Remembering SS Edmund Fitzgerald with Mr. Lightfoot

It's November and inevitably we'll remember SS Edmund Fitzgerald again. It remains to be the victim of freaque waves, even though we can never verify it by any means. The sad story remains to be favorite pursuit of medias. Over the past year there was someone from Canada interested in making another program about Fitzgerald and contacted me about freaque waves speculations. I declined to respond since I don't think there's anything new to talk about. Here again 34 years later, we'll never forget the tragedy that happened. Thanks to Youtube, let's remember her with Mr. Lightfoot:



The lyrics of the song can found here. Here's the last stanza:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

A fabulous memorial page is given here at Echoes of History completes with the list of 29 crews that were lost on that voyage with Mr. Lightfoot read out all 29 names. Highly recommended!

Reading I

The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.

(1 Kgs 17:14)

Star fish tragedy

Here's something which is not meant to be funny, but it might be:

Local Scientists still remain baffled about how and why tens of thousands of star fish became washed up on Lissadell beach in Sligo yesterday.

Between 20-50,000 of the fully formed adult of the species measuring between 3-8 inches in diameter appeared on the strand.

No explanation has surfaced as yet but the Department of Environment, heritage and local Government believe that they were as a result of a storm or freak wave.

It was reported by Ocean FM of Ireland. We know freaque waves can swipe someone on the beach shore into the ocean. But swipe 20 to 50 thousands star fishes from the ocean to the beach by a freaque wave? Well, you learn something new each day!

By the way here are the poor star fishes from Belfast Telegraph:

Freaque waves can do all that?

Munscong Bay storm

This is an awesome happy-ending story that happens in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Freaque wave may have played a cameo role here. The story reported as a staff report in the Sault Ste. Marie Evening News:

Munuscong -

MUNUSCONG BAY — For three friends from downstate a quiet duck hunt on Munuscong Bay turned into a battle for their lives on Friday, October 30.
“It was a quiet hunt, with none of us even taking our safety off. However it was pleasurable nonetheless, just to be out on the bay in one of my favorite places,” said Alonzo Knowles of Traverse City of the hunting trip with his two friends, Simon Joseph of Lake Ann and Kyle Marshall of Elk Rapids, and his dog, “Maisey.”
At the beginning of their hunt the weather was warm but very windy — out of the south at 30-plus mph. On their journey from Barbeau to Sand Island, they experienced 2 to 3 foot waves, which Knowles said aren’t uncommon on the bay and their boat handled it well.
“But our trip back was entirely different,” Knowles said.
Immediately after rounding the north point of Sand Island, the hunters realized that the waves were larger and were coming across the bow instead of beside the boat.
“In the dark, it was hard to tell that the waves had grown quite as much as they had,” Knowles said. “When we took our first wave over the bow of our boat, it was already too late.”

Knowles continued, “Maybe it was a rogue wave, but whatever the case, two more waves followed it and within 30 seconds we were swamped and going down.”
After another 30 seconds they were capsized and the three friends and the dog were in the cold water.
“It was an extremely unnerving moment for all of us,” Knowles said. “After 20 years hunting Munuscong and 30 years of chasing ducks on the Great Lakes, dangerous possibilities are always in the back of your mind, but it is not something that you want to dwell on.”
Fortunately, Knowles cellular phone was kept dry when they capsized. He had get just enough cell signal to get off a 911 call on which he gave their coordinates. Then the phone was thoroughly soaked and dead.
“The next two hours were the longest of all our lives,” Knowles said. “In retrospect, I was fortunate to be with two other strong, calm minded individuals who stepped up and displayed nothing less than heroic efforts towards our group’s survival.
“At some point around an hour or so into our ordeal,” Knowles added, “my dog Maisey, slipped off the bottom of our boat, and that was the last we saw of her. I can’t quite explain how we were able to hold onto the bottom of that boat, which was submerged below the water somewhat. The waves were crashing over us constantly and in 46 degree water our arms and legs were becoming non-responsive and with our core temps coming down. We realized it was only a matter of time before hypothermia would take hold and completely disable us.”
After receiving the 911 call, emergency crews were dispatched from the Sault and surrounding areas. Rescue teams from the U.S. Coast Guard from Sector Sault, the Michigan DNR, Michigan State Police, the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department and the Traverse City Coast Guard base. Also, when private citizens heard the distress call on the scanner, they helped with the search and rescue.
“I’m not sure exactly how many people were involved,” Knowles said. “But each responder selflessly put his life on the line for us that night. They fought through 3-5 foot waves, 30-plus mph winds and periods of fog to save our lives. Without their efforts, I question whether we would be alive today.”
After two hours in the water, the hunters were rescued by MSP Trooper Dan Rambo, Chippewa County Sheriff’s Deputy Kip Moeggenborg and one other officer whose name Knowles did not get.
“Shaking uncontrollably from the onset of hypothermia on the bottom of our boat, much of the ride back to shore was a blur to me,” Knowles said. “We were greeted by an ambulance with warm blankets open arms and smiling faces.
“Never in my life have I been so humbled,” Knowles added. “Thanks to the efforts of all involved, a most successful outcome was achieved. Not only had we been rescued, I was also informed that the word had gone out that my 18-month-old, yellow lab was lost in the marsh.”
Rambo and Moeggenborg went out of their way to get the word out to the local community about Maisey.
Concerned Barbeau residents mobilized their efforts and spent countless hours walking the shoreline, wading the swamps, and searching the marsh by boat. On Sunday morning, after 36 hours in the marsh, Maisey and Knowles were reunited. They found her after driving down several miles of flooded two tracks off of 18 Mile Road.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!,” Knowles said. “Never could I have imagined an outcome like this. I can’t begin to express how thankful we all are for your combined efforts.”

It is a simple heart warming story. But we just can't help enjoy the happy-ending to a dreadful situation that stated by waves. Yes, it might have been a freaque one. But it does not matter one way or the other. Things can happen regardless what it was!

Oasis of the Seas

Here she is, the Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship according to this livescience report by their senior writer Jeanna Bryner. The ship "stands 20 stories high, is as long as four football fields, and can accommodate 5,400 guests at double occupancy". Specifically she is also "1,180 feet long and displaces 100,000 tons" of water and " can hold 225,282 gross registered tons". Furthermore, for stability the ship is made very wide at 217 feet, which is of course not able to go through the 105 feet wide Panama Canal.

Of particular interest to me is the following discussion in the article:

. . . rogue waves are always a concern. Rogue waves are rare but towering problems that can soar 100 feet and are known to sink large cargo ships. Scientists have only recently begun to figure out what's behind the once-mythical waves. A study in 2008 suggested that in rare circumstances, waves that would normally cancel each other out can combine to form tall monsters in quick fashion.

The Oasis is no low-riding cargo ship, however.

"If it was struck by one I would expect there to be some local damage at the point of impact — maybe some broken portholes or bent railings, but little else," Collette said. "All ships are designed to make the chance of large-scale structural collapse very remote."

Hope the Oasis of the Seas will never face with the freaque waves problem. The article consulted Matthew Collette, assistant professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan. This fine article is very informational as well as educational. A good reading from the always superb Live Science collections!

Update

USA Today reports on November 6, 2009:

Royal Caribbean's much-ballyhooed, record-size Oasis of the Seas has hit extreme weather this week as it makes it way across the Atlantic to its new home in Fort Lauderdale. Here, the captain of the vessel, William Wright, talks about encountering nearly hurricane force winds and seas over 40 feet high.

Here's the video:

All Saints Day Gospel

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.

(Mt 5:3-12)

The tale of Boon Island Light

Halloween is still two days away, Laura Dolce of Seacoast Online told two nice lighthouse stories in her article today. I especially like the second one she told, I think it's a bitter sweet love story:

Of Maine's lighthouse legends none are as eerie, perhaps, as the tale of Boon Island Light.

Six miles off the coast of York, the lighthouse can be found on a rocky island in the sea. According to William O. Thomson, the Kennebunk author of 26 books including "Stories and Legends Along the Maine Coast," the story begins sometime in the 1840s when a young lighthouse keeper, Luke Bright, brought his new wife, Katherine, to the island to live.

The couple was married only a short time, Thomson said, when December brought a howling nor'easter to the island. Despite the danger to himself, Luke Bright decided he needed to make his way from the house to the light tower to light the light so any ships out in the storm would be guided safely to shore.

"He tied a rope to his waist and went out in the storm," Thomson said. "He was trying to secure the bolt in the tower when he slipped into the ocean and drowned."

His widow, Katherine, dragged Luke's body back to the tower and sat with her dead husband.

"She held his hand," Thomson said. "And she kept the light going for five days, climbing 164 steps each time. Finally, the lantern went out because she had run out of fuel."

Once the people on land realized the light had gone out, a fisherman rowed out to the island to check on the Brights. They found Luke dead and Katherine beside him in the freezing cold tower.

"It was 10 below in the tower," Thomson said. "She died a short time later."

It wasn't, however, the last people heard from Katherine.

"Keepers on the island reported hearing a woman's voice," Thomson said. "It cries, 'Luke'."

On dark nights, keepers have also reported strange things.

"They hear a knock on the door," Thomson said. "When they go out, they see an apparition in the form of a woman. It floats away to the tower."

That isn't the only strange things that have happened in the tower, he said.

"Dogs and cats will not go in that tower," he said.

And several keepers have reported that when they were unable to get back to the island to light the light, someone's done it for them.

"It goes on all by itself," Thomson said. "Foghorns have gone off by themselves.

It's like someone's looking over the place."

I always fascinated by lighthouses. What can be more poetic? Recall this Wadsworth Longfellow's tribute to the lighthouses:

No one alone: from each projecting cape
And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge,
Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,
Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge.

Like the great giant Christopher it stands
Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave,
Wading far out among the rocks and sands,
The night o’er taken mariner to save.

And the great ships sail outward and return
Bending and bowing o’er the billowy swells,
And ever joyful, as they see it burn
They wave their silent welcome and farewells.

Or Robert Louis Stevenson's for the Light-Keeper:

The brilliant kernel of the night,
The flaming lightroom circles me:
I sit within a blaze of light

Held high above the dusky sea.
Far off the surf doth break and roar
Along bleak miles of moonlit shore,

Where through the tides the tumbling wave
Falls in an avalanche of foam
And drives its churned waters home
Up many an undercliff and cave.

As a matter of fact at my retirement my old Lab Director, Dr. Al, gave me a small replica of the Big Sable lighthouse of Luddington, Michigan in Lake Michigan. He certainly knows that I am a wave aficionado, he must have guessed correctly that I will be a lighthouse enthusiast also. I really cherish that thoughtful gift.

Thanks Al!


P.S.

While I am at it, I would like to also mention the the thoughtful card Al and Ruth gave me for my retirement, two years ago, with this verse:

As you retire:

Success lies not
in how well-known you are
but how well-respected.
It's measured by
the height of your aspirations,
the breath of your vision, and the depth of your convinctions.

It's something I'll treasure all my life!

Perilous nearshore freaque waves at beach

According to Indigo Guide, the resort of Salou is "located in the Spanish region of Catalonia on the Costa Dorada. This aptly named Costa (literally "the Gold Coast") extends from the north of Barcelona to south of Tarragona with seemingly endless stretches of clean, soft sandy beaches and crystal clear water. Salou is the undisputed capital of this coastline which is one of the Mediterranean's most popular playgrounds."

Here's a panoramic picture of Salou beach I found from InfoHub:

There is a news item in the Cambridge News this morning reporting an instance happened there recently illustrate the peril of beach going even in popular resort beach like Salou:

A FATHER has spoken of his relief that his son survived a freak drowning accident in Spain which claimed two lives.

Mark Smith, 25, was on holiday in the resort of Salou with pub chef Mark Porter, 29, who drowned while swimming late at night and being struck by freak waves that threw him on to rocks.

Bob Smith said: "My son said his feet were swept out from underneath him and he had taken in a lot of water, but he managed to get his head above the water. He could feel the current sucking him under, but saw the shoreline and managed to reach it."

Bob, an ambulance driver from Haverhill, said his son, now back home, was "hugely traumatised". "He did think that he was on his way to drowning, but he managed to cheat death."

