The Glade 4.0

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

Gordon Lightfoot was probably the best thing to ever come out of Canada. Eat your heart out Joni Mitchell.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

My grandparents actually live on Whitefish Bay. The wreck isn't far from there. Hard to believe that the ship was sunk not far from there. The water seems so calm (yes, I've been there during the Gales of November)

I should add that my father worked on the Great Lakes ore freighters for 3 summers putting himself through college. He didn't serve on the Fitzgerald, but did on several of the others just 3 years before this happened.

Lake Superior is the most treacherous of the Great Lakes. It's actually more dangerous there in some storms than on the oceans. The reason is that Superior is just as deep as the ocean, so the amplitude (height) of the waves is just as big as the ocean. But it's not as wide as the ocean, so the frequency of the waves is faster, which makes the water much more violent to be on.

My Uncle was capt. of the engine room on a laker tanker years ago. He had an old 8mm movie of a storm on superior. It was unnerving to see ships that large tossed around like that.

Ore Freighters on the GL are generally considerably longer vs their draft/height compared to ocean going vessels. This means they tend to flex a bit with waves when traveling against/with wave action. Its reportedly very very unnerving to watch the vessel ripple with each headwave.

The searches all said they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.

Shel frequently asks "Why do you KNOW things like that?". People like you are the reason I have so much crap in my brain.

There are some pretty impressive videos on YouTube of what it's like to be on stormy waters. I didn't find any from Lake Superior in my searching around just now, but nevertheless they're worth a watch.



I get almost... I don't want to say seasick, but something similar when the angle of the camera is clearly way off from the tilting of the ship. Also, that clip in particular shows the height differences involved really well IMO. At times it looks like the bow is so far above where the water is just 50 yards ahead, and you get a certain feeling a dread because you know what's about to happen when the ship dips down on the back side of its current wave and hits the bottom of that dip ahead. The vertical change from 0:49-0:55 for example, though the aftermath isn't so bad in that case.

It really surprised me when I first came across videos like this... me and my sea-hating self. :p

I thought one of the reasons they suspect the E.F. might have sunk is that the difference between the crest and trough of the waves was so great, that it carried the aft of the 730 foot long ship too high, submerging the bow, striking bottom in the normally 530 foot deep water. The size of the waves could have been enough to cause the long ship to actually hit bottom, which would fit with how it fractured in two parts and sank instantly, without any warning.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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* Have always loved that song
* OMG, Walter Cronkite!
* Just found out Gordon is playing in Denver this Saturday night. Kinda wish I could go.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

My job here is done...

Gordon Lightfoot is from the tiny central Ontario town of Orillia.

I was born in Orillia.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I read that as ORLY-a.

Or, ORLY-eh.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge