Nov 10: Mawson's Antarctic Journey and the Mississauga Miracle

Host 1 Welcome to this day in disasters shipwrecks and survival. On this day November 10th well our mission is to explore how historic tragedies and really incredible survival stories on this specific date forced massive safety overhauls that protect you today.

Host 2 Right and it's fascinating how those modern safety nets are well they're almost always woven right in the aftermath of a disaster.

Host 1 Exactly. So transitioning into the oldest main event or looking at an unforgiving natural storm on the Great Lakes

Host 2 Yeah the 1975 tragedy of the Edmund Fitzgerald I mean they were up against a fierce lake superior storm

Host 1 It's just wild the freighter was loaded with iron ore carrying 29 men and they encountered 50 knot winds and 25 foot waves

Host 2 and in the middle of all that Captain McSorley actually lost his radar

Host 1 oh man

Host 2 yeah he lost the vents the ship was taking on water and he had to rely entirely on a trailing ship the Arthur M Anderson just for guidance

Host 1 which is terrifying I mean navigating those 25 foot waves without radar it's basically like driving down a flooded chaotic highway completely blindfolded

Host 2 that is exactly what it's like but tragically at 7 10 PM just 17 miles from Whitefish Bay the Fitzgerald just vanished from radar

Host 1 and they eventually found the wreck in two pieces right

Host 2 yeah 530 feet down and there were no survivors

Host 1 the detail that is just well it's chilling is McSorley's final radio transmission to the Anderson he simply said we are holding our own

Host 2 yeah it's heartbreaking The exact cause is debated. I mean, it was likely water entering the hatches, but this tragedy is why we have mandated depth finders today.

Host 1 Right. And survival suits and those strict fall Coast Guard inspections.

Host 2 Exactly.

Host 1 But let's contrast that uncontrollable Lake Superior disaster with a man-made industrial crisis just four years later.

Host 2 Right. The 1979 Mississauga miracle in Ontario.

Host 1 Yeah. Which really showcases incredible human intervention. What exactly happened there?

Host 2 so an overheated wheel bearing what the industry calls a hot box derailed 24 cars of a Canadian Pacific freight train

Host 1 a hot box wow

Host 2 yeah and it caused these massive propane explosions they were visible 100 kilometers away plus there was a slow chlorine gas leak

Host 1 But then, brakeman Larry Krupa stepped up. He heroically uncoupled the cars to move them away from the heat, completely preventing a larger blast.

Host 2 Which rightly earned him a spot in the North America Railway Hall of Fame.

Host 1 Honestly, imagine moving a whole city's population overnight while dodging fireball explosions and invisible poison gas. How do you even begin to coordinate that?

Host 2 It was a massive effort. The evacuation numbers are, well, they're disputed, but we're looking at anywhere from 218,000 to over 240,000 people.

Host 1 Wow. And miraculously, no one died.

Host 2 Not a single person. I mean, it's incredible. and because of Justice Samuel Grange's federal inquiry into it Canada passed the 1980 transportation of dangerous goods act

Host 1 so again disaster shaping safety and briefly also on this day in 1847 the ship Stephen Whitney wrecked off Ireland killing 92 of 110 aboard

Host 3 right which actually prompted the creation of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse

Host 1 yeah exactly and in 1940 a Romanian earthquake toppled Bucharest's Carlton building where the death tolls are disputed but they're anywhere between several hundred and a thousand

Host 2 it really leaves you with a thought you know the invisible safety nets all around you the regulations governing trains in your town or life-saving gear on boats they were all written in response to history's darkest days

Host 1 thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow