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GALES OF NOVEMBER
TheStar.com | GTA | Reliving the White Hurricane of 1913
Reliving the White Hurricane of 1913
BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
Bodies washed ashore near Goderich, Ont., after the White Hurricane of Nov. 7-10, 1913. The body in the foreground was a sailor from a freighter, the Wexford. Email story
What happened to the Wexford?
The Wexford left Fort William on Thursday, Nov. 6, 1913, for Toronto. She sailed the length of Lake Superior, passed through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie and was last seen the morning of Nov. 9, northwest of Goderich, halfway down Lake Huron.
In August 2000, Donald Chalmers was trolling for salmon near Grand Bend, about 50 kilometres south of Goderich. His fish finder was reading a steady 23 metres (75 ft.) when it jumped to 20 metres (65 ft.) for some distance before falling back. Curious, Chalmers retraced his steps. The same thing happened, and he snagged his fishing gear on something.
The retired Ford employee was also a scuba diver, so he returned some weeks later with friends. They found the Wexford upright and beautifully preserved on the bottom. The Ontario government has since declared it a heritage site and surveyed and mapped the boat.
Photos of the wreck and her full history can be found at Ship Wreck Wexford.
Why we get gales in November
Sailors have always been afraid of November on the lakes because of the wild weather extremes.Late fall storms occur when warm air collides with cold, setting off a weather bomb
Nov 13, 2008 04:30 AM
Adam Mayers
Toronto Star
More than 60 years before the gales of November sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, a storm of far greater power swept across the Great Lakes, killing 250 people and sinking a dozen "unsinkable" ships.
So while Gordon Lightfoot's song made the 1976 saga of the "Fitz" famous, the storm and that wreck are merely a footnote in the annals of wild Great Lake weather. The monster of them all remains the White Hurricane of 1913, a storm that raged for four days in early November over a land mass the size of western Europe.
Wind gusts on lakes hit 144 km/h. Waves peaked at 10.5 metres.
The tragedy highlighted the inadequacies of weather forecasting. At the time, storm warnings consisted of flags at strategic points along the lake.
"What a four days they were," says White Hurricane author David Brown. "A dozen modern steamships were sunk, another score were battered into submission or cast ashore. Perhaps 250 or more sailors died in those hurricane-force winds; we don't really know."
In Toronto on Friday, Nov. 7, there was little hint of the trouble to come. It was an unusually warm and windy late fall day, although by then an Arctic blast was already licking at the western edges of Lake Superior. As that cold air flowed southeast through the weekend, it picked up moisture over Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron and became more powerful.
By Sunday, Toronto's rain was turning to sleet, but to the west, the cold air had created a November gale. When it collided with a warm front from south of the lakes, moving quickly north, it triggered a weather bomb.
"It was a classic late fall storm, the kind you get every 10 to 20 years," says Chris Scott, a meteorologist with the Weather Network. "You start with cold air, fuel it with warm air from the lakes and sometimes you get monstrous systems.
"Once you get 100 km/h winds blowing for nine to 10 hours, watch out. It's like you've wound up a top, and until it spins itself out there's nothing to move it."
In Toronto, the sleet became driving snow Sunday afternoon, bringing down trees and power lines, and slowing rail and road traffic to a halt. Lake freighters were strung out in a long line, making their last runs of the season. Fully laden and now coated with ice from the spray, they lay dangerously deep in the water. Unable to see, unable to communicate and not sure where they were, many had trouble climbing the steep waves, particularly on Lake Huron. Some broke in half, others rolled over and sank, dozens more were driven aground.
The townspeople of Goderich went to church on a clear, cold Sunday morning and emerged in a whiteout. Some told the Star they heard the wailing of a ship's siren that afternoon – later thought to be a 250-foot freighter the Wexford – but nothing could be seen.
Monday and Tuesday, bodies were washing ashore in Goderich, and Annie Gordon, a young woman who had recently moved to Toronto, asked the Star for any help it could give in finding out what had happened to her brother Orrin, 16, who was aboard the Wexford.
The Star learned the ship had left Fort William (now Thunder Bay) for Toronto on Thursday with 96,000 bushels of wheat. She had survived the first northerly gale and passed through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie on Saturday. Sunday morning, she was sighted north of Goderich. Then she vanished.
Orrin Gordon was not among the five sailors wearing cork life jackets with "Wexford" stencilled on them who were found on the beach between Goderich and Grand Bend. Nothing more of him is known.
(The Wexford was found by an angler in 2000 about 50 km south of Goderich, upright and preserved on the bottom of Lake Huron.)
The storm was followed by blue skies and mild temperatures. By the end of the week, the snow was gone and it was 10 degrees above normal for the rest of the month. Roses bloomed and trees budded.
Meteorologist Scott says that is a typical November pattern – bouts of cold air, followed by mild air until, by December, winter finally wins. He expects the rest of this month to be about normal. No gales, not too cold, too hot, not too windy.
But as he admits: "It's always tricky to forecast in November."
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The Great Storm of 1913
I served in the United States Coast Guard 1970 - 1974 on the Great Lakes in regards to search and, rescue. Major storms have always captured my interest. Having read about the history of storms on the Great Lakes. I did some research on my own and, came up with the following. The Hurricane of 1869, The White Hurricane of 1913, along with Hurricane Hazel around 1954-55. So if one were to average the three storms. The figures should come out to about a major storm once every 40 to 45 years. In real terms based on averages we are over due for a major storm. The 1975 storm only lasted for a about two to three days compared to a week with the one in 1913. I have been in a storm on a rescue boat only 40 feet in length and, bobbed like a cork in 15 to 18 ft. sea conditions. Yes the Great Lakes are "great" but, treat the lakes with respect.
Posted By A.J. at 3:30 PM Thursday, November 13 2008