WEBVTT - The 1913 Storm 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.720 This is our American stories. In nineteen thirteen, the Sixteenth 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.960 Amendment was passed and Woodrow Wilson became president. But tragedy 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.000 also struck the Great Lakes. Here's our own Monte Montgomery 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:24.760 with more on that event. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.800 In sixteen seventy nine, the Great Lakes were changed forever 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.520 for the first time as Lesals Griffin departed from Port, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.800 becoming the first ship to ever sail on the Great Lakes. 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.160 And in eighteen forty one, the Lakes were yet again 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.000 changed when the Vandalia set sail, the first propeller driven 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.760 ship to do so. An industry took off, and by 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.720 nineteen thirteen the Great Lakes had become a major and 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.360 still developing transportation hub. Here's Rick Mixer of Lake Fury 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:00.120 with more. 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:06.240 That in nineteen thirteen, we're talking about a mix of 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:09.440 different types of transportation on the lakes. The sail was 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.920 still somewhat viable. Most of those old sailing vessels, the schooners, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.240 had been turned into barges and were being towed by 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.040 the more efficient steamers that didn't have to wait for 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.000 the winds to be correct. But there were no highways 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.959 at that time, so everything had to be moved, especially 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.000 these amazing commodities we have on the Great Lakes, coal, 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.600 iron ore, grain, All of this stuff was moved in 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:37.280 huge amounts, bulk amounts on these freighters and barges. There 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.640 were literally thousands of ships on the Great Lakes, hundreds 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.480 that were regularly being used, many that were also laid up. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.760 It would go by the flow of how much iron 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.120 ore needed to be moved, or later in the season, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.680 as you got the grain cargoes coming in, the coal 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.680 that had to be stocked up for the winter time, 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.480 so you'd see more ships come out. And many of 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.880 those ships weren't in perfect condition. They were whatever could float. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.520 They could get these cargoes in before the lakes froze 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:08.200 up and then all that commerce stopped. There weren't a 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.800 lot of safety regulations. I mean, the ultimate safety is 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.920 in the captain himself. He makes the call that will 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.320 bring his ship and his crew in. Every one of 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.920 the captains on the Great Lakes are the most experienced meteorologist. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.240 I would replace anyone on television with a ship captain 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.080 because their lives literally depend on their ability to be 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.120 able to read the storm. But there were bonuses and 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.680 incentives that sometimes helped to fight against that common sense 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.080 that put many of these ships on the bottom. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.160 And on November sixth, nineteen thirteen, those incentives were working 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.959 against the better judgment of many captains trying to get 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.560 one last run in before the end of the season. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.240 For large storm was brewing on the Great Lakes, a 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.600 storm that would go down in history as the Big Blow, 0:02:53.280 --> 0:03:01.480 or simply the nineteen thirteen storm. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.359 The nineteen thirteen storm is one of the few storms 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.600 where we had a dozen ships lost with all hands 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.000 everybody vanished. We don't see that very often on hurricanes, 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.720 much less on the Great Lakes. And we also had 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.560 storms and especially snow that paralyzed many of the largest 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.040 cities on the Great Lakes, including Cleveland. So now couple 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.840 that with the fact that today we're still missing three 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.680 of those wrecks. We don't know where they're at, actually 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.280 leads into an amazing story that I think it still 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:40.040 is interesting to tell today. The nineteen thirteen storm really 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.720 started off of Lake Michigan, and as it swept up 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.520 it devastated two wrecks that were there, the Louisiana, which 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.240 was actually a vessel that made it into the safety 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.480 of Washington, Bay on Washington Island, and it met up 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.880 with the halst that that had already been pushed ashore, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.640 and the crew would have been fine except some kind 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.240 of a lantern or something fell over to cause a 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.760 fire on board and they had to abandon ship. So 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.800 the Louisiana burned right to the waterline right there as 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.720 one of the first casualties of the nineteen thirteen storm. 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.080 Then just north of there, that's where the Plymouth vanished, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.560 was seven Lives being towed by a very underpowered tug. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.440 The Plymouth was one of the vessels that was empty 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.680 when it was lost. It was going up to the 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.039 straits of Mackinaw to pick up a cargo of cedar posts, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.320 and it was pulled by a very small tug called 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.400 the James Martin. There was a bunch of legal disputes 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.799 that were happening with the company that was actually ordering 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.599 the logs, the Hubal Company. This was to the point 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.359 of them actually libeling the ship, meaning they put a 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.320 lawsuit against the Plymouth, and the only way to protect it, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.880 to make sure that they wouldn't be scuttled for insurance 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.840 or somehow damaged, you know, to protect their interest. They 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.240 moved an under sheriff who became a US marshal, and 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.360 Chris Keenan came on board the ship to guard it. 