I think there's a frisbee of mine out there, too...

October 28, 2003 9:31 AM

Shipwrecks of Lake Superior- Some are famous, others are obscure but amazing.
posted by COBRA! (13 comments total)

great stuff, COBRA! Thank you.
posted by stonerose at 9:40 AM on October 28, 2003

Outstanding post. It amazed me this summer, when staying in Duluth, that the lake stays about 40 degrees even during the hot stretches. I bet divers have to really pull out the serious dry suits when going to visit those sites.
posted by norm at 9:53 AM on October 28, 2003

This sent me off looking up stuff about The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.
posted by dnash at 10:58 AM on October 28, 2003

Norm -- I kayaked/camped this summer (August) on one of Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, at the top of Wisconsin, and was amazed to find that it was possible to swim comfortably in the water, no wetsuit required. (Unlike previous years) Certainly that would not be the case going down 30 feet or more, tho!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:04 AM on October 28, 2003

great, now i'm going to be humming "the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald" for the rest of the day.
posted by t r a c y at 11:07 AM on October 28, 2003

Here are some pics from the lighthouse built on the North Shore in response to the big storm that took the Madeira down. At the actual lighthouse itself, they have some amazing pictures of storm waves crashing against the cliff and actually spraying up over the top of the lighthouse; but for whatever reason, they didn't put any of them on the website.

And from what I've seen, Superior's fine for swimming if you're in a spot where a river or creek is dumping out into it, and fucking painful if you're not.
posted by COBRA! at 11:27 AM on October 28, 2003

This is an excellent book with tons of photos of the hundreds of wrecks in Lake Superior. Check it out if you can find it.
posted by bucko at 11:48 AM on October 28, 2003

Heh. Wow. I worked on The Rake's website when they were first launching a couple years ago. Kinda cool.
posted by nickmark at 12:22 PM on October 28, 2003

I live on the north shore of Superior, and I can attest that the water there is indeed extremely cold all year 'round. However, I swam in it all the time when vacationing in the Apostle islands and the water was downright warm. I don't know the hows and why's, but it's definitely true.
posted by bonheur at 1:17 PM on October 28, 2003

Chilling stories. Also, this short interview with "the only man to have survived a modern Great Lakes shipwreck" is interesting - evidently his lack of pants saved his life. Let that be a lesson to all of us, and, now: off with your pants!
posted by taz at 1:37 PM on October 28, 2003

My pants are off. Question is, do you like BBQ sauce?
posted by Khalad at 3:50 PM on October 28, 2003

I've been swimming in Lake Superior--coldest fucking water I've ever been in. I don't think we went to the Shipwreck Museum when we were up there, but I wish we had. I'm not likely to get back to the UP any time soon; it's a good 8 hours to the Soo from my grandmother's house in Traverse City. I come from a family of sailors, so this sort of thing hits a bit close for me, even though none of my family worked on ships like the Edmund Fitzgerald (being more Navy and small craft sailors).

What gets me is that they still don't know exactly why the ship sank.
posted by eilatan at 5:20 PM on October 28, 2003

Another great, if less famous, song about great lakes shipwrecks is "White Squall" by Stan Rogers.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:53 PM on October 28, 2003