Killer Storm Poem by Lone Dog

Killer Storm



(The Great Storm of 1913)


Now gather around and I'll tell you a tale
'Bout a killer storm of a monstrous scale.
A storm the likes that ne'er was seen
By the Great Lakes captains of the merchant marine.

'Twas nineteen thirteen, November nine.
The weather for sailing, though gusty, was fine.
But the shifting winds and an eerie sky
Were ominous signs that a storm was nigh.
The weathermen plotted three air-pressure 'lows'
About to converge into one vicious blow;
A rare cataclysmic phenomenon
That was not foreseen at the break of dawn.

They raised the red storm flags, in warning, aloft,
But many a captain jokingly scoffed.
They had disregarded the flags before
Yet had safely plied from shore to shore.
So the ships awoke to their captains' shouts,
And the engines throbbed as they headed out.
But soon they witnessed the swelling seas
And saw the spray on the stanchions freeze.

The wind picked up in fitful gusts,
And the vessels balked and their captains cussed.
They ordered that hatches be battened down.
Then, after a lull, the wind switched 'round.
The three lows fused as one energy source
And shrieking with vengeance reached hurricane force!
Convulsing seas turned a frothy white
And massive waves lashed the trembling night.

Beards of ice hung from masts and rails
And pelting snow stabbed like driven nails.
Ships, heaving like corks in the maelstrom's might,
Were hounded by day and harassed by night.
Mountainous seas now crashed o'er their decks
And pounded the hulls into derelict wrecks.
This cyclonic wrath raged for thirty odd hours,
Raining havoc and death with insidious power.

In all, twelve ships slipped to watery graves,
With twenty-five more hurled ashore by the waves.
The angered lakes cruelly claimed, that day,
O'er two hundred corpses where'er they lay.
Yes, two hundred corpses! I tell you true.
O'er two hundred seamen that killer storm slew!
A storm the likes that ne'er was seen
By the Great Lakes captains of the merchant marine.

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