Hus was aight. The Catholic church has been involved in some evil stuff over the centuries. Currently, its stance on immigration to western nations is horrendous and not tolerable.
bout halfway through The Gales of November by John Bacon n i love it. looooot of establishing chapters leading up to the sinking of the fitzgerald. crucial background info on why boating in the great lakes is a gamble in the first place (as you can see prevailing wind currents bring warm gulf moist air up to meet low pressure systems from canada which dumps massive storms in the region which drag all the way out the northeast)
it also goes into the white out of 1913 which wrecked the waldo n every other ship that went out that day
also mentioned were the sinking of the bradley and morrell, and the stupid ass competitiveness of great lakes shipping and the retardedness of the great lakes ship shapes (inefficient for the weather hostility over time, regardless of metal ductility. both the bradley ans morrell snapped in half. they make these freighters long like this though so they can go through the locks and up the rivers. safety is not considered much) as well as all the efforts undertaken to increase load capacity beyond safe levels and the lobbyists who fought for such shit.
in particular the fitz was retarded. i had already known she was built modular in 3 pieces and when walking from one end to another she would move too much, but i had forgot or memory holed that she was welded instead of riveted. welding is like surface level stitching two pieces of metal together...
the company had them do this because rivets would weigh the boat down more. so the company was excited that they could haul 100 more load tons of taconite in their paperclip-bending accident waiting to happen.
all this said i would still go ride one of these inefficient ass freighters on lake superior on a round trip
oooohhhh shit so, author interviewed a lot of ppl who worked with or met ppl on the fitz... great lakes shipping season usually ends in january but this trip was supposed to be the last one they were gonna dock her early.
then they did it! they mentioned the thing! the fitz's hatch clasp things weren't closing properly. VERY IMPORTANT PLOT POINT. taconite pellets are smelted into iron but for shipping to keep it dry so it doesn't rust it's mixed with bentonite clay...
bentonite clay, when exposed to water, holds it and swells.
you guys, guess what happens when the seas start splashing over the cargo holds that have busted clasps n aren't watertight anyore
you guys i think the book might end with the ship sinking
no "comprehensive" book on the fitz would be complete without mentioning gordon lightfoot
everybody knows the track. already liked my messy, catastrophic folk singer goat before the book but had no idea how much care he had taken. he used to boat around the great lakes and after the fitz he went yearly to the maritime museum for the anniversary of the sinking for the families n perform. when he played at the maritime church the pastor said smth like "hey, as you can see, this place isn't like it says in your lyrics, right?" n after that gordon changed the lyrics. after sub footage was released showing the main hatch wasn't like he sang it he changed the lyrics again. he wanted it accurate n respectful. he grew attached to some of the ppl. when a deckhand's mom (she had successfully fought to get the fitz declared a gravesite after some grifter asshole dove n got some logan paul sunken corpse footage n tried to make money off it) was near death n too ill to make it to the yearly fitzfest he asked her family where she was, n made time to call n casually chat with her before she passed.
gordon lightfoot was a fuckin' bro