Black Friday Storm, 1916

Surface map from Saturday, October 21, 1916 with the track of 1916 Atlantic Hurricane 14 included.  The storm was impacted by the remnants of 1916 Atlantic Hurricane 14, which technically had ended its hurricane status the prior day.

The  James B. Colgate, Marshall F. Butters, D.L. Filer, and Merida sank in the tremendous storm on Lake Erie. The loss of life from these vessels was heavy.   Only the captain of the James B. Colgate, hauling coal, was rescued on the 22nd, after spending two days on a life raft that flipped twice, two other occupants having drowned as a result.

The Marshall F. Butters crew fared better, with all if its men surviving, some being rescued from a life boat by nearby ships and the captain and a crew member being rescued by another ship.  Interestingly that one poured "storm oil" on the water, a heavy oil which in fact operated to "calm troubled waters"  The ship was a wooden vessel and broke up.

The wooden coal hauler D. L. Filer had been two days in heavy seas and wind when it sank at the mouth of the Detroit River.  It's crew took refuge on two masts, but one broke and six out of the seven men on it drowned.  The seventh man swam to another mast where the captain had taken refuge, but as a rescue vessel approached the next day he slipped from mast and drowned.  Only the captain survived.

The Merida was a Canadian steamer that sank during the night.  Her entire crew of 23 men was found floating, dead, in the lake the following day.

Wednesday, March 15, 1911. .45 ACP Trials.

Final trials began to determine whether the John Browning designed Colt Special Army Model 1910 or the Elbert Searle designed Savage Model 1907 would become the first automatic pistol to be adopted by the U.S. Army.  Both were chambered in .45 ACP, a Colt designed cartridge.

The Colt Special Army Model 1910 is familiar to history as the M1911.  The Savage, less so.

The Colt would go on, of course, to be adopted and is the greatest military handgun of all time.  Still superior, in the minds of many (including the author), to any handgun that came after it.

As a minor note on that, I recently went through security in at a Wyoming court and the Sheriffs Deputy manning it was armed with a high end 1911. I asked him about it.  He'd been in the Army, and rejected all the 9mms that came after the M1911.

He's not the only one.

The Silver Spray was caught in a snowstorm on Lake Erie, foundered, and its fishing crew froze to death in the lake.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 14, 1911. Worries in El Paso.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, California, Canada (British Columbia), Japanese Antarctic Expedition, law, Maderistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Juarez), Progressive Era, Progressivism, Texas (El Paso)