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December, 1913 nuisance as far as possible and this is not so difficult since most of their time in port is spent at dock. The Great November Storm During the past three weeks vessel owners have discussed nothing except the great storm which de- stroyed so many modern carriers on Lake Huron. Eight ships totally disappeared with all on _ board. No one knows what happened to these ships except the striking fact that one of them actually turned turtle: The ast: thing to: be expected of a "Hk freighter with its great flat bottom was that it should turn turtle. No explanation of this singular cat- astrophe to the Charles S. Price is forthcoming. It has been suggested that her cargo of coal shifted while she was rolling in the trough, throwing her on her beam's end, and that her empty ballast tanks acted as a lever to turn her completely over. Whatever the cause, it will doubtless be the subject of future tech- nical investigation. | The ships that went down represented not only the best of lake practice, but of British yards as well. Two of the vessels were British tramps and had been out in all kinds of weather in all parts of the world; yet they fared no better than the lake craft. The most reasonable conclusion arrived at by vessel own- ers is that they were gradually beaten into the trough of the sea, where they rolled so prodigiously, loosen- ing up and taking in so much water as to eventually founder. This is the supposition arrived at from the testimony of the masters that weathered the storm and from the condition of their vessels. What happened, however, is the merest conjecture, because the cargo may have shifted or machinery become deranged, either of which would have been fatal in such a gale. It must be borne in mind that the situation which existed on Lake Huron was unprecedented. Since the lakes have been commercially navigated, no such condition has ever been met with before and centuries may go by before such a phenomenon may again be experienced. When all these vessels entered Lake Huron, there was nothing to indicate that the passage of the lake could not be made in reasonable safety. The barom- eter was unusually low, but aside from that, the weather conditions were not unusual for the time of the year. A northwest gale had been blowing on Lake _ Superior since early Saturday morning, Nov. 8, and -vessels were generally governed by it. On Sunday morning, Nov. 9, this gale died down, with only a 15-mile breeze blowing from the northwest across Lake Huron. Even with a low barometer there would be nothing in such a condition to prevent a prudent master from undertaking the passage of Lake Huron. Fven a stiff breeze from the northwest is not a dangerous thing on the course that vessels take in crossing this lake, as they are under the. lee of the land. As the morning progressed, however, the wind increased, shifting to the north and northeast until by THE MARINE REVIEW 451 noon it was blowing from the northeast with great velocity. The obvious thing for an upbound ship to do would be to head into it, in the hope of reaching, the shelter of the east shore, and that is probably what they all did. They were probably defeated in doing so by the continued and unprecedented violence of the elements. As a rule, wind of that velocity does not last over four or five hours, but the wind of Sunday, Nov. 9, blew steadily for nearly 16 hours at an average velocity of 60 miles an hour, with frequent spurts reaching a maximum of 79 miles an hour, making tremendous seas, which followed each other in quick succession, usually three waves coming along one right after the other, and the battering that the ships received from these quick successive blows must | have been terrific. The vessels that ran with it had their after quarters crushed and their engine rooms filled with water from the following sea; vessels that headed into it had their forward quarters smashed, . and in one instance at least, with consequent derange- ment of the steering gear. aad In the case of the H. M. Hanna Jr. it is known that she could not keep her head to the sea, gradually going off into the trough until she was finally carried broadside onto the Port Austin reef. She struggled for ten hours against the storm with that pitiful result. Had she been in midlake, however, the outcome of the struggle would doubtless have been more pitiful still. There has been some disposition shown to blame the weather bureau, but there is no reason to believe that the weather bureau could have foreseen the unprec- edented combination of circumstances, which, existed on Lake Huron. The uninformed have also endeay- ored to blame the owners for sending their vessels out in such weather, being unaware of the fact that all of the owners leave the navigation of the ship entirely to the discretion of the master. The only instructions given to him are that he shall consider the safety of the vessel to be his first consideration and that dispatch is secondary to the safety of lives and property entrusted to his care. He is the sole and absolute judge of weather conditions and the standing order of the owner is that he shall remain in port if, in his judgment, the weather conditions are stich as to jeopardize the lives and property entrusted to his care. It has been shown that no such condi- tion existed on Lake Huron on Sunday morning, Nov. 9. As soon as the dreadful result of the storm was realized, the Lake Carriers' Association through its Welfare Committee organized a beach patrol and did everything possible to recover bodies of lost sailors and to send them to relatives. Meanwhile death ben- efits were promptly paid and private subscriptions started for the relief of the bereaved families. As soon as it can be established that the sailors were actually aboard the ships, death benefits will be paid to the families, whether the bodies are recovered or not. The private fund raised will be distributed | in proportion to the actual need of the stricken families.