November 17, 2015
The Almirante Saboia was back in port the weekend before last. I did not see here enter port, but I suspected something was going on. I saw a few groups of young men wandering around Old San Juan. Their heads snapped around every time a nice looking woman walked by. Since this behavior is typical of sailors who’ve been at sea for too long, I figured some kind of ship was making a port call. I walked down to the port and found her docked at Pier 1.
You recall I wrote a little about this ship last year. See my post Two Warships in Port to refresh your memory. She is a landing ship, built to support amphibious operations. She was originally built for the Royal Navy, and saw duty in the Falklands.
I wonder what the purpose of a port call is. It is probably in some part ceremonial, with official welcomes and greetings. There are probably meetings with US Coast Guard and Navy officials, going over protocols of various sorts. I suspect the sailors look forward to a bit of shore leave.
Of course, the port call may have been unplanned. Tropical Storm Kate was brewing in the Atlantic, near the Bahamas, and perhaps the Almirante Saboia came into port to avoid the storm. Kate formed on Monday, November 9, near Cat Island in the Bahamas. That Kate formed so late in the season is unusual in an El Nino year. She is the eleventh named storm of the year, just below the average of twelve, but high for an El Nino year.
By the way, the Great Lakes steamer Edmund Fitzgerald sank forty years ago, on November 10, 1975, with all 29 of her crew. She sank during a strong mid-latitude storm that passed over Lake Superior near the Fitzgerald, subjecting her to winds of more than 50 knots. Pressure at the center of the storm was as low as 975 mbs. See the figure below, and recall that Hurricane Patricia’s central pressure was 879 mbs, indicating again just how powerful that storm was (see my post Joaquin, Patricia and Chapala – Oh My!).
Surface weather map valid for 6 am CDT Monday, November 10, 1975. Note the very strong low pressure over the western Great Lakes. This is the storm that generated ‘the gales of November’ that caused the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The storm’s central pressure soon fell to 975 millibars. Image credit: CIMSS Weather Blog from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
The Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was motivated to write his song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald because he thought the event was underreported. He was, in particular, disturbed by contemporary newspaper accounts that gave her name as the Edmond Fitzgerald. Lightfoot’s song was released in 1976 and reached number 2 in the US; the number one spot was defended by Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the Night. The event even made it into a Seinfeld episode – I’ll leave it to the TV buffs to figure out which one.
The Great Lake iron ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald. Image from adhemar-marine.blogspot.com.