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.400 They were towing from Menominee and they got up around 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.720 the islands and the storm hit and it came out 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:03.920 of the south at first, so they moved around Saint 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.039 Martin's Island and had dinner there and basically had everybody 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.719 aboard the Plymouth where there was more room. And once 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.760 the storm exposed their height safe harbor where now it's 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.880 coming out of the north and starting to build to 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.680 sixty miles an hour, they all jumped onto their respective ships. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:22.440 And they asked Keenan if he wanted to come on 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.160 board the tug and he thought his chances were better 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.360 on the Plymouth. He said, no, I'll stay on board this. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.560 He knew the ship had been rebuilt, it had just 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.560 been recockt They really thought, because it was larger, that 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.080 that would be the safer vessel. But as they pulled 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.760 through the straits and they got just below Poverty Island, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.200 a massive storm hit them. At sixty miles an hour. 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.279 The tugboat had to order the schooner to drop its anchor. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.400 A three thousand pound anchor to lock it into place 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.919 so they could take off and reach safety. There was 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.160 just no way they could pull through those waves. Afterwards, 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.800 they came back to find the plymouth and they found nothing, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.719 but later on a bottle washed ashore and man of 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.360 steem and eventually Chris Keenan's body. The bottle spelled out 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.400 exactly what had happened during that horrible storm, and. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.520 The message in the bottle was written by Keenan, the 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:11.599 unlucky Marshall. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.600 He wrote, dear wife and children, we were left here 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.320 by McKinnon, the owner of the tug Martin. He never 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.760 said goodbye or anything to us. Basically, they laid out 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.279 that they lost another man during the night and that 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.919 the Hubole company owed him thirty five dollars. So it 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.160 was this note of just tragedy, of this despair of 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.280 being lost, but also enough to tell his family. Hey, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.120 by the way Hubel owes money. 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.120 And as it turns out, messages and bottles weren't that 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.640 rare in nineteen thirteen or the stuff of urban. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.120 Legends if you think about it. In nineteen thirteen, there 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.400 was no radio, There was no way to get a 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.039 message out, and many of them had obviously galleys on 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.880 board that would have bottles, and mustard bottles have been used. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:07:00.159 Pickled bottles have been used, but certainly wine bottles too 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.320 have been used to put these messages in, and many 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.680 times they'll put who's on board. Sometimes they would put 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.760 you know, we're disappearing forever and a goodbye to their family. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.800 And we also saw you know, blame in some of 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.880 them as well. But during the nineteen thirteen storm, at 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.520 least four messages came ashore, and the majority of them 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.720 were found to be not real. The one that came 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.360 from the Plymouth, though, was written on a coal receipt 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.240 that was actually from the coal company that gave coal 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.800 to the Plymouth, so it lend a lot of authenticity 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.480 to it. And also when the family saw it, they 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.560 really believed it was Chris Keenan's handwriting as well, except 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.000 for a bottom part that had been written by another 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.320 crewman and he had noted in there. I felt so 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.160 bad that another man had written this for me. So 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.720 this is one of those those true notes that came 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:52.120 out and really an eyewitness account from you know, twelve 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.960 ships that vanished without any kind of a survivor. This 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.720 was the voice that they finally got from what exactly 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.680 happened during one of these devas dating sinkings, but. 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.800 The storm wasn't yet done. 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.080 All of a sudden, the storm rushes past that lake, 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.480 goes all the way up into Lake Superior. That's when 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.200 it sinks the HB. Smith. It puts the Turret Chief ashore. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.560 The L. C. Waldo was also pushed ashore on keewan 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.679 of Peninsula, and then Leefield was lost with all hands 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.080 up by Pick Island. The biggest story on Superior at 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.000 the time was the HB. Smith. The Henry B. Smith 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.520 was a large freighter, one of the largest lost in 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.800 the big storm. Captain billy Owen was in Marquette. The 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.040 legend and all the newspaper articles that I've read said 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.200 that billy Owen had been criticized for having lake cargoes 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.800 all season, and if you read the stories coming out 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.680 of Marquette, it really kind of plays out that Owen 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.080 was furious when the iron ore froze because of a 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.679 rain missed ice storm that kind of came in and 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.199 froze all of the iron ore into the cars that 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.600 they The captain ran out and said, you've got to 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.040 you know, heat up those cars, actually put flame to 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.920 the train car to get that cargo into his boat. 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.680 And then when the storm hit, he ordered to have 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.080 the Smith to be literally tied to the dock so 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.480 that they could withstand the storm and still take the 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.440 cargo so he could get it down in a timely manner. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.760 Now people do talk nowadays that maybe most of those 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.440 stories weren't true, but there were a lot of boasting 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.880 headlines about how he feared no storm and took off 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.679 without even battening down all of his hatches, and as 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.840 soon as the big snow squall came in, the ship 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.880 vanished and we didn't find it for nearly one hundred years. 