There was a sinking just prior to the year 1972..or a few years before, that convinced the WHOLE dam class at the Marine Diesel engineering school to skip going out on the lakes.
I was one of them.
The Fitz broke her back on the caribou reef. That reef is at about 36 feet and the Fitz was fighting waves of substantial height...her draft loaded was about 27 feet if I remember right. She went right over and it hit bottom and split her hull. They started listing and it went down after three huge waves hit her.
The Fitz had a loose keel. They would drive plate in there and weld it in place to tighten it up. That thing should have been condemned.
Us old schoolers call the great lakes freighters, boats. Ships are the ones who ride the Oceans. The great lakes freighters have a round bows and more flat bottoms and wouldnt last long at all on the high seas. They are more like barges than anything. Matter of fact, they now have many older ones that they cut a “V” in the back and drive tugs up into that V to run them.
I should have went on the tow boats on the rivers. But like a stupid kid, I took to the woods. I’d be a rich man now days if I would have done that. If only I could go back in time.
If any of you have ever seen the big lake at it angriest, you’d know why these guys take their lives in their hands every time they go out.
The boats/ship references are argued about in the Navy too. My boat was the United States Ship submarine Ben Franklin, SSBN 640. It was always a boat to me. I was on shore duty when the Fitzgerald was lost. Sad deal.
You nailed it.
She “shoaled...”