Escapees July-August 2024

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Veranda in front of former Tampa Bay Hotel, now Plant Hall. PHOTO BY JOYCE SPACE #361818

There have been over 6,000 known shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located on White fi sh Point, also known as “the shipwreck coast” because of the large number of wrecks. It is slightly northwest of where Lake Superior narrows to spill into the falls of the Saint Mary’s River, which empties into Lake Huron. Consequently, there was a lot of congestion and collisions in that area after the Soo Locks were built in 1855, sparing ships the long portage from Huron to Superior. In 1871, after four ships were lost off White fi sh Point in one day, Congress created the US Life Saving Service. These men were posted to keep a constant watch on coastlines noted for frequent wrecks. They were trained in techniques to shoot cables to a wreck that was close to shore. The cables could then be used to pulley survivors off the ship in baskets. They also undertook to save lives by paddling out in surfboats, but this was far more risky and resulted in many deaths of the life savers themselves. Nevertheless, there was an 87% decrease in lives lost in wrecks on the patrolled coastlines. Eventually, in 1914, this service was merged with another marine service and became the Coast Guard. There have been no major wrecks on Lake Supe rior since 1975. This is in part because there are far fewer ships, since each now carries a far greater load, and also because technology, especially GPS, is so much better. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last to go down offWhite fi sh point in a tremendous storm, with 100 mph winds and huge waves. Another ship seven miles behind the Edmund Fitzgerald was hit by 35-foot waves, but survived. Some theorize that the Edmund Fitzgerald had a cracked hull already before those same 35-foot waves hit her and broke her in two. Her captain had reported that she was listing badly after on-shore spotters thought she might have hit a nearby shallow place in the lake, which could have caused the cracked hull. Her radar towers had been torn off by wind, so she had no functioning navigation in the storm, but was full of tons of iron ore. She went down suddenly with all 29 crew, and has been found in two pieces in over 500 feet of water. You may remember the Gordon Lightfoot song in the late seventies that memorial ized the tragedy. LindaScho fi eld, Guest Contributor

The Henry B. Plant Museum is on one end of what was once the Tampa Bay Hotel, built between 1888 and 1891 as a winter resort for the wealthy. Most of the 511 rooms and suites were the fi rst in Florida to have electric lighting and telephones. Today, the rest of the building, called “Plant Hall,” houses administration o ffi ces and student lounges for the University of Tampa. At its peak use, the hotel was a quarter-mile long and had 21 other build ings related to it. Designed with Islamic in fl uences, it’s towering minarets are still seen today. A n app downloaded to our phones gave us a self guided tour. Our fi rst stop was to watch a short video that introduced us to Henry B. Plant, his railroad empire and his building of the hotel. The hotel cost $2,500,000 to build and $500,000 for European furnishings. Plant never made a pro fi t from the hotel. The pro fi t came from the people who used his steamships and railroads to get to the hotel. ARe fl ection of the Opulence of Turn-of-the-Century America Henry B. Plant Museum Tampa, Florida 401 W. Kennedy Boulevard Tampa, FL 33606 313-982-6001, www.plantmuseum.com

Note: This is an excerpt from Linda’s book, titled “Discovering America by RV,” available on Amazon.

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ESCAPEES Magazine July/August 2024