Category: Boats

The Gales of November

Historically, November is not a good time to be on the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Storm of 1913

In early November, 1913, a blizzard struck the U.S. Midwest and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Great Lakes storm of 1913 reached its highest intensity on November 9. A total of 19 ships were sunk and another 19 were stranded on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Cargo losses were in excess of 68,300 tons and were valued at over a million dollars. More than 280 mariners lost their lives in the most destructive natural disaster to ever strike the Great Lakes.

Let us not forget the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975:

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Maritime History


Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time – Dava Sobel
The Endurance : Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition – Caroline Alexander
The Bounty: The True Story of the mutiny on the Bounty – Caroline Alexander
The Pirate Wars – Peter Earle
The Civil War at Sea – Craig L. Symonds
In the Waves: My Quest to Solve the Mystery of a Civil War Submarine – Rachel Lance
War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II – Nathan Miller
Hellcats of the Sea: Operation Barney and the Mission to the Sea of Japan – Charles A. Lockwood & Hans C. Adamson
The Vikings: A History – Robert Ferguson
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson