Great Lakes Simulator News

The Classic Lake Freighters are here - the Cuyahoga, the Arthur M. Anderson, and the infamous Edmund Fitzgerald - and they're waiting for you.

Take a trip upbound or downbound through Lake Huron and Lake Superior and experience a journey like no other. Pass historic lighthouses and meet other legendary ships. Experience the Great Lakes like never before.

And what better way to get stoked about hitting the Lakes in a classic lake freighter than by first checking out the quintessential Great Lakes video documentary and a great part of the inspiration for Great Lakes Simulator, The Long Ships Passing, from 1959 by the Detroit Historical Society. Absolutely excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C80jtA2nUyA

Other updated game features include refinement of ship lighting, some scenery updates, refinement of AI traffic to present a slightly heavier traffic pattern for more ship spotting opportunities, and more.

And I'm proud to announce that it won't be long until the virtual ship launch event of the year.. the Paul R. Tregurtha is coming this Spring to Great Lakes Simulator. The Queen of the Lakes is coming, don't miss it!

Have a happy new year and happy sailing from Jason Dial and Digital Light! More updates coming soon!

A quick update to refine the AI traffic patterns a little and test a few other things. More updates coming soon. Happy sailing everybody.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –

GREAT LAKES SIMULATOR LAUNCH PRESS RELEASE

Jason Dial and Digital Light announced today that his new PC game Great Lakes Simulator has launched and is live and available for purchase on the Steam gaming network. Go for a quick boat ride on the lakes or immerse yourself in a 96 hour round trip from Port Huron to Duluth and back thru full 1-to-1 scale Lake Huron and Lake Superior.

Players can sail on oil tanker ships or modern ore carrier ships and Dial announced today that the first classic lake freighters coming very soon to the game will be the Arthur M. Anderson and the Cuyahoga.

Dial plans to update the game monthly with the hopes that one day all of the great ships that have plied the lakes will sail the lakes again in the game. That will include the Edmund Fitzgerald which will be available as a free download early next year.

“Ultimately, this simulator is about taking you out of whatever place you’re in right now and putting you on the bow of a ship on the Great Lakes, for ten minutes or a hundred hours, it can be whatever you want.” said Dial.

Great Lakes Simulator is available starting today on Steam with a 20 percent launch discount. You can find out more at GreatLakesSimulator.com or visit the Steam game page:

Great Lakes Simulator on Steam < Click here

Risky Business: Iron Boat, Iron Men on Youtube.... A really great video and part of the inspiration for Great Lakes Simulator.

Get ready to set out on the lakes yourself by riding along with Captain Pat Owens on the Benson Ford (now the Kaye E. Barker) as they make their way upbound through Lake Huron and the Soo Locks to Lake Superior. Then reenact their trip in Great Lakes Simulator in real or accelerated time on December 15th. Superb footage of the Great Lakes from 1989 transferred from VHS.......

Risky Business: Iron Boat, Iron Men on Youtube < Click here



Do you have any recommendations for other awesome Great Lakes videos that pay respect to the lakes and those that travel them? Let us know! I plan to post more things like this that have been inspiration for Great Lakes Simulator. Thanks for your support!

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November 10, 2021

Today we remember the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald and their families on this the anniversary of its sinking in a bad storm on the afternoon of November 10, 1975 near Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior. The story is widely known but for those that haven't heard it, it is one that shouldn't be forgotten:

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there. She was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces.

For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit rivers (between lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.

Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second taconite freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed.

Edmund Fitzgerald previously reported being in significant difficulty to Arthur M. Anderson: "I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in." However, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last (7:10 P.M.) message to Arthur M. Anderson was, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, experienced shoaling, or suffered from a combination of these.

The disaster is one of the best known in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and better inspection of vessels. -From wikipedia.org

Godspeed crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald.