I’m a northerner and have seen first hand what Superior, Michigan, and Huron can do. I have family and friends in the commercial fisheries and on the boats.
For my money…Lk St. Clair is far and away the most treacherous. [bleep] that lake
I have sailed on every body of water on this Earth for over 60 years....some of the fastest building storms are on Lk. St. Clair....I have lost more friends the Lk. St. Clair than any other body of water....this summer a neighbor in a fast building early summer storm just move on the Lake the summer before and didn't know or understand how powerful the Lake can be......
Heard more than a few people say that about Lake St Clair this year ... we were up there the week of October 21st again this year. There were still boats in the water, it was warm. Weird weather up there for that/this time of the year. Everyone was saying the lake was due-to take some boats this year. We spent time in Charlevoix too .... I like that lake.
Listen, I get the Edmund Fitzgerald fascination. I actually owned the album in college and was called a geek for it ... but everyone wanted to smoke weed, get stoned, and listen to that album back then when we all thought we were going-to live forever. As time has passed I came to learn that there have been tens of 1000s of souls lost on those lakes and for equally as tragic and mysterious reasons. Over 30k lost in ships gone down and 1000s and 1000s more simply drowned while recreational swimming. Hell, we were told that these past couple two or three years Lake Michigan alone has had record numbers of drownings.
There was the Great Storm of 1913 ... drowned hundreds in downed boats and ships within a couple of days. There is the infamous but little known Great Lakes Triangle where, inside its border, hundreds of ships have mysteriously gone down.
So thread drift what it is ... we do this same old same old Fitz thread every year .... because of a song and because the Fitz was the biggest of them. It never changes. So I wonder why anyone would bitch or moan or complain when, for once, we take a moment to learn a little bit more about THE 30,000+ OTHER sailors who have lost their lives on those lakes .... not just Gitche Gumee.
Sheeesh, the way we pigeon hole ourselves sometimes when there are so many oppotunities to expand our horizons within the scope of a particular beat-to-death topic.
BTW, fwiw, in terms of shipwrecks, Gitche Gumee, while being the largest, ranks fourth .... that's right, fourth fewest shipwrecks outta four great lakes. Few know that and ever fewer ask why because they're too busy paying yearly hommage to the Fitz ... because of a song.
Anyways, whatever. I love the country up there and those lakes ... and I'm a southern boy to the bone but, those lakes and that country are absolutely fascinating. I wish more people would take the time to learn about them.
