Makes you wonder how the European colonization of the Americas, or the Polynesians colonization of the Pacific, every happened given those folks had even less weather forecasts. AND THEN there are the Great Lakes.
I'm still waiting for the video that you promised me on storms and wrecks on Lake Ontario. It must have been six months since I mentioned that Lake Ontario never gets talked about. Well, unless it's about Lake effect snowfall shutting Buffalo down. That's about the only time it makes UK news. Especially if the Bills can't play. 😊❤😊
Great job! And please consider lowering the level of your soundtrack, especially since you are a bit soft-spoken, and your choice of "drumming music" is such a sharp contrast, that I have to constantly turn the volume up or down depending on what part of your video I'm watching. I realize that this is pretty "standard issue" Hollywoodism to Crank the crap out of the soundtrack, while the actors do the "Hollywood Whisper," even in the most stressful of scenes. Why not buck the trend and turn the music Down below the level of your voice, since I tuned in to get the info that you are presenting and not to get any version of an "audio smashing." Cheers and keep up the great work 🙂
I live in the UK, East Anglia. Cannot IMAGINE how hectic your weather systems.are...we get 70-90mph gales here, and the North Sea is nothing to be sniffed at, but I'm well inland. A tornado or a November Witch sounds beyond terrifying. No idea how you know that's coming and deal with it.
So true! I’m in Cleveland ≈ a mile from Lake Erie shore. Erie is so shallow on average it can go from glass to raging in minutes. There’s a somewhat iconic photo of the lighthouse encased in ice from the incredibly high waves freezing on contact. I was stupidly determined to get home that night and was on the I90 Rt2 Shoreway unable to see much of anything with water from breaking waves landing on top of the car! I’ve driven ghat route in pretty heavy weather but that was new to me. I fully expected it to start raining fish! I made it home, following the distant orange lights of a plow truck ahead of me. The lighthouse photo went viral at the time which was when I realized how bad it was.
As a lifelong yooper the great lakes have always been a part of my life. When I watch videos like this I think of my best friend. He was a commercial fisherman and lost his life on Lake Michigan in a bad November storm.😞 Rest in peace Cliff.
My best friend lost her father at sea and her brother survived the sinking. I don't know why but I can't stop watching these kind of videos. Rip Mr Timpson you are still missed and will always be a father figure to me.
As a teenager growing up in Pentwater MI in the 1990s I had the opportunity to meet Lloyd Belcher, a helmsman on the Novadoc at the time of her sinking (can't remember if he was at the helm when she grounded.). He was visiting from Canada to give a presentation about the events he experienced, and later he and his family went out on my father's boat and we took them to the wreck site. All those decades later and he still remembered where the remains of the ship were. On a calm day you can still see what is left of the wreck buried in the sand off Juniper Beach near the Silver Lake sand dunes.
I love your Great Lakes content. I recently visited the region again touring Manitowoc’s excellent Maritime Museum and did a crossing on the SS Badger. So much history in those lakes. Our crossing of Lake Michigan was glassy smooth - heard a daughter ask her father why there weren’t waves - he told her “because this isn’t an ocean.” He has no idea…
Great story. It’s been 11 or 12 years since I took the Badger from Manitowoc to Ludington and that day was after a huge severe storm system went through the day and evening before. There were definitely waves! It was impossible to walk a straight line, and holding on to things was a big help. We’d tip one way and you could look into the churning water from the side windows and then the horizon when it tipped the other way. I gave the young man at the cafeteria a big tip since there weren’t many people eating anything that day! Despite feeling a little woozy at times, I really enjoyed the experience. I wholeheartedly recommend a crossing on the Badger!
