Customer Reviews

Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals" is probably classified as a book with limited 'regional' interest, which is a shame because it deserves a much wider audience. I think it merits a place on the bestseller list next to "In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick, or "The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea" by Sebastian Junger.

William Ratigan, a journalist whose father was a steamboat engineer, has written 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.

In his introduction, Ratigan warns the reader 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."

Each Lake's storms, shipwrecks, fires, and rescues gets its own section within "Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals." The last section of the book's third edition (which I own) is devoted to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the introduction of bulk freighters into the Lakes, and the extension of the shipping season.

I'm glad this book was reissued in 2000, as I will soon need a replacement copy. I reread it almost every November, when gray skies close down over the freighters that still steam up and down the Detroit River near our house.

Are there captains out there, like the captains of the ill-fated Howard M. Hanna, Jr., the Daniel J. Morrell, the Carl D. Bradley, and the Edmund Fitzgerald, who are trying to squeeze in 'one last run' of the season?

As Ratigan says of these captains, "...they often stay out on the Lake beyond the time of regular insurance, beyond the time of navigational prudence. Once in a while, striving to make one last trip before winter locks up the Lakes, they make one last trip indeed---the last trip forever."

This is one of those anecdotal history books that makes such wonderful reading. Having grown up on the shores of Ontario, it still managed to provide me with local history that I'd never heard (and filled in some gaps on things I had-- such as the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck). There are moments where the prose gets a little strained (how many different ways are there to say "stormy water"?) but it doesn't really detract from the charm of the book. It'll be hard to get me on a boat again without thinking about what we may be floating over underneath!

I bought this book for my 10 year old son who is very interested in shipwrecks. We visited the shipwreck museum at Whitefish Point just this past summer, along with the Soo Locks. We viewed artifacts from many sunken ships. The Edmund Fitzgerald artifacts were most interesting. He has a tee shirt with a Michigan map and numbered dots for all the shipwrecks in the different lakes (over 200!) on it. Needless to say, he has really enjoyed this book and is able to relate so much of what he saw and learned this past summer to material in the book. It put it all together. It is very colorfully written, and a bit too difficult for him to read alone. So we take time together and I read it outloud to him. We have both enjoyed learning about the different disasters in history, and have developed quite a respect for those brave sailors. A good book for anyone who is interested in the maritime history of the Great Lakes.

William Ratigan is the author of one of the gems of all shipwreck books ever written that concerning the Great Lakes, and this is it! The major disasters (and some minor ones) are chronicled in this book. Each lake has several chapters that have to do with shipwrecks there, and all of it is VERY understandable, even to those unfamiliar to the Great Lakes. From the days of the tiny but proud Griffin to the loss of the Edmund Fitgerald in Lake Superior, this book tells the stories of shipwrecks of times long past and shipwrecks of the recent past. This book truly deserves 5 stars! I highly recommend it, and it is an important part of my Great Lakes library. Enjoy the book!

Been looking for a book like this one. Found it at the Coast Guard/maritime museum in Grand Marais, MI. It's a great read and I highly recommend it, although the author seems to be biased at times as to which lake is the worst (not saying it's a bad thing though - he seems to think Lake Erie is the worst, but I and my late great-grandfather that sailed the lakes himself think Superior is). If I find any other book by this author, I'll definitely be picking it up to read :)

This is a very well written collection of stories about shipping disasters on the Great Lakes. The author has a very easy-going writing style that is a joy.

This was my father's last book. Growing up I remember seeing oars, and other debris from the Carl D. Bradley shipwreck around the house. The significance of them really never dawned on me. Then later when the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwrecked, that was later added to the book. When the song about it was written and sung by Gordon Lightfoot, he actually came over to our house and sang the song for my mom and dad as he played my grandmothers piano. I could just barely see the pride and joy he was feeling watching this. I had no idea how fortunate I was at the time to experience that. And I was never really able to appreciate what a great writer he was until I matured more as an adult.

My father was a writer, and a very good one at that. I had a lot to live up to if I was going to even attempt to write a book. It meant a lot to me to write the best possible book that I could in order to make him proud, and pass on as much helpful information as possible. I self published it in 2009. It has many of my life experiences woven into it. It surprised me how much of your life you share when you write a book. Some of it is very personal, and you don't know the person on the other side. So I have a new found appreciation of what writers must go through. It gives you a whole new perspective when you're the writer and not the reader!

SL Ratigan

I was hesitant to purchase this book. I am really glad I did . I enjoyed this book alot. I am now in the process of trying to find other books written by William Ratigan. He made even the most difficult maritime words and sentences easier for me to understand . I thought his life experiences was very evident in the writing of this book . He was able to give great details about the different shipwrecks and the different causes of each of the wrecks.I can't wait to find another of his books.

Very interestingly written on a subject that could have been full of facts, but dull reading. It refreshed my view of the Great Lakes and gave me a lesson in history and geography that I was not aware of.

Quite a comprehensive review of Great Lakes Shipwrecks, a topic I ventured into because of my ancestry from Milwaukee's 1860 U S Harbormaster Martin Dooley, who died in the USM Lady Elgin shipwreck of Sept 8, 1860, near Chicago.
[...]
The reference to Corktown in Old Milwaukee, might actually refer to a part of Old Detroit, and the reference to a "shillalah brandishing mob..." avenging the Lady Elgin....seems more like a Republican torch-bearing Wide Awake demonstration.
William Henry Bishop, of Saint John Cathedral, like several other authors, minced few words in claiming that the Augusta had "run down and sank the steamer Lady Elgin", and as a result it was considered unsafe for the Augusta (later re-named Colonel Cook) to dock in Milwaukee, for many years.
The illustrations of Reynold Weidenaar, show a greatly exagerated tsunami-like wave buffeting a ship, similar to an exagerated painting of the Lady Elgin.