Lake Huron Doomsday Storm on the M/V Manitowoc

Northern Lake Huron in 60-70kt winds

[ChrisBeardsley]

Great example of big waves on a short period between trough and peaks. makes it easy to imagine how other boats may have 'folded' in the middle with bow and stern on peaks with the trough mid boat.

[stunes]

I've seen 50 Footers come in the hangar Bays of our aircraft carriers. These Great Lakes freighters do some flexing in the Great Lakes. Shorter more powerful waves rather than rolling. My hat is off to all the Great Lakes Sailors :-)

[TheWizardGamez]

Its insane how large the lakes really are.
If someone told me that this was the north sea, id have no reason not to belive them

[adriannegrillo]

So truly brutal the Lakes can be. I pray every day for the safety of the crew on board these beauties!

[MaximHawaii]

This is the single best video of large waves on the Great Lakes - incredible footage!

[wishinifishin]

Huron. My gem. The most underated of the great lakes. With the right conditions this lake can get as nasty as superior

[BerserkingHistoryinBuffalo]

They stack up more closely on the lakes, same size waves on ocean wld probably be rollers w a longer frequency, longer time/greater distance between crest & troughs....

[SteamCrane]

One of the best Great Lakes storm videos. Makes you think of the thousands of boats and sailors on the bottom of the lakes.

We see the River Class boats in Fairport frequently.

[ColetteMalette]

Just spent the most gorgeous week on Southern Lake Huron calm with the most beautiful sunset - What a difference!

[scottycrystalpugh]

Anthony that was crazy cool, cant believe you were on there to film it, awesome

[funnelvortex]

So what makes the Great Lakes so deadly?

Between 0:20 and 0:40 is your answer. Those are a short 20 seconds of pure chaos and would feel like an eternity if you were there. The waves on the lakes are not the massive 50-90 foot rollers of the open ocean, they are shorter but are more frequent and much more steep. There were about 2-3 cresting 25-35 footers under the ships’ hull during that short time frame, possibly all at once, putting concentrated stress on multiple points in the hull (newer lake ships are actually designed to flex midship to handle these conditions). Also there is no time to prepare for the next wave when riding down the other side of one like in the open ocean, instead you just smack right into the next wave. It doesn’t help that waves tend to come in all directions as they bounce off the shores and are typically harder to gauge the height of.

Also in the shallower parts of the lakes (like western Lake Erie) it can be even worse since one wrong move you’re smacking into a shoal or stuck in the shallows with the sawtooth waves bartering your hull.

I’ve seen people (mostly those familiar with the oceans) dismiss the lakes on the account of the lakes having shorter wave height, which is true, but ultimately the shorter wave height is a symptom of the exact reason the lakes are so dangerous. Sailors who have sailed on both have said while a storm in the ocean is like sailing over big mountains, a storm on the lakes is like sailing into the teeth of a running circular saw. It’s telling that when an ocean-going vessel (called “salties” on the lakes) enters the lakes an experienced pilot familiar with the lakes is required to be on board.

[joehebeler]

Dayyyym. Great footage. Just toured the Mackinac Icebreaker today. Fascinating job and lifestyle. Would love to be out there in a storm on a big ship and see what it's like....maybe. For like a minute or two.

[rottenroads]

while in the Ocean, waves are huge but spread far apart on the Great Lakes, the waves are just as high as their ocean counterparts, but more tightly packed together making them much more dangerous. The Constant pounding of waves was enough to doom many vessels on the lakes, and the sailors died in the cold fridged waters.

[oldsrocket]

I help load this boat several times a year in Fairport Ohio at the Morton Salt Mine. It usually takes around 16.5 to 17 thousand tons of rock salt.

[NeedDaDose]

Sometimes I forget that oceans aren’t the only ones with heavy storm waves.

[matiasgibbs]

You can definitely notice the shorter period between waves vs the period of waves in the ocean

[differenttigers]

Stoked to be starting my merchant training in Cape Breton this fall, I dream of being out in this

[Jake-skwm]

People don’t understand how dangerous these waters are during a storm. The ocean has bigger waves yes, but since the oceans are enormous the period between the waves are usually long, anywhere from 20-60 seconds during rough conditions.

In the first 20 seconds of this video, I saw 2 maybe 3 waves hit over the bow. That puts the period of each wave between 7-10 seconds. This short period can cause the ships to literally tear apart if they are not engineered to handle the waves.

[garethifan]

Love Canada and the great lakes..amazing bodies of (fresh) water, hard to believe that such big fresh water lakes exist in land.
Greetings from Wales, UK.

[danbasta]

Many people out there fail to recognize that when the Great Lakes begin to release all their furry, they are nothing at all to want to play around with or get caught up in. That's why these sailors who sail the Great Lakes deserve all the respect they can get for all that they do, as their jobs are extremely dangerous and are at any moment, they can loose their lives.