A Pocketful of History by Jim Noles

Author:Jim Noles [Noles, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780306815782
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2008-05-05T07:00:00+00:00

Keenan, his six comrades, and the Plymouth were never seen again.

The modern lake freighters scarcely fared better, particularly on Lake Huron. The John McGean, Isaac M. Scott, Argus, Hydrus, James Carruthers, Wexford, and Regina all floundered in the vicious teeth of the white hurricane. The first sign of their demise came as the fierce storm moved off into Canada. As the cities and towns along the Great Lakes began to dig out of their massive snowdrifts, the icy bodies of those ships’ crews began to wash stiffly ashore in the rough surf.

Even before the storm had fully receded, the waves offered up another sacrifice. Late in the afternoon of Monday, November 10, an unknown ship was spotted floating upside-down in the gray swells off Michigan’s eastern coast. For the next five days, newspapers ran headlines pondering the identity of the mystery wreck, even after it sank beneath the waves.

Finally, on November 15, a diver named Baker reached the sunken wreck and, braving the cold underwater gloom, felt his way along the raised letters that spelled the ship’s name on the bow. The front page of that day’s Port Huron Times-Herald extra edition read: “BOAT IS PRICE—DIVER IS BAKER—SECRET KNOWN.”

The wreck was indeed the Charles S. Price; all twenty-eight hands on board were lost, from Captain Black to the unfortunate assistant engineer who had signed on at the last minute to take Milton Smith’s place.

“I am indeed a fortunate man,” Smith told the Port Huron Times-Herald. “There is no doubt the Price is gone. It is awful to think of it.”

Smith’s part in the drama was not over. For the next several days, he took on the morbid task of visiting morgues and identifying the thawing bodies of his former shipmates.

The white hurricane’s legacy lasted long after the snowdrifts were plowed and the sailors’ bodies were buried. The demoralizing loss of so much tonnage on the Great Lakes—a major avenue of commerce for such staples as grain, coal, and iron—shadowed America’s economy for the remainder of the winter.

Michigan had a happier legacy in mind, however, when the U.S. Mint celebrated the launch of the state’s quarter on January 26, 2004.

“Everyone who sees our new Michigan quarter for the first time will get a fresh glimpse of our prized peninsulas and abundance of natural water,” Governor Jennifer M. Granholm said. “A quarter that begins its journey here today in Michigan could very well, months from now, wind up in the hands of a beachcomber in Southern California or a fisherman off the coast of Maine.”

“Most who look at the quarter will miss a lot of the symbolism that is implied in the design,” added Patrick Heller, who owns a Lansing, Michigan, coin dealership and who served on the governor’s commission. “The Great Lakes and the geography of Michigan are the main reason for the prosperity of the state in years past.”

“The other distinctive feature is that the state of Michigan is the one state that can be positively identified from space,” Heller added.

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