White Hurricane
By: David G. Brown
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The book I chose to read was entitled “White Hurricane”, written by David G. Brown, which portrayed the 1913 November Gales of the Great Lakes. Over the years there have been many autumn storms that have taken down great ships, such as The Edmund Fitzgerald, but no one was prepared for these unusual winds to take place. Ships began to depart for their final voyage of the year as a deadly atmospheric disturbance began to churn in Lake Superior and blow east. Lake Huron was struck next, with record high winds of 90 miles per hour, blizzard like conditions, and 35-foot waves. Therefore, this horrendous storm was deemed the name “ White Hurricane”, which was the product of a meteorological chain of cause and effects that has yet to repeat itself in history. Overall, a total of twelve ships sand, and thirty-one more were stranded on rocks and beaches. At least 248 sailors lost their lives, and the city of Cleveland faced the worst natural disaster in its history. The boats themselves hardly stand a chance against this fierce weather. Throughout the book he accounts for rivets exploding from hull plating, ice forming on the boat making it top heavy and prone to capsizing, and ship freighters crack open along their steel deck. Also, it gives some reasoning as to why certain, unexplainable events occurred, such as why the south end of Lake Huron turned into a killing zone where it caught a lot of ship to be wrecked.
This fast paced narrative analyzes the weather patters, to the boats, to the great lakes themselves. For example, although the Great Lakes are immense, their waters are way too confined for the large, square-rigged ocean sailing vessels of the 19th century. There was simply not enough room for them to maneuver, because schooners with “fore-and aft rigs” were handier on the lakes and appeared in large numbers. But even schooners could not solve the long, windless doldrums of summer. They faced the inadequacy of sail for their true purpose, which in turn gave many shipping companies on the Great Lakes to adapt to steam power. This is why many of the boats described in this story faced many problems when encountering gigantic storms, because they just could not handle the power.
I think that David Brown did a great job re creating the struggles for survival among the many doomed ships out at sea. He does this by using firsthand accounts and contemporary newspaper report, all while reconstructing the progress of the storm in a tight, chronological order with old meteorological data. But what is most impressive, is that he did something that the 1913 US Weather Bureau could not do, which is to dissect the storm itself to highlight its hour-by-hour development. This intrigues me because I can appreciate how much time and effort that must have taken. Also, to get a more personal, in depth point of view, he re creates the long and desperate hours of the captain by taking readings from his journal. For example, a touching moment from an interview after the gales read, “Off the southeast shoals the real fight between crew and storm began. Snow and rain were hurled at the pitching boats by the northwest wind that shot great waves crashing across the decks. For a time it was feared Barlum would be lost and twice it all but stood on end. Capt. Pringle and his crew, however, managed to save their charge” (62). These types of entries really show how intense this storm was and how close thousands of sailor we close to losing their lives. Overall, I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys sailing, the great lakes, or other environmental hazards. Its short, easy read that flies by quick, and had a lot of different journal entries to change up the variety.