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.920 And you're listening to Rick Mixter tell the story of 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.520 the nineteen thirteen storm that took down a dozen ships. 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.480 When we come back more of Rick Mixter on our 0:09:46.600 --> 0:10:12.480 American stories, and we returned to our American stories and 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.800 the story of the nineteen thirteen storm. When we last 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.400 left off, the storm had laid waste to Lake Michigan 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.559 and Lake Superior and had already sunk many ships, including 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.839 the barge Plymouth and the large freighter HB. Smith. Let's 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.920 return to the story. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.560 After ravaging Lake Superior, the storm would soon turn to 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:36.880 Lake Huron, where the bulk of the ship sunk in 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.800 the storm and meet their ends. One ship that did 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.440 not sink, though, was the HB Hoggod with Ed Konabby 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:44.080 at the helm. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.880 Ed Caonabby was a local guy from the Thumb who 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.640 basically got sick of farming and went on board the 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.679 ships and moved very quickly up to Wheelman. I locked out. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.960 I mean, as a journalist, you know, you start, you know, 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.600 going through the storm itself and then trying to hit 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.360 all of the anniversary newspapers. And that's where I found 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.679 ed was you know, during the fiftieth anniversary and then 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.120 the sixtieth anniversary, there were stories about this one guy 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.720 that was part of the storms. But when I called him, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.080 his daughter told me that he had had a stroke 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.079 and that he really probably didn't remember much about it, 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.040 but she thought that he, you know, it would be 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.160 worth a try. So when I went to go talk 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.600 to him, he was very very hard of hearing, and 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.200 I had to you know, I was shouting questions to him, 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.920 and finally his daughter had to shout tell him about 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.160 the storm, and he told such a riveting story that 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.800 the hair on my arm stood up straight. So he 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.600 was at the wheel when the HB Hagood is going 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.439 up and down the lakes. If you read the stories 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.040 of the ships that survived, that was the way that 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.160 they did it. They would stay out in the middle 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.720 of the lake as best they could because running aground 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.800 would be devastating, and they would turn around, which was 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.800 the most difficult part in the storm, and they would 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.360 head back down the lake and then just keep trying 0:11:57.440 --> 0:11:59.840 to keep their nose into the wind as best they 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:03.000 can can until the storm was over, hoping that it would, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.880 you know, eventually fade out. Well, this storm went sixty 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.400 miles an hour for sixteen hours straight. So back and 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.200 forth the HB Hawgood went until finally they got to 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.600 the bottom of the lake and the captain ordered them 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.400 to turn around again. He could see the lights of 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.000 Point Edward. He knew he was close to Port Huron 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.720 going into the Saint Clair River, but he was not 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:25.800 going to turn around. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.360 Cannaby had other ideas. Here's ed with what he did instead. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:38.559 He said, he got it in for order heading into 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:45.040 the wind yessh but I really scared. I sat a 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:51.920 chef oh no, you don't. No, there's larga a wors 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.559 and to ship. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:01.320 Control, they literally pitched up on the beach near where 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.840 a hotel was, so out of all of the ships 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.040 that were lost during the nineteen thirteen storm, it was 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.400 good news for the HB. Hawgood to be so close 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.959 to civilization. That wasn't the case for many of the 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:14.000 other ships. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.280 Like the Charles S. Price. 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.880 The Price had gone up and had gotten the storm 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.400 and somehow turned turtle and the air that was still 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.360 inside the vessel allowed it to float. So the bow 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.360 was floating, but the stern was dragging on the bottom 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.000 in about seventy feet of water, and it wasn't hard 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.640 to see this giant what looked like a whale of 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.199 a black bottom boat out there, and the newspapers guessed 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.960 for days on exactly what freighter it was. And they 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.400 couldn't get out there because the storm was still kind 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.040 of brewing, so as it calmed down, they finally hired 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.160 a diver named Baker to go down there, and he 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.640 dove down and realized that it was so murky because 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.360 of the storm tossed waters that he couldn't see, so 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.600 he felt the letters and it was Charles S. Price 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.520 upside down that he fell, he came back on board 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.800 and wouldn't tell them the name until he got paid. 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.800 That's how much he trusted the newspapers the ship itself. 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.439 We still wonder what happened, but as we look at 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.680 the course of the HB. Smith, and we look at 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.079 several other ships that survived the storm by turning around. 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.400 As they turned around, if they were iced or heavy 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.720 on top of their decks, which we've seen many big 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:28.800 storm victims, especially from nineteen thirteen, we've seen frozen pictures 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.760 of the ice that's accumulated on the decks, making them 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.280 very very top heavy, regardless of the cargo that's below it. