November's Fury: The Deadly Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913

Sources and Acknowledgments

sourCes aNd aCkNowledgmeNts The books i consulted for this account are listed in the bibliography , but a handful of volumes deserve special recognition for their influence in my research. David G. Brown’s White Hurricane brings the storm to life, lake to lake, boat to boat. i referred to this book on numerous occasions while writing, often to double-check the chronology, which can be confusing when dealing with the many vessels out in the storm. Freshwater Fury, by Frank Barcus, the first book-length study of the 1913 storm, is told in the unforgettable voices of those caught on the lakes during the height of the storm and is made all the more interesting by Barcus’s illustrations. Paul carroll’s The Wexford, a thick, lavishly illustrated volume devoted to the history of the canadian package freighter lost in the storm, is proof positive of the idea that every vessel has a unique story deserving full treatment. carroll was very helpful in obtaining many photographs that appear in this book. in Ships Gone Missing, robert J. hemming, who also wrote a compelling account of the Edmund Fitzgerald, offers a model of how to write a fast-moving, informative narrative involving a large roster of vessels. 186 SourCeS A nd ACk noWLedGmenTS William ratigan’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals is the book that started it all forme:like many, i loved tales of Great lakes vessels and lighthouses, but this volume, featuring entries about every major shipwreck on each of the five lakes, fired my interest in learning more. MyfavoritehistoryofGreatlakesshippingisWalterhavighurst’s The Long Ships Passing—essential reading for anyone wondering about the background of the ore boats and stone boats dotting the horizons of the Great lakes. Mark l. Thompson’s Graveyard of the Lakes has become one of my favorite go-to sources for general information about shipwrecks .Packedwithdetail andwritteneloquentlybyaformersailor and current historian, this book is a must for any maritime enthusiast ’s library. i am both pleased and honored to call Mark a friend. Thanks to Jerry eliason, andrew Krueger, Shelley Maurer, Ken Merryman, and Kraig Smith for information about the discovery of the Henry B. Smith. This was very exciting news, and i thoroughly enjoyed learning about this important find. i read hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles while researching this book, and while it would be infeasible to list each article in a bibliography, it should be noted that i consulted the following newspapers for reportage on the storm. The Port Huron Times-Herald published extensive day-to-day coverage of the events happening near the bottom of lake huron, and it was a crucial source in my research. The Cleveland Plain Dealer presented the most comprehensive coverage of the damage inflicted on the city by the storm. Other newspapers i read included the Border Cities Star (Windsor, Ontario), Chicago Tribune, Cleveland News, Collingwood (Ontario) Bulletin, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Duluth Herald, Duluth News-Tribune, Goderich (Ontario) Signal, Ludington (Mich.) Daily News, Milwaukee Journal, Oswego (N.Y.) Daily Times, Star Beacon (ashtabula, Ohio), Toledo Blade, Toronto World, and Warsaw (Ind.) Daily News. The Great lakes Ship File at the Milwaukee library and the collection of the Wisconsin Marine historical Society, with its many news clippings, were vital research resources. The lake carriers’ association’s Annual Report, 1913 provided detailed early analysis of the storm and its effects on Great lakes SourCeS A nd ACk noWLedGmenTS 187 shipping, as did the 1913 bound edition of The Marine Review, which included oral history accounts of the storm by the captain and chief engineer of the Howard M. Hanna Jr. The journal of the Great lakes historical Society, Inland Seas, is essential reading for anyone interested in researching or reading about the colorful history of the shipping industry. i consulted a seemingly endless number of Web sites when researching and selecting photographs for November’s Fury. Boatnerd (boatnerd.com) may be the best up-to-the-minute source of information on all things related to Great lakes shipping and history; it includes online articles, book reviews, photographs, links to other Web sites, a YouTube site, a newsletter, and a host of other features to keep maritime enthusiasts occupied for hours. Brendon Baillod ’s Great lakes ShipwreckWeb site offers numerous links to sites focused on the history of storms, shipwrecks, and general Great lakes history. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (thun derbay@noaa.gov) is...