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Since 1814, The Great Lakes have taken 240 ships, over 6000 souls. The most famous wreck occurred 35 years ago tonight. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald went down in a very bad November storm, the Great Lakes claimed the Fitz’s 29 Crewmen. These Lake Freighters are oil fired and around 730 feet long and can carry about 26, 000 short tons of ore, they are not delicate ships. They are made for rough weather on the Lakes and hauling heavy loads. The Fitz was on one of the last runs of the year as the weather can get very bad on the Lakes in November. The weather forecast was for a normal November storm and called for a small craft warnings as the storm was predicted to move over eastern Lake Superior. The Fitz was on Lake Superior, followed by another Lake Freighter, the Arthur Anderson. The pair were traveling South to Detroit in what became a gale-force storm. The Fitz sank 17 miles short of their emergency destination, the relative safety of Whitefish Bay.
The storm that she sailed into was measured at 28.90″ Hg and dropping, 60-70mph steady winds/100mph gusts, and 30 foot waves. The wind produces rogue waves that can hit 50 feet or more. Capt McSorley stated that this was the worst storm he had ever seen, he had 44 years on the Lakes. The storm’s barometric pressure is one of the lowest non-hurricane readings ever recoded on the North American continent. This was an inland Cat 1 Hurricane. I have been in two of these “Witches of November”, thankfully on dry land. These types of storms rage across the Great Lakes in the late fall and early winter and have taken 5 ships and hundreds of lives since 1913. Please see this excellent meteorological description of events that uses Gordon Lightfoot’s lyrics from the song “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” as the narrative.
The theory of why the Fitz sank is that she was hit by what is referred to as the Three Sisters, groups of 3 massive rouge waves that broadsided the Fitz, and damaged some of the two-ton hatch covers allowing massive amounts of water to pour into the cargo hold as more and more waves smashed into her. The Fitz’s bilge pumps could not keep up and the added weight ether caused a structural failure, or she just ceased to be buoyant and went in nose first. Either way, she sank very rapidly because the life boats were not readied and no S.O.S was given by the Captain.
Here is a write-up from wiki taken from the NTSB reports:
Late in the afternoon of Monday, November 10, sustained winds of 50 knots were observed across eastern Lake Superior. Anderson was struck by a 75-knot (139 km/h; 86 mph) hurricane-force gust. At 3:30 pm, Captain McSorley radioed the Anderson to report that she was taking on water and had top-side damage including that the Fitzgerald was suffering a list, and had lost two vent covers and some railings.[9][13] Two of the Fitzgerald‘s six bilge pumps were running continuously to discharge shipped water.[5]
At about 3:50 pm, McSorley called the Anderson to report that his radar was not working and he asked the Anderson to keep them in sight while he checked his ship down so that the Anderson could close the gap between them. Fitzgerald was ahead of Anderson at the time, effectively blind; therefore, she slowed to come within 10 miles (16 km) range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship.[13] For a time the Anderson directed the Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. McSorley contacted the U.S. Coast Guard station in Grand Marais, Michigan after 4:00 pm and then hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to inquire if the Whitefish Point light and navigational radio beacon were operational. Captain Cedric Woodard of the Avafors answered that both the light and radio direction beacon were out at that moment. Around 5:30 pm, Woodward called the Fitzgerald again to report that the Whitefish point light was back on but not the radio beacon. When McSorley replied to the Avafors, he commented, “We’re in a big sea. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”[9][13]
The last communication from the doomed ship came at approximately 7:10 pm, when Anderson notified Fitzgerald of an upbound ship and asked how it was doing. McSorley reported, “We are holding our own.” A few minutes later, it apparently sank; no distress signal was received. Ten minutes later Anderson could neither raise Fitzgerald by radio, nor detect it on radar. At 8:32 pm, Anderson was finally able to convince the U. S. Coast Guard that the Fitzgerald had gone missing.[11] Up until that time, the Coast Guard was looking for a 16 foot outboard lost in the area. The United States Coast Guard finally took Captain Cooper of the Anderson seriously shortly after 8:30 pm. The Coast Guard then asked the Anderson to turn around and look for survivors.
35 Years ago tonight the Edmund Fitzgerald went under in a horrible storm, 29 men died, 29 families lost someone very special to them.The Fitz is in 530 feet of water, broken in two with the midship in several pieces, the discolored iron ore pellets from her hold are strewn about the lake bed.
So, here is a toast to the Crew and to the other 6000 that have died sailing the Great Lakes. Rest in Peace.
A montage of clips and actual radio transmissions with Gordon Lightfoot singing The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald:
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BLOGMOCRACY UPDATE:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, USMC!
Tags: History, Open Thead
