November 7 — 10. Great Lakes Storm of 1913. An extratropical cyclone (blizzard with hurricane-force winds and thirty-five foot waves) called a "November gale".
More than 250 killed, nineteen boats destroyed, nineteen boats stranded. Not all of the boats were freighters. On the lakes, a ship which sails on the freshwater seas called a boat. Ocean-going ships can enter the lakes via the St Lawrence Seaway. Boats are larger than ships and cannot fit through the locks to get to the ocean.
A lesser but same type of storm sank the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975 .... ELIZABETH AND EDMUND FITZGERALD ONBOARD THE SS EDMUND FITZGERALD. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL.
.... and the E M Ford sank at her berth in the Port of Milwaukee on Christmas Eve 1979.
The Ford was refloated and towed to Manitowoc, Wisconsin shipyards for repair.
Christened SS Presque Isle on May 25, 1898. Rechristened E M Ford, 1956. Delivered to shipyard for dismantling, November 13, 2008.