August 25, 2017 Friday
Up before sunrise, Rick checked a couple of weather reports and we made the decision to head north to Harbor Beach. Heading south, The Pride of Michigan pulled out just ahead of us with plans to do one last shipwreck dive before returning to home port. The seas were at one to two feet when we left the marina, however, by 9:00 we had large rolling seas that, although not dangerous, was a bit uncomfortable and we were happy to pull into the Harbor Beach Municipal Marina just after noon.
A paved walking trail runs for about a mile from the Harbor Beach Marina to the downtown parks with plaques all along the way sharing the history of the area. Several of the plaques addressed many of the shipwrecks on Lake Huron, which of course, was extremely attention-grabbing to us. “The Great Storm of 1913,” referred to as a “White Hurricane,” a storm on fresh water with winds of hurricane intensity, is known as the deadliest and most destructive storm to ever occur on the Great Lakes. The 1913 storm left in its wake 19 vessels lost, 19 vessels grounded, and an estimated 248 sailors killed, of course, no one will ever know the true number of those lost at sea during that storm.
Typically storms of this magnitude on the Great Lakes last four or five hours, the Great Storm of 1913 lasted for over three days, one can only imagine the havoc the storm caused. Lakeside communities in both Michigan and Ontario were paralyzed with several feet of snow, the high winds caused huge drifts, docks, homes, and boats along the shore were damaged or destroyed. As I write this, I cannot help wonder about the destruction that is being caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana.
The Friday Farmers Market is held in the park next to the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum. Frank Murphy, a member of the Supreme Court, was a strong defender of civil rights and wrote the dissenting vote in Korematsu vs. the United States. Murphy criticized the majority vote, in which the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, as “legalization of racism.”
