Forty two years ago yesterday, the Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior Wisconsin loaded with 26 tons of iron ore – enough to build 75 thousand cars – on it’s way to Zug Island in Detroit. As infamously memorialized in song, it never arrived. Posted on 11/11/2017 6:17:12 AM PST by NOBO2012
Sailing directly into one of the Great Lakes most ferocious storms, she was no match for the lake’s fury which created sustained winds of hurricane force and 25 foot waves with troughs twice that. A mere 15 miles away from safe harbor it split in two and went down with its entire 29 member crew. Such are the fates. Such are the gales of November. Such is the force of nature. Map of the fateful voyage
Until then the worst storm documented on the Great Lakes was a 3 day blow from November 7-10, 1913, over a hundred years ago now, that claimed 19 ships and took 250 lives. I rerun this story every year not because it is such a heart-stopping saga but because it is a reminder that in the scheme of things we are really quite powerless. Man did not create climate change; Somebody else did that for us.
So raise a glass to the memory of the good men who served on the Edmund Fitzgerald that fateful day; to the men who sail into the storm not knowing what their fate might be, knowing full well they may not reach safe harbor.
A proper drink would be a Dark ‘n Stormy made with Gosling’s black rum and ginger beer although in the Great Lakes we use Vernors. But if, like our president you don’t imbibe, just enjoy a glass of Vernors - because “that’s what we drink around here.”
And what would a memorial to the Edmund Fitzgerald be without the sea chanty?
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
It has no break.
I have been a fan of Gordon Lightfoot since I was in my teens. I am now 63. I hadn't listened to my albums of his for a long time, then, a couple of years ago I decided to put them on the old turnstyle and I remembered why I loved his music so much.
In the olden days, he would have been called a "bard". You are right, he sings poetry.
I would call this, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", a ballad, which is a narrative story set to verse and music. Similar ballads would be previously popular ballads "Eleanor Rigby" (Beatles) and "Rocky Mountain High" (John Denver) and many others from the last century. I'd be hard pressed to find any ballads in today's music. I think that this is a real loss.
By the shining great sea water = by the shining big sea water
Fwiw.
Captain Cooper, who was skippering the Arthur Anderson, some miles behind the Fitzgerald, has done an excellent job of explaining what happened. When the wind first began to build, he and McSorley (captain of the Fitz) agreed to sail in the lee of the Canadian coast. This would shelter them until they had to cut across the last big swath of open lake to reach Whitefish Bay.
Cooper says he watched on radar as the Fitz passed Six Fathom Shoal, and remarked to his first mate that McSorley had gone closer than the Anderson was going to go.
Shortly afterward McSorley contacted Cooper and detailed the damage the Fitz had sustained. From memory it was a guardrail down, something punctured and the ship had acquired a list. Cooper asked if the pumps were going, and McSorley said, at maximum capacity.
To quote Cooper directly, “She was sinking from that time onward.”
Later both ships veered south and struck off across the open water. The Anderson’s First Mate contacted McSorley and asked how he was doing. McSorley said they were holding their own.
Shortly after that a snow squall blanketed the area. The Anderson lost visual contact with the Fitz. Then Cooper said they felt something like a massive fist slam into the ship’s stern. He and the mate turned to see a monster wave rolling up the Anderson. It crashed into the back of the pilot house and drove the Anderson’s bow into the sea.
The Anderson, being undamaged, came back up and steadied on her course. Cooper speculated that when the monster wave hit the Fitz, she was riding too low. Rather than coming back up, she submarined toward the lake floor.
This is consistent with the crash site. The bow of the Fitz has dug a massive trench. To have sufficient force, she’d have needed the screw to drive her foward, using the foreship like a plow.
This also explains why several hundred feet of the midship is missing. When the bow struck, the screw drove the stern section forward, pulverizing the midship. That took a lot of power, and all but proves the ship was intact when the bow struck the lake bottom.
Here is a link to Cooper summarizing his theory . He did a much longer version too, but it’s not on YouTube.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXY6tuZ5eU
I have a personal chicken coupe (egg laying - free range) that has 50-60’birds and load/unload a ton (40 bags) of feed in 20-30 minutes, Really. People don’t do physical work anymore. No way to relate.
Thanks for that.
