Too Much Sea for Their Decks: Shipwrecks of Minnesota’s North Shore and Isle Royale

Historian Schumacher (The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald) recounts the shipwrecks and storms of Lake Superior in this animated and elegiac study. Much of the book centers around events near Minnesota’s North Shore (near Duluth) and Michigan’s Isle Royale, a waypoint on the journey across Lake Superior. Schumacher recounts stories of wrecks including the loss of the Kamloops, a freighter that disappeared during a storm in December 1927. At winter’s end, the crew’s bodies were discovered on an island, where they had died of exposure. He also describes several massive storms that affected the region, such as the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940, a ferocious November snowstorm. The surprise change in weather caught many unawares, making the blizzard particularly deadly. While highlighting wrecks and storms, Schumacher also recounts the history of Great Lakes shipping and the system of canals that connected trade across the Lakes from the Atlantic to the American heartland. In the early 1800s, the sails of schooners could be seen “punctuating the horizon,” but by the end of the century they were supplanted by wooden coal-powered freighters, and in the 20th century by steel steamers. Evocatively written and deeply knowledgeable, this is a must-read for Midwestern history buffs. (July)