Lewis Rice, 24, and Ian Farrant, 32, also from Haverhill, survived too. But Michelle Clydesdale, 24, who met the Haverhill group that night, Wednesday, October 21, died in the tragedy.

So it's another perilous nearshore freaque waves happened at the Salou beach. It has never been very clearly specified, but something to that effect happened. We call it the nearshore freaque waves, but no one can give a clear description of what exactly was happened. It was perilous nevertheless. Again some were lucky, some were not. In this case as Mark felt "his feet were swept out from underneath him" and that "the current sucking him under" indicate undoubtedly that other nearshore processes like undertoe and may be rip currents were also involved along with being thrown on to rocks by a freaque wave. Clearly perilous things do exist on any beaches, whether or not it's a popular resort. Yes, beach resorts are for holidays, but one just can not overlook the perils of beach going. Safety! safety! safety! No matter where ever you might be.

A rescue off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador

This case happened over the weekend off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada as this Metronews article reports:

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The owner of a fishing vessel that sank off Fogo Island, N.L., on the weekend blames the sinking on a rogue wave.

Alan Starkes of LaScie, N.L., was not on the Seafaring Legend at the time but says the four men who were had only about seven minutes from the time the wave hit to when the boat broke apart.

Maxwell Pittman, 53, of Elliston, N.L., could not get his survival suit on in time and lost his life in the incident.

Starkes says the vessel was carrying about 18,000 kilograms of shrimp, about half of its capacity.

He praised search and rescue officials for having a helicopeter on scene in about two hours.

Starkes says the skipper and the two crewmembers who did survive were very fortunate and must have had someone looking over them.

There's not much details about the freaque wave encountered as usual. But since there are three survivors, the case should be more than speculation. Especially the indication that they have only seven minutes for survival after encountered the freaque wave. Sadly we learned that the one that was lost was because he could not get his survival suit on in time.

The Canada's Air force site has this following picture

and detailed rescuing report by Jill St. Marseille:

103 Search and Rescue (SAR) Squadron from 9 Wing Gander was called to duty on October 23 when a satellite system picked up a distress beacon of a fishing vessel off the coast of Newfoundland.

Once on scene, approximately 65 miles (105 kilometres) north of Fogo Island or 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Gander, the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter crew could not locate the vessel, the Seafaring Legend, as it had already gone under, so the crew then searched for a life raft. Despite unfavourable at-sea conditions, they found two.

“The winds were approximately 35 knots (65 km/h) and we assessed the sea state to be the equivalent to a sea state seven, which in general terms means 15 to 20 foot (4.5 to 6 meter) swells,” said Major Steve Reid, Aircraft Commander on the mission.

These kinds of conditions cause particular grief for search and rescue crews when searching for a life raft is involved.

“The wind and the sea state is what made it the most challenging. A life raft in the water can be challenging even when it’s dead calm with no wind so the sea state definitely added to the difficulty of performing the mission,” said Sergeant Morgan Biderman, a 103 Sqn search and rescue technician (SAR Tech).

The first life raft held one member of the Seafaring Legend. He was successfully hoisted off the life raft and into the helicopter and once inside he alerted the crew that there was a second life raft with two occupants on board. It was found, along with two other survivors of the sunken vessel. The second hoist caused more problems than the first one but, thanks to a highly efficient and adaptable team, a new approach to the situation was taken.

“The second was very difficult to maintain a hover because of the speed that the life raft was moving,” said Sergeant Kent Gulliford, SAR Tech. “We had no frame of reference for the pilot up front so they were flying ’blind’. The crew opted to switch to a technique where the flight engineer had limited control of the aircraft; as opposed to telling the pilots where to fly he actually had limited control with a joystick to move the aircraft, called ‘hover trim control’.

“[During such a procedure], the altitude remains the same, but the flight engineer can move the aircraft forward and back, left to right. He was not only hoisting me down vertically, he was also moving the aircraft simultaneous toward the life raft. Hats off to him for taking that much on. It’s something that the flight engineers are able to do and it amazes that they’re able to do that time and time again.”

Three of the four men aboard the vessel were safely rescued. The body of the fourth man aboard the Seafaring Legend was recovered and returned to shore.

I find the picture and the rescue report very informative and educational. Thanks to the 103 SAR team members for a job well done!