I’ve read a decent bit on the investigation and such when I was working towards my 200 Ton license. Poor decisions are generally at the root of most sinkings. That and poor maintenance. Those two combined with bad conditions make a lot of reefs.
I stand corrected. Obviously the documentary I saw was wrong or they’ve learned more since it was made. Great informative post.
Tm, it was natural to assume the Fitz had broken in two. The last major disaster preceding the wreck of the Fitz was the sinking of the Daniel Morrel. She in fact buckled up and then snapped in two. (The ‘sole survivor, has given a harrowing acct of the entire ordeal. It’s on YouTube.) The idea that the Fitz had likewise snapped was uppermost on everyone’s mind in the aftermath.
EG, when I read your post, and the following line:
‘That size vessel should be able to handle 25’ seas.’
I was motivated to post. Your comment was prescient. All things being equal, the Fitz almost certainly would have made it through just as the Anderson did. It brings home the fact of to what degree the crew’s life depends on the captain in a crisis. As you said, man-made error is crucial.
During one of McSorley’s radio transmissions, he breaks off to yell at the crew to get off the deck. What level of desperation would drive a man or men out onto the deck in such a storm? The crew knew they were in trouble. It must have been a nightmare. [Evidently at least one crewman defied McSorley’s order. He was found (during one of the expeditions to the wreckage) outside the ship, tethered to the bow by a rope around his waist. Chilling.]
Indeed chilling.
I’ve been on decking in some extremely rough stuff. It’s all fine, until it’s not.
Seems like I remember it being said that the crew was sent out to batten down some hatches that we’re taking water.
I didn’t know they’d found ANY bodies.
You have my RESPECT. I’ve been out on the Atlantic on windy days. That’s the extent of it. (Though one of those occasions was on a sailing yacht, and others were vomiting freely, I can report. Still, not in the same ballpark as what you described.)
If the crew had been sent out to secure hatches McSorley wouldn’t have yelled so angrily for them to get back inside. Their going out was clearly their own idea.
Here’s the transmission:
Estimated between 5:30 and 6:00 PM
Radio transmission between the Avafors and the Fitzgerald.
Avafors: “Fitzgerald, this is the Avafors. I have the Whitefish light now but still am receiving no beacon. Over.”
Fitzgerald: “I’m very glad to hear it.”
Avafors: “The wind is really howling down here. What are the conditions where you are?”
Fitzgerald: (Undiscernable shouts heard by the Avafors.) “DON’T LET NOBODY ON DECK!”
Avafors: “What’s that, Fitzgerald? Unclear. Over.”
Fitzgerald: “I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.”
Avafors: “If I’m correct, you have two radars.”
Fitzgerald: “They’re both gone.”
http://www.ssedmundfitzgerald.org/fitz-timeline/
One body was spotted, photographed, and both the photos and a short video were released/published. Not much is said about it because it caused great distress to some of the family members of the deceased crew.
‘Shannon led a three-day, manned submarine expedition to the shipwreck in July 1994. There had been four previous visits to the ship using either miniature submarines or underwater robotic cameras.
But the Shannon team was the first to spot a body outside the ship on the lake bottom. Until then, all the missing crewmen were believed to have been entombed inside the wreckage.’
[I read elsewhere that the crewman had a rope around his midsection. I don’t have that link offhand.]
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/us/photos-in-book-on-shipwreck-upset-families-of-the-victims.html
It’s remarkable what some will endure to make a living. Commercial fishing is the hardest thing I’ve done. Physically and mentally crushing at times. Someone has to do it. For the most part none of them make a great living, and in fact many/most live hand to mouth. However, they do it because it’s there and needs doing.
I can imagine that commercial fishing for a living would be hard. For a whike, my father did commercial fishing on the weekend. They would leave on Friday evening and return on Sunday evening. This was in Fl. They mainly caught red snapper, grouper and trigger. The trigger was the best, imo. I’ve never tasted anything like a fresh fillet of trigger, breaded and fried.
I started in Central Florida. Ponce Inlet to be specific. Lots of grouper, snapper and triggerfish. Yes, tasty critters are those triggers.
I am a native Floridian but I know next to nothing about the Ponce area. Is it near the Intercoastal Waterway? (I’ve been to St. Augustine lots of times, if that’s helpful.)
I was born and raised in Jacksonville. My father’s boat was docked toward the mouth of the St. Johns River.
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