Because the water is fresh, it comes in something like 7/6ths faster, meaning that a series of waves will take a vessel apart faster on the Lakes than on the oceans and seas (everything else being equal of course).
Years ago I saw a family from south of the border somewhere walk toward the waterline in Grand Haven, staring at the water out to the horizon, and the dad put his hand down, cupped up some, tasted it, and said, basically, it isn’t salty. Foreign visitors are sometimes amazed. It’s weird to think that I take it all for granted — doesn’t everyone have something like this within an easy drive of their homes? :’)
I’ve often enjoyed swimming in wave conditions which probably weren’t safe, but I *always always always* avoid swimming by the piers. Besides unseen crap below the surface that can hook you, knock you cold, etc, the currents are much, much worse. Natural undertow is nothing by comparison.
The Edmund Fitzgerald had been the largest vessel ever on the Lakes, and nothing surpassed it for decades, probably due to economic factors.