By Matt Mackinder
Clarkston News Editor

INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Have the shipwrecks that have taken place in the Great Lakes ever interested you?
Then tonight’s, December 6, event, at the Clarkston Independence District Library, 6495 Clarkston Road, is for you.
Ric Mixter concludes his fall series on lighthouses and shipwrecks at 6:30 p.m. with “Deep Six: Titanics of the Great Lakes,” a free lecture open to the public.
This lecture is based on the author’s 1998 PBS documentary, featuring leviathans lost on the upper lakes:
The Cedarville: Lost in a collision in the Straits of Mackinac near the famous Mackinac Bridge, 10 men lost their lives due to a captain ordering full speed in pea-soup fog. Mixter shares rare television interviews with survivors and a German sailor who helped rescue the men from the freezing water.
The Daniel J Morrell: Ripped into two parts in a 1966 storm, the Morrell’s stern sailed for five miles after the bow sank. Only one man survived a two night ordeal on Lake Huron in Nov. 1966. Mixter includes comments from Dennis Hale and shows what the shipwreck looks like today.
The Carl Bradley: The largest ship lost on Lake Michigan was empty when it broke in a storm in 1958. Two men survived, and Mixter shares insight to the disaster and how the story has been perpetually incorrect over the years. Featuring exclusive comments from U.S. Steel President Chris Buekema, this lecture is unmatched in its scope of Lake Michigan’s largest shipwreck.
The James Reed: Lake Erie’s largest wreck, lost in a collision in the fog in the middle of the lake. The water is so shallow that one man climbed up the mast and never even got wet. Eyewitness interviews make this an exclusive look at a wreck few have talked about.
The James Carruthers: Canada’s largest freighter during the 1913 Storm was lost during a killer storm that took 250 lives and a dozen ships. It has yet to be discovered, one of three of the ships still missing from the “King of Storms.”
The Edmund Fitzgerald: The largest of Great Lakes shipwrecks, this ship reached legendary status after a top-40 song was written about its loss on Lake Superior in 1975. Mixter shares insight from his visit to the wreck in 1994.
Mixter recently appeared on the National Geographic Channel as the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society discovered a lost lumber fleet over the past summer. He was also on Detroit Public Television in November sharing his insight into the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
To register for the shipwrecks talk, visit https://tinyurl.com/3b65w8ne.