2005 GLFA Films

Storm Warriors: Heroes of the Shipwreck Coast

Category: Documentary Feature 57 min
Director: Scott Erlinder

In the 1870s the U.S. Government established the United States Life Saving Service as an official organization to help mariners in distress. Stations were established along the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the Great Lakes. Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast is a sixty mile stretch of land running approximately from Sault Ste. Marie in the east, to Munising, Michigan on the west. While most Life Saving Stations were placed near harbor entrances, the five stations of the Shipwreck Coast were remote and lonely outposts, 50 to 60 miles from any civilization. Between the 1850s and the 1930s this coast has claimed over 100 ships in its 60 miles. Compared to some of the sea coast's most infamous wreck sites, which were known for centuries, the Shipwreck Coast of Superior claimed more ships per year than almost any other portion of coastline in the United States. The men living at the remote stations along the coast (one was called the 'Alcatraz' of the Life Saving Service) battled Superiors notoriously cold waters and fickle weather to save stranded ships and sailors. Largely unheralded, as were many of the Life Savers who worked the Inland Seas, they saved thousands and yet are now but an obscure memory of America's past. Storm Warriors: Heroes of the Shipwreck Coast is a one hour documentary that attempts to tell some of their tales and also those of the people who lived with and sailed over these waters.

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