Film Details History of Unheralded, Heroic Marine Rescuers

Recounting the harrowing stories of unsung American courage, "Storm Warriors: Heroes of the Shipwreck Coast," a documentary directed and produced by DePaul University digital cinema professor Scott Erlinder, will air Thursday, April 28, at 8 p.m. on Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW, Channel 11.

The film details the history of rescuers from the United States Lifesaving Service, who were stationed along both coasts as well as in the Great Lakes in the 19th century. Specifically, the documentary focuses on those who were stationed along a remote 60-mile stretch of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior, nicknamed the "Shipwreck Coast" because of its frequent storms and dense fog, deceptively low shoreline and shifting sand bars. Between the 1850s and the 1930s, more than 100 ships wrecked along this coastline, but even as recently as 1975, the 700-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald wrecked there, killing 29 of the ship’s crew members. During this time, the Shipwreck Coast of Lake Superior claimed more ships per year than any other portion of coastline in the United States.

Largely unheralded, the Lifesavers stationed along the coast battled the lake’s frigid waters and the area’s treacherous weather and temperatures to save thousands of people, yet they are now a barely-mentioned memory of America’s past. The hour-long documentary tells their stories.

For more information or to order a copy of the documentary, visit www.stormwarriorsvideo.com.

With a total enrollment of 23,570 students on two city and five suburban campuses, DePaul is the eighth-largest private university in the United States and the largest Catholic university in the nation.