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Of all the Great Lakes, Superior is the drama queen.
It's unpredictable and petulant, throwing tantrums that threaten to swallow any boat that ventures onto its waters. In 1975, it famously swallowed one that itself was called Queen of the Lakes.
Superior loves irony, it seems. The first recorded wreck, in 1816, was called the Invincible.
In November 1905, the people of Minnesota saw Lake Superior at its most malevolent.
As dozens of ships left Duluth-Superior Harbor in the calm after a violent storm, an even worse storm hit, with blinding snow and winds of more than 60 mph. The 4,840-ton steel steamer Mataafa turned back and, just as it was about to slip into the harbor entry, was lifted by a giant wave, upended and smashed into first one concrete pierhead, then the other. Another wave whirled the 430-foot boat around and grounded it 600 feet off the beach, where mountainous waves cleaved its stern from its bow.
Ten thousand Duluthians, many of whom had watched two other boats founder hours earlier, kept vigil by the light of bonfires as the storm blew. On the Mataafa, 15 crewmen kept warm by a fire built in the captain’s bathtub. They were rescued the next day, but nine were lost — including four men who had lashed themselves to masts and frozen.