Customer Reviews

White Hurricane : A Great Lakes November Gale and America's Deadliest Maritime Disaster

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Ninety years ago this November, one of the worst disasters in Great Lakes history took place over a period of four days, when twelve ships foundered and thirty-one were stranded, and 253 sailors drowned during the deadliest storm ever to hit the Great Lakes. The actual toll was probably higher, but no single agency in 1913 kept track of vessels lost or sailors killed. According to this author, the death toll did not include "the commercial fishermen, hunters, or anglers who also lost their lives."

At least three books have been written about this storm, including "Fresh Water Fury" (1960), "Ships Gone Missing" (1992), and this book by David G. Brown, published in 2002. One of the things that sets Brown's book apart from the others is his meticulous meteorological reconstruction of the 1913 storm that raged for four days in early November and sank ships on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron (the worst hit) and Erie.

According to the author's research, the weather in early November 1913 was remarkably dry and balmy, tempting the shipping companies into making one last run before the end of the season. The U.S. Weather Bureau issued storm warnings on November 7, 8, and 9 but these did not come close to suggesting the true ferocity of the 'White Hurricane.' In fact the Weather Bureau never did post hurricane warnings--two red flags with black centers, displayed one above the other--on the Great Lakes, preferring to reserve that warning for tropical storms even though the four-day storm that struck the Lakes was of hurricane intensity.

This book is organized as a temporal narrative of the storm, starting on Wednesday, November 5 as freighters such as the 'Charles S. Price' took on loads of coal, railroad ties, and iron ore for their last trips of the season. The 'Price's' Assistant Engineer Milton Smith had such a strong premonition about the forthcoming voyage that he quit his job and went home. He would later be asked to identify the bodies of his shipmates that washed up on Huron's icy shores.

On November 6, ships on western Lake Superior were already experiencing rough weather, but nothing that qualified as a full-fledged November gale--not yet. In Detroit, a prominent halo ringed the moon, perhaps bringing to mind the rhyme: "When halos ring the moon or sun/ Rain is coming on the run." In the case of this particular storm, it was a warning of the ferocious blizzard that would paralyze Cleveland and other cities on the Lakes, and add to the woes of the ships that were already battling life-threatening gales.

The empty wooden bulk freighter 'Louisania' was the first casualty of the storm. On Saturday, November 8, the onrushing gale stranded her near Port des Mortes on Lake Michigan, where she burned to the waterline. Up on Lake Superior, the storm "began picking apart the 'L.C. Waldo' shortly after midnight near the Keweenaw Peninsula." Her sailors were some of the lucky few to be picked up from their stranded, ice-bound freighter, but they would have to wait until Monday, November 10 to be rescued.

Brown's narrative of the height of the storm is truly frightening and he can only speculate on the fates of the ships that disappeared far from land. Of the seventeen ships known to be in lower Lake Huron on Sunday, November 9, only two survived and they sustained serious damage.

This book also provides an extended aftermath, appendices, bibliography, and index.

If you'd like to read more about the 'Big Blow' of 1913, I highly recommend Dwight Boyer's "True Tales of the Great Lakes," William Ratigan's "Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals," and the above-mentioned "Ships Gone Missing" by Robert J. Hemming.

In November 1913, multiple storm systems collided above the Great Lakes, fueling a deadly maelstrom that lasted several days. There was no ship-to-shore radio. Meteorology was in its infancy; the jet stream hadn't even been discovered yet. Weather news was transmitted via telegraph, and then signal flags were hoisted at assorted spots along shorelines to warn mariners. It wasn't enough.

After unseasonably warm weather in the 60s, ships docked along all the Great Lakes set out for their final trip of the season. For many of them, it was their final trip, period.

The author compiles a staggering quantity of data from a by-gone era to present a sequential, methodical telling of the multitude of ships which sailed headlong into the worst Great Lakes storm in recorded history. While his wide-ranging narrative can sometimes lose the reader in a blizzard of names and places, gradually a larger picture comes clear of flesh-and-blood men struggling to just get home against unimaginable odds. This book evokes tension, courage, even nightmares, followed by heartwrenching tales of frozen bodies washing up on beaches, lifeboats occupied by dead sailors lashed to their seats, and even a message in a bottle hastily penned by a man who knew he'd be dead in minutes (and whose corpse indeed washed ashore a few weeks after this bottle was found). This is man vs. nature, this is man looking into the abyss, this is man meeting his Maker in no uncertain terms.

The next time you stroll along a sunny beach with the water washing around your ankles, consider this:

Your ship battles 30-foot waves driven by sustained 70-mph winds. Out on deck, there's a jackline which extends from bow to stern, specifically to help sailors walk safely along the ship's deck in rough seas. That jackline is now coated with ice as thick as a man's torso. Soon the waves smash out the pilothouse windows. Skylights in the boiler room have also shattered; men somehow continue to shovel coal into the engines while knee-deep in 40-degree water. One gigantic wave actually crushes the pilothouse; all hope of navigation has now vanished. The captain shouts to drop anchor; within minutes the anchor's chain snaps like twine. The ship's inch-thick steel plating begins to crack, and iron rivets snap like buttons. There's nothing to do now but pray and wait to drown--and every minute lasts an eternity.

While the movie "The Perfect Storm" chronicles a great "Nor'Easter," it can't hold a candle to the White Hurricane of 1913. The stories of heroism, foolishness, kindness, and ruthlessness serve to highlight the ferocity of the great storm. And the eerie coincidences, premonitions, and unexplained happenings before, during, and after the storm make this one exciting ride.

