Edmund Fitzgerald crew remembered at Whitefish Point Sunday

Whitefish Point, MI – The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society’s annual Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Ceremony was held at 7p.m. Sunday at Whitefish Point.

Forty-nine years ago, the Fitzgerald sank 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point on Nov. 10, 1975, in a severe storm.  As a part of the ceremony, the names of each crew member was read, with the Fitzgerald’s bell rung for each one.  The bell was rung one final time for all mariners lost at sea.

The entire crew of 29 men lost that night:

Michael Armagost

Frederick Beetcher

Thomas Bentsen

Edward Bindon

Thomas Borgeson

Oliver Champeau

Nolan Church

Ransom Cundy

Thomas Edwards

Russell Haskell

George Holl

Bruce Hudson

Allen Kalmon

Gordon MacLellan

Joseph Mazes

John McCarthy

Ernest McSorley

Eugene O’Brien

Karl Peckol

John Poviach

James Pratt

Robert Rafferty

Paul Riippa

John Simmons

William Spengler

Mark Thomas

Ralph Walton

David Weiss

Blaine Wilhelm

A few family members of the Fitzgerald crew, along with dignitaries, special guests and US Coast Guard members attended.  More than 2,000 people viewed the live feed on YouTube with many more on Facebook.

Mike Fornes, singer of the Gordon Lightfoot Tribute, provided the music including the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” song.  Fornes also read the invocation and benediction.

Executive Director of the GLSHS Bruce Lynn, provided opening remarks and introductions. Author, historian and researcher John U. Bacon, who is writing a new book about the Fitzgerald,  reflected on the work of those who workon the Great Lakes and those who died that fateful day on eastern Lake Superior.

Senior Chief Boatswains Mate, Kyle Rice, USCG Sector Northern Great Lakes, provided the “Call to Last Watch,” a reading of crewmember names, with the Fitzgerald’s bell rung for each. The bell sounded one final time for all mariners lost at sea.

For next year’s 50th anniversary, Lynn said a bigger event is in the making, with part of it open to the public during the day.

The ceremony can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/live/1Yg0pFLGIcQ

Jim Lehocky

Montreal Port Locks Out Dockworkers, Adding To Canada’s Supply-Chain Woes

November 10, 2024

By Curtis Heinzl

Nov 10, 2024,(Bloomberg) –Longshoring activity at the Port of Montreal is set to grind to a halt as an employers’ group locks out 1,200 union members.

The escalation of an ongoing labor dispute will disrupt Canada’s second-largest port, which typically handles nearly C$400 million ($288 million) of goods a day. It has been operating far below its container-handling capacity since dockworkers at two terminals walked off the job on Oct. 31. The union also held a full one-day strike in late October.

The Maritime Employers Association gave the Longshoremen’s Union a deadline of Sunday at 8 p.m. New York time to respond to an offer that included about a 20% pay raise over six years. The total average compensation of a longshore worker would rise to more than C$200,000 per year by the end of the contract, the employers’ group said.

But union members were nearly unanimous in rejecting that offer, according to a statement Sunday. The union has pointed out that in October, US dockworkers secured a 62% raise over six years.

“The Maritime Employers Association deplores the negative outcome of the vote held by the Montréal Longshoremen’s Union on the final and comprehensive offer tabled on Thursday, and has no choice but to declare a lockout as of 9 p.m. this evening,” the MEA said in a statement Sunday. The two sides have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31 of last year.

A few services, including a Viterra grain terminal, would continue operating, the port said last week. 

The Montreal Port Authority has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to put an end to the labor dispute. “I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table. But let’s face it, there are no negotiations,” Julie Gascon, the port authority’s chief executive officer, said Thursday.

On Canada’s west coast, a separate labor dispute is already disrupting an estimated C$800 million of activity per day. British Columbia dock employers locked out workers on Nov. 4 after a union posted notice of a strike action that would refuse overtime work.

Canadian Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon said Nov. 7 that the government supports negotiations, but said talks in both British Columbia and Montreal were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved.”

Rye seeds rescued from 146-year-old shipwreck could revive crop in Michigan

 

EAST LANSING, MI – A Michigan distilling company dedicated to agritourism and storytelling in its whiskey went to the depths of Lake Huron in the hopes of resurrecting an old rye variety.

Mammoth Distilling and Michigan State University are teaming up to bring back what’s now known as Bentley rye, according to an article from MSU Today.

Rescued from the 1878 shipwreck of the wooden schooner James R. Bentley – one of a few privately-owned shipwrecks in Michigan waters after the owner won a court case with the state – the rye rested in near-freezing water for 146 years, the report said. On Sept. 17, two divers went 160 feet to the bottom of Lake Huron and extracted seeds using a special tube. The seeds were put on ice and rushed to MSU where Eric Olson, an expert in wheat breeding and genetics, tried to get them to germinate.

They didn’t germinate. But that’s not the end of the story. “The seeds aren’t dead at all,” Olson told MSU Today.

Olson is now working to extract DNA from the seeds, which will allow him to compare them to modern rye varieties, determine its origin, sequence the chromosomes and transfer them into a modern rye variety, essentially reviving this historic rye, the report said.

The goal is to use the Bentley seeds to create a new variety of rye for distillers, something that could inspire a Michigan rye trail in the vein of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Chad Munger, owner of Mammoth Distilling, told MSU Today.

“The Michigan Rye Trail will be more than just visiting distilleries all over the state that are making Michigan rye whiskey,” Munger told MSU Today. “We want people to know where their grain came from – and that’s proudly grown in Michigan.”

MLive

View a video here: https://www.mlive.com/life/2024/11/rye-seeds-rescued-from-146-year-old-shipwreck-could-revive-crop-in-michigan.html?outputType=amp