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.800 And as they try to make that turn to try 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:39.240 to you know, as they run out of the lake 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.040 and they want to come back down again, they make 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.160 that turn, they exposed themselves to winds that will push 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.320 these long, thin ships over. And that's what we think 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.560 might have happened, that it might have tried to turn, 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.240 and as it tried to turn, it rolled right over. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.040 We also know from the eyewitness accounts that there were 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.160 thirty five foot seas that were there, so add in 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.480 a top heavy vessel that was never designed to carry 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.240 that much ice weight on top and a wind and 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.960 waves that were banging off of each shoreline in confused directions, 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.280 and it could be easily imagined that one of those 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.360 freighters would flip over, and the Price actually did. It 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.480 sat there and floated forever and well, it floated for 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.440 over a day, and many newspapers got pictures of it, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.000 and then it slowly sank down to the bottom, so 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.280 they always knew where the Child's Price was. 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.000 The Price was just one of the many ships that 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.800 sank during the nineteen thirteen storm. In total, twelve ships 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:35.640 would end up on the bottom of the Great Lakes, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.160 and countless others, like the Hawgood, would be beached and 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.120 battered on the shore. The storm was a truly horrific event. 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.720 The legacy of the storm is that over two hundred 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.400 and fifty sailors lost their lives, and the reality is 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.880 that without radio or without you know, really good accounts 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.840 of who was actually on board these ships, there was 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.920 times when sailors would just jump on board and there 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.520 would be no real, you know, real record of them 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.000 being on so we'll never know the exact amount of 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.520 people lost or the names of everybody who was lost. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:10.760 But to think of it in the terms of two 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.760 hundred and fifty sailors, that's two hundred families that didn't 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.440 have loved ones that came home from that storm. It 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.680 was devastating to them. And then add in the devastation 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.120 that was felt by towns like Godrich where most of 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.520 that destruction, especially those human bodies came ashore. It was 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.200 horrible for them as well. And the pictures of the 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.120 long funeral marches that would go to the grave marker 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.600 that's now in god Rich, you can imagine what that 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.520 must have felt for them as well. The headlines and 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.560 the stories that came out of there, and the eventual 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.840 stories that would be generated from those later on also 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.720 add to the magnitude of what that storm was. It 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.240 was one of the worst and in many cases called 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.080 the King of storms on the Great Lakes. So it 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.080 probably will never be equaled. We now have better weather forecasting, 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.920 We have satellites that fly over the top of the ships, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.919 we have communication via satellite and via radio. It's just 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:12.000 amazing what that technology is like today and forecasting. But 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.399 we still have people that will try to batter the lakes, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.080 you know, there's always that one that believes that they 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.080 can get in. Fortunately, or they are a thousand footers, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.320 they're a lot less susceptible to the waves. But you'll 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.160 be surprised that, you know, even the biggest of all freighters, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.080 including the Edmund Fitzgerald, were lost just because the captain 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.199 made a bad call. Nothing can be built that would 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.520 withstand the fury of the lakes when they get their 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.320 very worse, and unfortunately, that's what happens in November. As 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.040 those lakes start to cool off and that warmth from 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.880 the lakes meets the cold Arctic air, we get horrible snowstorms, 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.040 and we get winds that just tear at chips in 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.920 every direction and change on a dime. And that could 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:01.120 happen again tomorrow. There's still so many clues out there, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.399 and every time a ship is found, we start to 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.480 add another chapter. So I don't think the final chapter 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.160 has been written on the nineteen thirteen storm. It's over 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.120 one hundred years old, but we're still discovering new things 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:13.840 about it, and that's what makes it exciting. 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.399 And you've been listening to Rick Mixter tell the story 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.760 of one of America's great water tragedies. He also told 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.560 the story of the wreck of the Amin Fitzgerald, which 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.840 was riveting. And it's the rest of the story from 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.560 the song you'd heard and the real story the Gordon 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.320 Lightfoot song, of course, and one of our other really 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.960 good water disaster stories. One of our best is also, 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.200 of course, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the worst 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.280 naval disaster in American history. Mixture, by the way, you 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.439 can find his work at Lakefury dot com, listen to 0:18:55.480 --> 0:19:00.159 his podcast, and my goodness, it was a perfect storms 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.399 and ice formations on the deck of the ships, thirty 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.760 five foot sea walls coming at them, and of course 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:11.200 the wicked winds. Twelve ships down, all hands lost, two 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.440 hundred and fifty souls lost. The story of the nineteen 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:24.200 thirteen storm here on our American Story