Wednesday, November 7, 2012
New Camera Installed
I have completed installing the new LaFarge camera. I still have some adjustments, but, the basics are up and running.
Camera Upgrade
Lafarge Camera Location
FYI, I will be replacing the camera located on top of the LaFarge Silos (fourth camera from left on homepage) this afternoon. Expect an outage of several hours. The new camera is state of the art and should give us an incredible view of the Aerial Lift Bridge and harbor for years to come.
November 7, 1913: The “White Hurricane” begins
This day in 1913 marks the start of one of the biggest storms sailors on the Great Lakes have ever experienced. The so-called “White Hurricane” (also called the “Big Blow” and the “Freshwater Fury”) was essentially a blizzard producing hurricane-force winds and technically considered an “extrapolated cyclone.” Between November 7 and 10 the storm produced 90 mph wind gusts, 35-foot waves, and whiteout snow squalls, beaching many large vessels. A lull in the storm on November 8 caused many to think the storm was over, and shipping traffic that had been delayed was resumed, sending more vessels out into what would soon become the teeth of the storm. Ports around the Great Lakes raised gale-warning flags, ignored by many ship captains. Cleveland was hit with 22 inches of snow. A brand-new $100,000 breakwater in Chicago was swept away. On Lake Superior, the Leafield was wrecked near Angus Island, taking 18 people down with it; theHenry B. Smith sunk near Marquette, Michigan, with 25 lives lost. Neither vessel has ever been found. Stranded on Lake Superior were the Fred G. Harwell, the J. T. Hutchinson, the Major, the William Nittingham, the Scottish Hero, the Turret Chief, the L. S. Waldo, and the passenger steamer Huronic (some newspapers mistakenly reported the Huronicas the Hamonic, its sistership). In all, nineteen ships were destroyed, nineteen other stranded, and 250 people died. Read Wikipedia's description of the storm here.
Contributed by: Tony Dierckins - Zenith City Press
Duluth Harbor Boat Traffic for Tuesday 11/6/2012
CGC Alder
American Century departed at 06:59Herbert C. Jackson arrived at 07:25
Alder departed at 13:30
Great Lakes Trader departed at 14:30
Alder (US) arrived at 16:45
Indiana Harbor arrived at 20:15
Federal St. Laurent departed at 20:30
Herbert C. Jackson departed at 21:00
Mesabi Miner arrived at 22:30
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Harbor History - 1874: The Wreck of the Lotta Bernard
1874: The Wreck of the Lotta Bernard
Lake Superior in 1874, the wooden sidewheelerLotta Bernard foundered in a storm and was stranded at Encampment Island—off the North Shore near Castle Danger, between Two Harbors and Gooseberry Falls—where she broke up. She had been en route from Thunder Bay (Port Arthur) to Duluth. when they encountered a storm that soon turned to a blizzard. Lifeboats were launched, but one capsized, and two crew members were lost. Another later died of exposure. Captain Michael Norris and eleven other crew members and passengers and crew survived. Ten of them found food and shelter in a camp of local Ojibwe. Besides the three human lives, a horse, 200 sacks of flour, and 60 kegs of fish were lost. TheLotta Bernard was just six years old. The 125-foot long, 190-ton vessel was built in Sandusky, Ohio, and used by J. D. Howard and Edmund Ingalls of Duluth to ship lumber and small freight around communities along the western Lake Superior shores. (Her official home port was Superior.) The Detroit Free Presssaid she “was altogether unfit for the traffic she was employed in. Her route was a rugged and dangerous one, and no means being available for the few that traveled that way without the right of government necessary in such cases, she was permitted to receive passage permission on every opportunity.” She had experienced trouble before: In the fall of 1872 the Lotta Bernard ran aground near Octonagon, Michigan, and was stranded there until the following April. On October 30, 1874, the day after she ran aground on Encampment Island, she sank to the bottom of Lake Superior. Her wreck has not been located.
Story is compliments of Zenith City Press
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