04 September, 2006 - 02:14PM
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Gambling with late season Great Lakes weather, the Francisco Morazan left Chicago on November 27, 1960. The steel-hulled Liberian freighter was bound for Holland via the St. Lawrence Seaway, with a 940-ton cargo and a Captain, his pregnant wife, and a crew of 13.
By the next day, a 40-mph wind blew out of the northwest. The Morazan's decks were awash. After the ship passed the Point Betsie Light, fog and heavy snow closed in -- a zero visibility white-out. On rocks here at the southwest end of South Manitou Island the vessel ran aground. All aboard were saved.
--Informational Plaque on South Manitou Is. (NPS)
