Horror and Heroics - Pentwater Michigan Multi-cache
Horror and Heroics - Pentwater Michigan
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Size: 
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The above coordinates will bring you to an easy to find first stage of this multi-stage cache.
The first stage will bring you to a historic marker that commemorates the lives taken during a day of tragedy in Pentwater’s history. The year the ‘Neptune’ (read both sides of historic marker) sank is the date you will need to find the second stage located at: 43 47.xxxN 086 25.xxxW For the North coordinate divide the date by 4 and add 9. For the West coordinate divide the date by 3 and subtract 11. The cache is located at the second stage. There wasn’t a good place to hide a cache at the first stage so I hid it in a historical place I thought you might find interesting - some say haunted! HORROR. On Armistice Day, November 11, 1940, a raging storm destroyed three ships and claimed the lives of fifty-nine seamen off the shores of Pentwater. The storm hit on a late Monday afternoon with winds of hurricane proportions. The winds struck suddenly from the southwest at about 2:30 P.M. and were accompanied by drenching rain, which later changed to snow. The winds reached peak velocities of 75 miles per hour, the highest in local maritime history – producing 20 foot waves. Telephone and power lines were down by the hundreds around Mason County. Several local firms had "gaping" holes where roofs once were. Trees were uprooted, small buildings were overturned, and brick walls were toppled. Very few places escaped without damage. Two freighters (William B. Davock and Anna C. Minch) sank with all hands lost, and a third, the Novadoc, ran aground with the loss of two crewmembers. Bodies washed ashore throughout the day. The "storm" was one of the worst storms in the recorded history of Lake Michigan. Many mysteries still surround this horrible storm. If you are interested in discovering where the Minch and Novadoc shipwrecks are (I couldn’t find the Davock’s coordniates) walk out to the end of the Pentwater pier and enter the following coordinates: Minch (bow) – 43 45.680N and 086 27.790W Minch (stern) - 43 45.600N and 086 27.870W Novadoc – 43 41.610N and 086 31.080W HEROICS. An amazing story of rescue, luck and courage took place during the Armistice Day storm. A single 33-foot fishing boat named the ‘Three Brothers II’, captained by Pentwater fisherman Clyde Cross and his two crewmen Gustave Fisher and Joe Fontane, managed to do what the entire Coast Guard fleet couldn't; rescue the stranded crew of the Novadoc. Captain Cross and his two crewmen were later recognized by the local community and the Canadian government for their bravery in rescuing seventeen sailors from the Novadoc. As one shipwreck survivor, fireman Howard Goldsmith put it many years later, “Coast Guards they wouldn’t, too rough for them. The Coast Guard, they wouldn’t come, but that little fishing boat come”.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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