Thank you for another Great Lakes story! This time you mentioned Ludington, MI, which is my home town and 2 ships the car ferries Pere Marquette 21 and The City of Flint, both of which I would later sail many times as a passenger. My father was an able seaman for the C&O railroad car ferries in the 1960’s. When I was born, there were 7 ships in the C&O fleet, including SS Badger, that still sails today from Ludington to Manitowoc, WI. She’s the last coal fired steam powered ship in North America. My father could get us free passage whenever we wanted and I cherish those memories as a young lad absolutely mesmerized by ships and sailing the Great Lakes! Thank you for giving an old man passage once again on a trip down memory lane! Oh, and the Galloping Gerdy into was excellent! I never realized it was the same storm that took down the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that later became the Armistice Day storm! Fascinating! You really have a gift for historical accuracy and narration! I can’t wait for your next video! As always, great work!
I’m glad this channel is doing well. I wish him lots and lots of luck. This is a brilliant niche and the videos seem to have the ambience of mystery. I like this.
I had visited the Marquette marintime museum, and one of their great focuses was on one hand, the wrecks... but also the precursors to the Coast Guard rescue crews. Phenomenally dangerous, that job. And yet some of those rescue crews went out into stormy and icy conditions just this bad, or more, to save their merchant mariners who found themselves in trouble. Gotta respect them, for their enviable courage and strength.
My grandmother's cousin was on the Davock, and she would talk about how she could still hear her aunt's cry's of grief when she got the news that her son had gone down with the ship, it was something that her aunt never really recovered from.
I find myself humming "the wreck of the edm Fitzgerald" a lot. I think about these ships and the men who sailed on them. This was a well told story. I appreciated it.
Really love the coverage you give to the Great Lakes and surrounding regions. As someone not even remotely close to them it's hard to remember just how large an area they really cover and the sheer amount of traffic that takes place there
I love your work mate. Totally facinating! I'm a Brit but I lived in St Joseph Michigan for a couple of years in the late 80's. Then in Chicago for 6 months in the mid 90's. I loved the lake. The Michigan winters were something else! Bloody brutal sometimes. I love ships and the ocean but there's something so very compelling about the great lakes. I could never really get my head around the fact that such huge bodies of water were fresh. Your production and research is outstanding! Cheers mate. 😊
I really like how you interlaced the introduction to each ship with the vignettes of the devastation from the storm as it moved in on the Great Lakes. It created a series feeling of foreboding.
Thanks for the connection with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure which I had not realised was the same storm as sunk these Great Lakes freighters. As always well researched and interesting.
#180 I have crewed aboard the SS Pere Marquette 21 and wheeled the ship on occasions, also. I am 76 now and thank you for the history. We used full gear to tie down the rail cars. Clamps, Jaxs, Turnbuckles, chains, etc. Those of us that worked the deck, developed some pretty good muscles. No need to work out at the gym.
Seeing what remains of the Minch..and viewing the forlorn almost toy-looking inverted hull of the Davock.I am in awe.. These boats were giants of their day.and they were as nothing before the power of that storm.
Dear Sir, you are getting extremely good at this! No channel thrills us more than yours when a new video comes out. What makes your story telling so successful in my opinion is, in no small part, your low key voice with no high pitched sounds. That's got a very soothing effect to it. So unlike other channels that try and fail, your videos we can listen to as we're laying in bed, drifting off into sleep as you draw our imagination on a voyage into fascinating stories of old. Thank you...
Well, they had their "red sky in morning. " hint, but no one took warning I guess.....we are blessed today with weather forecasts that are incredibly accurate compared to those days....
Thank you for the riveting story so well told. I like the way you included the duck hunters, showing how massive the storm was. Great channel! Hope you prosper.
Everyday Big Old Boats uploads a video is a good day. I really have to thank you, because of mainly you I know so much about the great lakes freighters and I am so glad of it. You definitely stand up there together with Part Time Explorer and Oceanliner Designs as my favorite maritime RU-vidrs. Take care and may God be with you on your journy!
Terrifying, what a story! This is another storm I haven't heard of before. You do such a great job on your channel! Thank you so much for telling stories such as this one. I think this is a great memorial to those working men who where just there, trying to make a living and take care of their families. Great work!
