Page 3 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - November 2013 Edition

The Great Lakes Triangle of North America North America’s Best Kept Secret, THE GREAT LAKES TRIANGLE There is a body of water where the cries of distress come more often than any other body of water per square mile in the world. It is not the Devil Sea off the coast of Japan. It is not the treacherous waters of Cape Horn nor the deadly calm of the Sargasso Sea. It is an area where the Buffalo and Cleveland. Piercing the sky over her speed to close the distance between her and search and rescue capabilities have no equal. It Toronto on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, the Anderson. A snow flurry obscured their is not the Bermuda Triangle, but another the CN Tower stands as the pinnacle of highly view briefly. The radar told the Anderson that Triangle formed by the Great Lakes locked in sophisticated communications technology. the Fitzgerald was less than nine miles ahead. the heart of industrial North America. There was a time not so long ago when When the flurry lifted, the Anderson could see Too often the crack search and rescue ir traffic controllers urge pilots flying the Great for twenty miles but there was no Fitzgerald. units of Canada and the United States come Lakes to report continuously to ground stations. The Edmund Fitzgerald had gone with a sudden back empty handed after responding to a call for A 10 second lapse will launch a full scale search convulsion to the bottom, with all hands. When help. Ships and planes have vanished for no and rescue. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the wreckage was found, all but one lifeboat apparent reason or have destroyed by forces that there is a high number of inexplicable incidents was securely fastened. no one can explain. of disaster. Gourley follows up on any clue, any The amazing part of that accident is that An extraordinary statistic has been spec of evidence that might shed some light for at least three hours the Fitzgerald was filling recently been disclosed. Fully one-third (1/3) of onto a mysterious tragedy. He has pursued high up with water. We know that now even though all unsolved sea and air disasters take place in government officials in Ottawa and Washington no one aboard the Fitzgerald knew it at the time. The Great Lakes Triangle. and interviews the men on the spot including What is really strange about this accident is that A man that has accumulated and OPP, RCMP, Coast Guard, Homeland Security no one did know that the Great Laker was assessed the data which has led him to designate as well as the respond members of search and taking on water. No one put on life jackets. No the Great Lakes as perhaps the most greatest rescue teams. He has spent days in marinas to one called out in distress. In fact, up until the disaster area in the world is Jay Gourley. discuss weather peculiarities with yachtsman very last minute before the Edmund Fitzgerald Gourley is not only an experienced author and and the sailors whose very lives depend on their went under the water, the First Mate of the journalist, he is also a highly qualified knowledge and their efforts on the Great Lakes. Fitzgerald was saying that everything was professional flight instructor. Information which has been fed into alright, that they were having no problem. Gourley has flown thousands of miles computers over the years is constantly being And what about the Kamloops and the throughout the Bermuda Triangle and he has analyzed in the hopes of finding some pattern, strange events of December 7, 1927? The been out of radio contact with anyone for as natural or supernatural to explain the mysterious Kamloops too had plotted a cautious course much as an hour at a time. He claims that it is and sudden disappearances. Searching for entering Lake Superior in Tandem with the much easier to understand how, in an expansive patterns, searching for correlations, searching freighter Quedoc. In the late afternoon the men ocean like the Atlantic, that someone can for clues, searching for explanations. Still of the Quedoc sighted rocks ahead and swerved disappear in the vastness of it. On the other searching. hard to starboard to avoid them. The Kamloops hand, while it takes a mere ten minutes to fly And finally, not dry data, but flesh and was following and could clearly see the over Lake Ontario, a pilot can see Canada on the blood. Eye witnesses who have survived to Quedoc’s action. The Kamloops sailed on wing tip and the United States on the other wing express their bewilderment. Such a man is despite warning blasts from the Quedocs great tip. No one is ever out of radio contact in The Robert Joy Jr of Michigan. A police officer, a steam whistle and she was never seen again. It Great Lakes Triangle. At any given time, pilot, and a professor of criminology. On April was presumed that she was gashed on the rocks whether on the lakes or above them, 23, 1973, Bob watched his father vanish. His of Ile Royale. There was no wreckage. There communication can be made with at least one father was flying a safe, amphibious aircraft, were no bodies. There was no evidence hundred different government employees in which was well equipped. Bob Joy was in whatsoever that the Kamloops or her crew had Canada or the United States. another aircraft a few hundred feet away. They ever existed. It is inconceivable that anyone can were over shallow Lake Erie. The water was not The strange history of the lakes has disappear in the Great Lakes Triangle – yet, it rough. There was no cry for help. No trace of brought researchers and investigators to the keeps happening. Bob’s father or the amphibious aircraft that he records and evidence of the Marine Museum on And disappear they do and under was flying was ever found. Toronto’s waterfront. The first commercial ship circumstances of great mystery. One hundred The disappearance of small aircraft are to sail the great Lakes, the Griffin disappeared kilometer an hour head winds that no one else hard enough to explain. The strange disaster of with all hands on her maiden voyage. Although feels. Dangers that come so suddenly, the victim the Great Laker boats are perhaps even more relics and parts of ships retrieved lead to the never even cries for help. In terms of sheer mystifying. These are ships that are built for the discovery and reasons for shipping disasters, magnitude of tragedy, it has been discovered Great Lakes. Never far from shore, these Great this is not always the case on the Great Lakes. that The Great Lakes Triangle surpasses the Lakers are massive and equipped with every Often evidence is contradictory. Other times Bermuda Triangle. conceivable safety, navigation and evidence is totally nonexistent. The Bermuda Triangle covers some communication device. There is for example, an exquisite ships 1,500,000 square miles, 16 times the size of the When the Edmund Fitzgerald was figure head which was found adrift but there is Great Lakes. These are not strange, remote launched, it was the biggest of the Great Lakers no record of any ship carrying that figure head. waters, or vast stretches of ocean. These are fleet. When she sailed from Duluth, Minnesota, completely enclosed fresh water pools... the on November 9, 1975, she too was sailing in North America’s Best Kept Secret, playground of Middle America. tandem with another laker, the Arthur M THE GREAT LAKES On the shores of the Great Lakes stand Anderson. They easily weathered a mild storm Continues on Page 4 the great American cities of Chicago, Detroit, but to be safe the Edmund Fitzgerald checked