A ship sailed into a terrible snowstorm. Would everyone make it home?
Learning Objective: Students will listen to and discuss new vocabulary terms from a nonfiction feature.
Shutterstock.com; BGSU
Captain Duddleson stood on his ship and looked out at the lake. It was a calm winter day about 100 years ago. The captain was about to set sail on Lake Superior, one of the biggest lakes in the world. Ships like his carried people and supplies across it. His ship was called the LC Waldo.
Captain Duddleson was not alone. For this trip, he had a crew of 22 men. There were also two passengers and a dog. None of them knew a huge snowstorm was coming.
Jim McMahon/Mapman®
The Storm Hits
The cold wind started a few hours into their journey. The waves grew bigger. Snow whipped through the wind. As the day turned to night, the storm only got worse.
It was like being in a hurricane of snow. Giant waves crashed onto the Waldo. They were as tall as buildings. In the freezing cold, each wave left a layer of ice on the ship. Tall parts of the ship began to break off. The captain feared his ship might sink. “We’re goners,” he said.
The Crash
Dominique Braud/Dembinsky Photo Associates/Alamy Stock Photo
Snowstorms on Lake Superior can make big waves!
Captain Duddleson told his crew to turn the ship around. But how? The snow was blinding. It was a total whiteout, and it was the middle of the night. No one could see a thing.
Then there was a great smashing sound. The whole ship shook. It had crashed into a giant rock in the water. It was stuck. Now icy water was pouring into the back of the ship.
Get the Bathtub!
David Gee/Alamy Stock Photo
The captain shouted, “Forward!” Everyone ran to the front of the ship. All the people and the dog huddled below deck. They were hidden from the storm, but they needed to warm up.
How could they make a fire without burning up the ship? One crew member had an idea. “Go get the captain’s bathtub!” he said. The crew tore out the bathtub and brought it back. They could build a fire in the tub!
Now they were warmer, but they were still trapped with no help in sight.
Waiting for Help
ilbusca/Digital Vision Vectors/Getty Images
The dog on the ship was a bulldog.
Days passed. The storm ended. The people on the ship were cold, hungry, and scared. Would anyone come to rescue them? They had no phones to call for help.
Finally, on the third day, they heard voices. They had been found! “Ahoy!” shouted a crew member.
A team of rescuers had arrived by boat. They had been trying to get to the Waldo for days. Captain Duddleson couldn’t believe it. Everyone on the Waldo was saved—even the dog.
The White Hurricane
iStockPhoto/Getty Images
Ships on Lake Superior are safer today.
That storm was the biggest blizzard in the history of Lake Superior. Ten ships had sunk or crashed during the storm. Newspapers called it “The White Hurricane.”
A lot changed after the blizzard. People changed the way they predicted the weather. Flags had to be raised before a big storm to warn ships. If the storm happened today, Captain Duddleson would have known it was coming.
After the famous storm, Captain Duddleson sailed across Lake Superior many times. But never again did he sail through a storm like the White Hurricane.
