Passed up at the Soo, Friday November 7th, at 11:00 A.M. There were south west storm warnings there when we went up, and one of the linemen on the dock stated they had been up for about half an hour. There were no storm warning notices in the canal office. We went up by Whitefish at about 2:30 and south west storm warnings were flying there. We went on our course to Manitou and I had just taken a two point bearing off of Standard Rock, when the wind began blowing a gale from the north. I pumped her up full of water, putting about 4 feet in her dark room and 14 feet in her peak, filled her after peak and 4 feet in her cargo-hold. I ran for about 23 hours north by east, the wind being north by east, head into it. It had been snowing heavy all this time, couldn’t see anything. Not knowing how far I had gotten, I turned around and ran back for 3 hours, and then turned her head into it again, north by east. It took us about ten minutes to get her turned around. I went that way until about three in the morning when the snow cleared up. When it cleared up I could see the Slate Islands, and estimate we were about 20 to 25 miles south of them. This was about 8:00 o’clock Sunday morning. The wind having moderated some, I then started on my way for Duluth. We had our whistle going continuously for 25 hours during the storm, and on account of the wind and snow I do not think I heard it once. She made good weather of it, in fact there were very few of the crew that lost any sleep at all. The sea ran very high and I estimate that the wind blew from 65 to 70 miles an hours. We did not break a window and the boat suffered no damage whatever.

OPINIONS FORMED BY CAPTAIN HUNT FROM HIS EXPERIENCE IN THIS STORM.

In Captain Hunt’s judgment, his boat has plenty of power. That he has all the crew he can use and is perfectly sea-worthy in every respect. He suggests however, that in order to properly hold down hatch cloths there should be a long strip or batten which runs from the crown of the hatch to the end under the butterfly, instead of short pieces of wood under each butterfly. In his opinion the hatch cloths under the short pieces of wood could easily get torn and loose. This continuous piece of batten makes the hatch more secure than the short pieces. He also suggests that the Soo store should keep a supply of wedges and battens and mallets so that every ship can always keep herself properly equipped to make her hatches perfectly secure and tight.

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This set of letters is from copies in the collection of the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society, Bay City, Michigan and was made available by Dave Swayze.