20 years ago, October 30th, 1996, on the day before Halloween, a fierce windstorm blew a propellor-less American cruise ship, the Grampa Woo, straight off it's anchor and out of the shelter of Grand Portage harbour.  The captain and his first mate were trapped aboard.  They called for help and received a tow from a massive Laker ship heading toward Thunder Bay.  But as the Walter J. McCarthy made the turn toward our fair harbour, catatonic, hurricane-force winds snapped the tow line...

Thunder Bay tug Glenada was waiting at Turtle Island to take over the tow and rushed to the scene.  They managed to get a tow line to the Grampa Woo but it snapped also.  Finally, in the pitch darkness they tried a last, desperate maneuver to save the American sailors.  And at that moment a mysterious, temporary lull occurred in the waves.  Captain Gerry Dawson of Glenada later said to author Joan Skelton (Rescue from Grampa Woo) that "it just seemed to lay down enough..." 

Meanwhile the Coast Guard cutter Westfort was also standing by at the scene, coated in ice from the freezing spray, and rolling near 90 degrees from side to side in the 20 foot waves.  Captain Bob King yelled into the radio, "We're going over!"

This song and video is dedicated to the brave crews who risked their lives for others on that dark & stormy night in 1996.