call. Nothing can be built that would 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.480 withstand the fury of the lakes when they get their 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.320 very worse, and unfortunately, that's what happens in November. As 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.000 those lakes start to cool off and that warmth from 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.840 the lakes meets the cold Arctic air, we get horrible snowstorms, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.000 and we get winds that just tear at chips in 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.880 every direction and change on a dime. And that could 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.080 happen again tomorrow. There's still so much many clues out there, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.359 and every time a ship is found, we start to 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.439 add another chapter. So I don't think the final chapter 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.120 has been written on the nineteen thirteen storm. It's over 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.080 one hundred years old, but we're still discovering new things 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.840 about it, and that's what makes it exciting. 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.359 And you've been listening to Rick Mixter tell the story 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.720 of one of America's great water tragedies. He also told 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.520 the story of the wreck of the Amin Fitzgerald, which 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.800 was riveting. And it's the rest of the story from 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.520 the song you'd heard and the real story the Gordon 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.280 Lightfoot song, of course, and one of our other really 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.920 good water disaster stories. One of our best is also, 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.160 of course, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the worst 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.240 naval disaster in American history. Mixture, by the way, you 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.399 can find his work at Lakefury dot com. Listen to 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.879 his podcast. And my goodness, it was a perfect storm. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.760 You had the f and ice formations on the deck 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.000 of the ships, thirty five foot sea walls coming at them, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.680 and of course the wicked winds. Twelve ships down, all 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.440 hands lost, two hundred and fifty souls lost. The story 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:24.160 of the nineteen thirteen storm here on our American Story