I live in a Great Lake coastal city (one often mentioned in these vids). Im just a short walk from the shoreline. Since I started watching this channel (and a few others like it) Ive taken notice of some of the dramatic wind events around here. For example a couple times a year a sudden violent wind will shake my house for 5 minutes and then be totally gone. And other stuff like that. I always wonder 'is this one those things that would sink ships a century or so ago?' It's probably just my imagination getting carried away. But nonetheless this channel has helped me appreciated the spookier aspects of Great Lake life.
Love the content, as always, but had to ask: Do folks not know that Armistice Day is still celebrated as Veterans Day in the US? At 7:50 you said Armistice Day is "one not often remembered today in the United States."
I live on lake Erie, when the November gails come theres no time to make plans to run into safe harbor. Imagine not having the technology we have now and the company expecting to get those last runs done. It must have been the worst time to work on the freighters.
being born and raised in Seattle I knew all about the storm and Gallopping Gurdy, but I never knew the storm caused further damage. thanks for the information.
Living on the bay of Green Bay/Lake Michigan all my life she can be beautiful and calm. When she gets riled up she turns into a wild beast! November is the worst month! Just took my grandkids to a beach last week. It was calm, sunny and very warm out. Watching people of all ages in the water swimming, boating and jet skiing. Perfect summer day. But when November comes watch out!
I "dscovered" your channel two days ago and have been binge-watching your videos ever since. I don't know how you managed to find so much in the way or original footage and stills; it must have been a lot of work, but I'm glad you did. I intend to keep watching and have subscribed. btw, I grew up in a sailing family and the pictures of the beautiful dawn reminded me of a saying my father taught us. Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
In 1940 there were two categories of ships in Canada's great lakes fleet. "Canallers" were short enough to pass through the seaway. Many of them were lost to submarines, while doing convoy duty to Great Britain. "Upper Lakers" were restricted to service on the upper great lakes due to their length. Ironically, at the time of this disaster, jobs on these ships were coveted and carefully guarded by some to avoid the dangers of the North Atlantic. I was told about this by one of my shipmates who had done convoy duty while I was working on lakers in the 1970's. The Novadoc was the only canaller of the three ships that sank.
I wish I had come across this post ten years ago when I could have asked my Grandmothers (who would have been 16 and 18 respectively in 1940) . They were in the area and would have had stories. They rarely told stories unprompted, but if I brought up an even or dates, I was in for a treasure.
About a year ago we sailed across lake michigan to ludington and went to the museum near the lighthouse. There we learned about this storm and the events of that day. After we had crossed back to port washington, the next day we got caught in following seas with ~14 foot waves just tossing our 40 foot sailboat like a floating bottle. Being out on the lake that day was the most terriying experience of my entire life, it took 3 hours of nerve racking focus to make it to milwaukee to hole up for the night. I cant imagine being out there in waves twice the height overnight. This video made me relive all of those feelings of dread and angst that I had on that day. Never underestimate the tempest that lake michigan can so quickly become.
I've always been fascinated by stories of The Great Lakes because even though I've never been a sailor nor been out on a ship on those lakes, I've travelled the highways around all of them hundreds of times as a trucker and boy, I'll tell ya; I know well how fast and how furiously the weather can change in that region and if it frightened me on land, I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like out on those lakes. I've heard different accounts of sailors who've sailed both the North Atlantic and the lakes and they said the storms on the lakes frightened them more.
All I have got to say is that all these Videos on the Great Lakes are what I come to your channel for. The History, as well as the Vessel Designs are all very fascinating. Anyways, I have comments on the Daniel J. Morrell Video and the Lake Huron Disasters Video. Both of which I ask about a peace of music. Note that not all of us use Epidemic Sound, and don’t want to start a Subscription for it.
I have watched many of your videos by now - all on the Great Lakes. I have learned everything that I had no idea about - other than Edmund Fitzgerald, I knew nothing. What a fascinating & crucial part of our history, heartwrenching but glorious!!! Movies based on times from the past, would give hints about life on the Great Lakes being much more active & popular than it seems to be today - now I know why . . . this nation didn't operate at all without the shipping going on across the Great Lakes!!! I do hope this is your real voice (& not AI) so soothing, smooth, calm & reassuring - despite every video involves death in watery graves!!! Thank you for all you are doing, we need these archives you have created!!!
