“Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals: Edmund Fitzgerald Edition”, by William Ratigan

 

384 pages, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN-13: 978-0802870104

Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals: Edmund Fitzgerald Edition by William Ratigan is best classified by the world at large as a book with mere “Regional” interest that can probably still be found in museum gift shops anywhere along the coasts of the Great Lakes. Originally published in 1960, the edition I picked up at my local library for a mere 50¢ had been updated to include perhaps the most famous of Great Lakes wrecks, the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior with all hands-on November 10^th, 1975. Ratigan, a journalist whose father was a steamboat engineer, wrote a romantic, blood-curdling maritime history of the Great Lakes, starting with Champlain’s canoe as it ventured out onto Lake Huron and ending with the thousand-foot bulk freighters that now churn our waters.

This is a collection of stories about those mariners who met their doom or their greatest moment while sailing the Great Lakes. People from other parts of the country cannot fully appreciate the uniqueness of the Great Lakes and the tales of sailing vessels and storms; for instance, it’s somewhat peculiar (if not darkly funny) that the very first ship ever floated by white men on the lakes, The Griffin, never completed its maiden voyage and sunk after just getting underway. There are certain times of the year when the lakes are more dangerous than others, with November being the worst month for wrecks (“Remember, Remember, the Gales of November” – am I right, Michiganders?). But wrecks can and did happen almost any time of year, even when skies were clear; an explosion, a miscalculation, or any other mistake could prove fatal. Given the tendency of each lake to have its own personality and unique challenges to mariners, there is never such a thing as a guaranteed safe journey. True, ships are more sophisticated today, but it may well be only a matter of time before the next big boat goes down.

In his introduction, the author warns his readers that even the biggest freighter is not guaranteed a safe return to port:

These great ships sail Great Lakes that can swallow them in one black moment without a trace. Storms exploding across hundreds of miles of open water pile up mountainous seas that strike swifter, and more often, than the deadliest waves on any ocean. Before the ship has a chance to recover from the last blow, the next is upon her. The Lakes captain has no sea room in which to maneuver; unlike his salt-water counterpart he must stay on course throughout the storm; he must weather the teeth of the gale.

Would that more people knew the reputation of North America’s great inland waterways.