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20 THE MARINE REVIEW March, 1914 Capt. James B. Watts, Steamer J. F. Durston I have been sailing 33 years and for the last 23 years have been master on steam vessels. Nov. 9 was the worst storm I was ever in during my sailing career. The steamer J. F. Durs- ton passed Lake Huron lightship Nov. 8, about 8:50 or 9 o'clock Saturday night, bound for Mil- waukee with a cargo of soft coal, with the wind N. W. fresh. About 2:30 Sunday morning we were off Harbor Beach, wind N. N. W. strong and quite a sea running. About 9:30 or 10 o'clock Sunday morning it was blowing a gale from the due north with a big sea running. The engineer was throttling the engine at this time on account of it racing. At noon Sunday it was blowing a hurricane from due north and it was freez- ing hard and snowing at this time. About 1:30 Sunday afternoon we were off Thunder Bay Island, un- der check and not making much headway. The sea was too heavy for me to try to make a lee at Thunder Bay, so I kept the Durs- ton head into it, steering due north, the sea increasing all the time and our decks and hatches coating up with ice. About 5 o'clock Sunday evening the storm doors to the observation room washed away and the shutters on the windows started to cave in. It was snowing heavy and freez- ing hard at this time. I had the engineer check her down to 55 tains pér minute. At 6 P:; M. it was not safe for a man to try to get from forward aft, or from aft forward, the sea coming over us from both sides. The sea would board us from about one-third from our forward cabins or about two-thirds from forward of our boiler house higher than a man's head and wash back and break over the top of the after cabins, Our coal bunker was filled up with coal above the spar deck, which helped to strengthen the cabins against the sea. I leave it to the coating of ice that we got on our hatches and around our forward cabins and windows that we lived through the storm as well as we did. I think there is not a hatch on one of our lake freight steam- ers that would stop 10 minutes in its place if they got in the trough of that sea Sunday night. I did some thinking that night and I have done some since. I believe all engineers on lake freight steamers should be taught to steer a steamer. My reason for this is that from 6 o'clock Sunday night until 4 o'clock Monday morning it was not safe for a man to try to get from forward aft. Not many captains have prob- ably stopped to think how easy it would be for the steering gear to be put out of commission for- ward. If the cabin windows and doors should get washed in: with a sea, all there is to bend: is a 1%4-in. shaft, or break a couple of i%4-in, pipes and you are at the mercy of the sea, until you can get your boat under control with your steering gear aft. That is when the engineer would come in handy as a wheelsman. The wind blew the hardest from 8 o'clock Sunday night until mid- night. After midnight it started to decrease. We had the wind all nicht trom North to N. N. #. At 8 oclock Sunday night we were off between Middle Island and False Presque Isle. The first thing we saw after Thunder Bay Island to know where we were was Spectacle Reef and we were steering west then, 8 o'clock Mon- day morning. We got abreast of it about 9 o'clock; the wind was N. W. then, but not as strong as on Sunday. We came to anchor at Mackinaw about 1 o'clock Mon- day afternoon, covered with about 1,000 tons of ice. It took about 40 hours to make the run from Lake Huron lightship to Macki- naw, the regular time being about 22 hours for the run. They can talk about life lines, sounding machines and patent logs; they are no good to a man in weather like Nov. 9. Ours were all out of commission with the ice. We didn't have much trouble to keep head into the storm and sea. In my experience with a steamer it is good policy to handle them much the same as a sailing vessel by checking them down in bad weather if you are head into it, or running before it; it gives them a chance to rise with the sea. After our lake steamers are load- ed deeper than two-thirds of their molded depth they are logy. Now I don't like to pass any remarks about the boats that were lost or how they were lost, but there is no doubt in my mind but that any of our side-tanked and water bottom-steamers full coal or grain laden that would get in the trough of the sea Sunday night for any length of time, would turn turtle. They would start listing more or less by the cargo shifting some. The water bottom i a pocket of air' and when 47 gets started it is bound to come on top. While ] think that hap- pened to some of them that were lost, I think some were lost by their hatches coming loose and they filled up and sank. I think all the boats that were lost were trying to get in the river when it shut in snowing and they couldn't see anything. Then they tried to get back head into the storm and couldn't make it. They got in the trough of the sea. Those that didn't turn turtle, their hatches were loosened and they filled up. I think there is too much de- pendence put on the weight of the hatch holding them down to their place on the coaming. I am, for my part, always afraid of them lifting up from the coaming and getting started from their place in that way. I think all cargo holds should have a vent to them to let the air escape when a steamer is folline, Capt, Dan McKay, of ene of the D. & €. passenger steamers in the Mackinac Line, told me that he saw the steamer C. L. Price turn around 12 noon Sunday 10 miles south of Harbor Beach heading back for the river. I would judge from that and from where she now lies that she turned turtle when she tried to come around when he didn't see the river light to keep on in. All I can say is that it was too bad that they all didn't keep running before it until they fetched up on the beach. They might have lost their berths, but there would have been more left to tell the tale.-