Ah, the Witch of November. I am a lifelong sailor, but thankfully have never been on the lakes during those times. I have been in Duluth and the north shore of Superior during some very nasty storms, and I can't imagine what any men caught out on the waters would be feeling. They looked terrifying enough from the shoreline.
My grandparents were Salvation Army officers stationed in Michigan for 9 years. So me and my sister got to spend plenty of winters and summers there. 😊
@6:35 The weather started getting rough; the tiny ship was tossed If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost The Minnow would be lost
I really love listening and watching your videos!! You have thee perfect voice to narrate them!! The other night I binge watched 14 of your videos!! Literally I learned so much!! I really appreciate you creating such amazing videos!! I have never heard of this storm before!! I always learn something new when I watch your videos!! Thank you so much for creating them!! I know that I said that twice but I mean it!!
November. *Of course* it was November. That one month when everybody aboard a Great Lakes ship is tickling the dragon's tail and knows it. That one month that will make any ocean mariner who thinks 'lake shipping' is a joke shut right up.
I've been following your RU-vid channels for ages and really enjoy the mix of content and topics you cover. Recently I came across a fascinating maritime disaster that you may be interested in having a look at for your Fascinating Horror channel. The Amoco Cadiz VLCC bulk crude oil carrier that broke up off the coast of France in 1978. Why I think it's interesting: * Worst oil spill in history at that point in time *Catastrophic impact on marine and bird life, some say it still has a lasting impact on Crustacean life 46 years on *Wasn't actually Amocos fault. A series of unfortunate events leading to disaster *One of the few man made disasters where a corporation was found liable and actually had to pay a very substantial fine equivalent to $499m USD today. I'm torn on this point to a degree, good they paid up, but the event wasn't purely caused by their negligence *The Navy bombed it with anti submarine grenades to completely sink it, the blasts were felt on shore over a mile away
Thank you for another fantastic video. your delivery is so respectfull and poetic with out being melodramatic, and the photographic and filmatic material is wonderfull!
I'm European, so the sudden temperature drop in Fahrenheit meant nothing to me. So, for my Celsius minded brethren I have checked and that drop is from plus18c to minus12c in a very short time. That's horrific.
I'm guessing that if you ask most people under 50 in the US very few would have even heard of it, WW1 is virtually forgotten unless you're a history buff.
My Mom was just about engaged to a sailor on the ships in the Great Lakes in 1940, who unfortunately was drowned. They were from Newfoundland. As time passed, my Mom moved to Nova Scotia and was married there in 1946 and had my brother and me. Eventually I moved to the US and now have my precious family here. I shutter to think that that might never have come to pass. Of course, I'm sorry for the loss of the sailors like then and I knew some of his family in NL. But how everything is in God's hands and He brings to pass what He planned for us before we were born.
Excellent post. Great historical information. I've chartered out many times salmon fishing on lakes Michigan and Ontario. They are no joke and will kill if provided with the correct conditions. Thank you.
To those who've never witnessed a sunrise at Duluth Minnesota; they are more beautiful than you can imagine... Woe to those too arrogant to fathom the full fury of the Lakes..
You did an excellent job reporting on such a terrible and tragic storm. I appreciate all the trouble you went to getting photos of the actual vessls (where ever possible). "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning". I guess that old adage was ignored?
We are farmers and we grew up knowing red at night, sailor's delight, red in the morning, sailors take warning. Just like Jesus says we can read the skies when the storms are coming, but we can't read the end of the times. They knew it would be storming. The Bible also says that money is the root of many evils. (Not ALL evils) I don't usually site the Bible but can anyone count how many shipwrecks happened on the Great Lakes because of money while wisdom was ignored? Another great video! Thanks!
