Week 45

Gales of November

This week marks 100 years since the Great Lakes experienced a powerful storm that claimed over 250 lives, destroyed 19 ships and stranded 19 others, most of these on Lake Huron. November is known for its storms, but this one from November 7-10, 1913, was the most devastating that the Great Lakes has experienced in recorded history.
Those in Canada may remember the song by Gordon Lightfoot called, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" which memorialized a shipwreck of this large lake freighter in November of 1975 on Lake Superior, in which all 29 crew members perished.

The following are pictures of a couple of the remains of shipwrecks around the Kincardine area. Neither of these were from the great storm of 1913, but were the results of storms in the fall on Lake Huron. The Anna Maria was laden with coal and had left from a port in Cleveland, Ohio. She ran aground just south of the pier in Kincardine on Oct 7, 1902. Five lives were lost in the rescue. Depending on the water level you can see a little or quite a length of the hull of the ship right along the shore.

The other shipwreck landmark in Kincardine is the remains of a boiler. The Erie Belle was trying to pull out another ship, the "Carter" which had been blown to shore in a November storm a few days earlier. Unfortunately, during the attempted rescue the boiler of the Erie Belle exploded, killing 4 men and injuring several others. The remains of the boiler sits on the shore along the beach which is now called "Boiler Beach," just south of the main beach in Kincardine.

"Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the "northeaster," swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along...the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf...the centurion ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety."

Acts 27: 14, 15, 41, 43, 44 NIV

(read the whole story about the storm and shipwreck of the ship that the Apostle Paul was on in Acts chapter 27)