Shipwreck expert Valerie Van Heest says Great Lakes tragedies span the centuries

By Susan Field

When severe winds whipped through Michigan last week, Valerie Van Heest had one thing on her mind: will another ship be lost in the Great Lakes?

Van Heest, an author, filmmaker and veteran shipwreck explorer thought of the gale-force winds that brought down the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior 35 years ago.

Last week’s low pressure system brought winds comparable to those that sank the iron ore freighter.

“Shipwrecks aren’t a thing of the past,” she said. “They can happen any time.”

Van Heest pointed out three modern vessels that were lost in the Great Lakes, the Fitzgerald, the Carl D. Bradley and the Daniel J. Morrell, all modern freighters that sunk in 1975, 1958 and 1966, respectively.

All three were state-of-the-art for their time, all were more than 600 feet long and all cracked in half on the surface during storms in November, Van Heest said.

Van Heest, a resident of Holland, was at Veterans Memorial Library Monday to give her accounts of Great Lakes shipwrecks, ranging from the famous to tragedies that happened more than 100 years ago.

While the sinking of the Fitzgerald is probably the most famous of Great Lakes shipwrecks, Van Heest is also an expert on lesser known, older sinkings.

In what Van Heest describes as the worst shipwreck in Great Lakes history, the Lady Elgin was lost in Lake Michigan off Chicago after being rammed by the schooner Augusta Sept. 8, 1860.

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