LUDINGTON, MI - The Armistice Day Storm of 1940 was a freak weather event that killed more than 150 people, including 64 sailors on Lake Michigan. Hurricane-force winds were whipping up 40-foot waves as part of the early winter storm on Nov. 11-12 that cut a wide swath of destruction from Kansas into Michigan.

And while many ships ran aground and others were damaged that day, only three freighters sank. All three met their end along the same stretch of Lake Michigan, in an arc from Little Sable Point south of Pentwater up to Big Sable Point north of Ludington.

The ships lost 85 years ago this week included :

The Novadoc , an English-built 252-foot steel freighter that had left Chicago hours before dawn and was bound for Ontario with a load of powdered coal. It carried 19 Canadian crew

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