The author does a good job detailing the storm, but some maps would have been helpful. More photos of boats (no, they're not called ships!) and some photos of key characters would have been nice, as well. There is a lot of information on Great Lakes history, so he should have been able to come up with such artifacts.

My grandfather was captain of a "longboat" on the lakes, and he was a sailor in WWI in the Atlantic, and WWII in the Pacific. He said a storm on the Great Lakes was a lot worse than ocean storms because of all the reasons the author details, but also because the water is in a much smaller "container" than in the ocean...so the power multiplies because it has nowhere to go. And the results are horrifying.

I've lived in the Great Lakes area all my life. If you want some "extreme" excitement, come and ride out a November gale. Or, read this book for an excellent "virtual" ride!

David G. Brown's "White Hurricane" is yet another in the recent flood of books depicting historical weather releated disasters. Indeed, the 1913 storm of the book's title is so little remembered that I had never heard of it prior to reading the book, despite growing up in the Great Lakes region. Brown obviously did a copius amount of research and does a fine job describing the history of Great Lakes shipping and demonstrating the risks that sailors face when the "gales of November" start howling.

The 1913 Great Lakes storm was unusual both for its intensity and because it raged over the lakes for almost a full week rather than just a couple of days. As a result, it claimed a dozen ships and nearly 250 lives. Dozens of other ships barely escaped and the first hand accounts of the sailors who survived the tempest make for chilling reading.

The book's main drawback, however, is that it lacks a single compelling central event as a focus for its narrative. Brown gamely switches back and forth between accounts of each individual ship as the storm progresses. Unfortunately, there are far too many ships and sailors for the reader to keep easy track of and eventually all the accounts begin to sound the same. On the plus side, the book provides several helpful maps as well as a generous helping of photographs, mostly of the ships that were lost.

Overall, an informative if not highly readable account of a largely forgotten weather disaster.

This is a heck of a good book. It is a fascinating story with the added benefit of being a nifty piece of history. Brown tells the story quickly and suspensefully, giving us a dose of the storm-how it came to be, where it was, where it was going- then telling us of the men and ships who sailed onto the Great Lakes that week-who they were and where THEY were heading for-only to be ambushed by savage winds and blinding snow. This is the story of how they did it in 1913, this business of sailing onto great bodies of water, without the benefit of weather satellites, radar, and around-the-world-signal radios. They did it with guts and skill. Sometimes they met up with horrible surprises and sometimes they died.
Amazon.com is willing to slash thirty percent off the price of this book? Grab it. It would be worth the money at full price.

Dave Brown has really done the necessary, comprehensive research. His description of Great Lakes' shipping is 100% accurate. The reporting is factual and not embellished with contrived dialogue. I was an engineer in Great Lakes and ocean ships, one cited in the book, and can visualize the events he described and emphasize with the crewmen's situations.

Hate to admit it, since I live along Lake Erie, but I never heard of this storm until someone bought this book for me. It is really excellent. The author picks a certain day, certain time, and writes about what is happening with which ship, etc., at that particular time, and sometimes it was a little hard for me to keep track of which ship he was writing about. However, he really makes you understand and feel what it would have been like being on one of the ships breaking up or getting stranded in the terrible storm. This would be an excellent movie! I recommend this book to anyone interested in the weather, the Great Lakes, or boating/shipping in general.

Growing up I had heard stories about this storm from my late grandfather, Hugh McLeod, captain of the "Matoa" one of the grounded and destroyed ships. In fact I have the baromoter from the Matoa and it still works perfectly.

This book really put my grandfather's stories in context of the overall storm. While I knew there were many ships sunk and lives lost (although not on his ship), I knew nothing about them. While a casual reader might find the jumping around from day to day and ship to ship a little confusing, for me it really filled in the blanks.

Ironically, four years to the day before this storm, my grandfather's two brothers died when the Marquette & Bessemer #2 went down in Lake Erie.

I read this book when my father-in-law bought a 40 footer and docked it in Port Huron with easy access to Lake Huron. Living in Michigan most of my life and now in Chicago, I have always appreciated the beauty of The Great Lakes. As we cruise the lake in all its beauty and glory, I can't help but wonder just what scatters the floor of Lake Huron or any of the others. This book illustrates the dramatic account of the only Great Lakes hurricane, if such a thing could happen.

This book was no less than amazing and will really open the eyes of anyone that takes the fury of the beautiful Great Lakes for granted.

The White Hurricane of 1913 that struck the Great Lakes in November 1913 was an incredible storm of hurricane winds, blizzard, and monstrous waves. The author presents a journalism style approach to the story. Since the book is non-fiction, the author does provide resources and references to back up his claim.

He displays the poor weather maps used by the national weather service at the time. He also has photographs of the ships at sea during the storm. Anyway, the storm lasted a couple of days. The end result was the deaths of nearly 300 men and even some women as they battled the storm.

The storm is monstrous and catastrophic as well. The blizzard conditions blanketed the cities like Cleveland and Chicago but nothing was more treacherous than the Great Lakes battling deadly winds and waves. Titanic only sank in 1912 but these ships didn't need lifeboats to save their sailors. They needed to be warned ahead of time but lacked the necessary equipment in doing so. Anyway, several ships would go down and even lifeboats were capsized in the storm.

I only wished that the author would have added some passion to writing about the storm of the last century in the Great Lakes. The author did do a great service by writing about it in the first place.