When the Gales of November come Early

With days of sub-freezing weather already behind and in front of us, that line from the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald" came to mind while I watched this ship, the Calumet, plowing northward through the Straits of Detroit into the night with high cold winds snapping the flags on downtown skyscrapers.

http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2014/calumet-700.jpg
Click Image^ for large full screen view.

Really? Really? You're not pulling into harbor for the winter yet? Tracking it on marinetraffic.com it appears close to exiting the St. Mary's River into Lake Huron as of this writing. Good luck fellas.

I'm surprised she's still out there though I think the Soo lock down comes a week later in November. Perhaps someone else can confirm...?

11/20 - Weather permitting, St Lawrence Seaway will close at 11:59 p.m. December 24. The Welland Canal will close at 11:59 p.m. December 26, and the Soo Locks will close at 11:59 p.m. January 15, 2015. Vessels will be allowed to complete transits of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section and the Welland Canal until 4 p.m. on Dec 31.
Peter Bowers

http://www.boatnerd.com/news/news14.htm

Calument is sill heading north staying close to the Michigan coast, now off Oscoda...

Those gales aren't so early, but in past years they have done a lot of damage. We were privileged to hear a gripping story from Dennis Hale, lone survivor of the sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell in Lake Huron on November 29, 1966. She was on her final jury of the year, en route from Buffalo to Taconite Harbor, MN for a load of taconite.

She was built in 1906 of standard steel. It was learned in the early 60s that pre-1948 steel would become brittle in extreme cold. The Morrell cracked in half in the high waves and gale winds. Dennis Hale, who had managed to get on a life raft with two others, reported seeing the front half sink, while the back half continued sailing on, with the ship's oiler standing on deck, oil can in hand.

No one missed the ship til she failed to arrive at her destination the following day. Meantime, Dennis Hale watched his two companions die from exposure as they were rushed along in the wind. He finally hit beach along Lake Huron under a high bluff, where he lay unable to move for many hours, clad only in his underwear and a pea coat and life
jacket. He watched lights come on in the houses above, go off as the families went to bed, and managed to survive all night. He was finally discovered the following afternoon at 4 pm. nearly 40 hours after he bailed form the ship.

He tells quite a tale of a white haired, white robed visitor in the night who stopped him from eating snow so he would not lower his body temperature and die. A miracle for sure. The Morrell's sister ship, SS Edward Y. Townsend, was making the same trip, and she also suffered cracks that scrapped her. When being towed for scrap two years later, she also cracked in half and sank near the site of the sinking of the Titanic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lowell

With days of sub-freezing weather already behind and in front of us, that line from the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald" came to mind while I watched this ship, the Calumet, plowing northward through the Straits of Detroit into the night with high cold winds snapping the flags on downtown skyscrapers.

http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2014/calumet-700.jpg
Click Image^ for large full screen view.

Really? Really? You're not pulling into harbor for the winter yet? Tracking it on marinetraffic.com it appears close to exiting the St. Mary's River into Lake Huron as of this writing. Good luck fellas.

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Great thread... Great Title... Great stories

gettin close to Rogers City

Total duration 45 minutes: SHIPWRECK: The Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Quote:

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... This is a Discovery Sunday presentation [[the Discovery Channel) on the very last [as of May 3, 2013] legal expedition ever made to Edmund Fitzgerald. At the victim's family's request, the ship bell's was recovered.

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• SS Edmund Fitzgerald

Thanks for posting this Lowell. Fascinating story, Gazhekwe!

Fascinating, indeed. I often use the http://www.boatnerd.com site for information on the Great Lakes. There is already some ice along the shore of Lake St. Clair, where I walk daily. Two years in a row, where ice began in mid November.
I'm hoping this winter is not a repeat of last year.