In a storm that struck Lake Huron on November 9, 1913, ten lake freighters were lost. Seven of them vanished, ranging from the 30-year-old, 82 m "Wexford" to the 168 m "James Carruthers", launched six months earlier at Collingwood. The bulk of the wreckage was cast up on the shore of Huron County, where recovery and identification of the crews' bodies were directed by a Lake Carriers' Association committee based at Goderich. The storm, which ravaged the Great Lakes region for three days, destroyed a total of 19 vessels and resulted in the stranding of 19 others, with a loss of 244 lives.