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

~ (Author) "AS MILTON SMITH PREPARED to leave the steamer Charles S Price on Wednesday, November 5, he did not think of himself as a superstitious man..." (more)
Key Phrases: straight deckers, overturned hulk, windlass room, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A riveting, well researched account of the worst Great Lakes storm on record. A fascinating read. - Inland Seas: Quarterly Journal of the Great Lakes Historical Society; Brings history to life in a book as readable as any novel. - Good Old Boat; A great read. - Grand Rapids Press --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

The riveting account of a 1913 storm that paralyzed the heart of America

Autumn gales have pursued mariners across the Great Lakes for centuries. On Friday, November 7, 1913, those gales captured their prey. After four days of winds up to 90 miles an hour, freezing temperatures, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous seas, 19 ships had been lost, two dozen had been thrown ashore, 238 sailors were dead, and the city of Cleveland was confronting the worst natural disaster in its history.

In White Hurricane, writer and mariner David G. Brown combines narrative intensity with factual depth to re-create the events of the "perfect storm" that struck America's heartland. Interweaving human drama, mystery, and historical consequence, Brown has created a vast epic ranging over Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie and echoing down the decades.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: International Marine Publishing (June 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007138037X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071380379
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #646,482 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last trip of the season, December 16, 2003

By	E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MAKES "THE PERFECT STORM" LOOK LIKE A PICNIC, December 24, 2004

By	Lance C. Panzer (the Great Lakes) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Hurricane: A Great Lakes November Gale and America's Deadliest Maritime Disaster (Paperback)

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.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but Repetitive, September 11, 2002

By	Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.