Posted on 11/10/2013 5:29:09 PM PST by LukeL
LAKE SUPERIOR- November 10th marks the day that the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior in 1975 with 29 souls on board.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox17online.com ...
Thanks for the ping; thread. The lore of Lake Superior in a hauntingly beautiful melody by Lightfoot. One of my mom’s (RIP) favorites as she was born and raised in the Keweenaw peninsula jutting out into Lake Superior.
Condolence to the families of all who have perished in the Great Lakes.
Man vs. nature BUMP!
OOPS! (thanks very much for posting, LukeL)
Yes, that was the impression I got from the documentary I watched. I was also surprised to see what a large ship it was. It’s really scary to think that can happen on a lake.
I was being punny. Ancient mariner
I’ve seen the Badger in Manitowoc. She’s still running but the enviro nazis have been trying to shut her down. Last coal burner on the Lakes.
Even though I now live on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay now, I have a copy of James Clary’s print of the Edmund Fitzgerald on my wall.
If you go to the maritime museum up in Duluth MN there are displays (photos etc) of some of the most notable wrecks/sinkings on the lakes. Oddly enough, almost all of them are in November. Apparently November is *not* a good time to be on the lakes.
You really had me with you until this post. Go, Bucks! :-)
What a photo!
My Dad fishing, not sure where it was taken(Blue Water area?)but remember getting a big kick out of watching the freighters go by.
I also remember the night the Fitzgerald went down. I was shoveling snow for a neighbor and heard about it on the news when I got home...was a pretty wicked storm for that early in the season.
At 3:30 that afternoon Capt McSorley reported that he had taken a sudden list, and that he had his pumps working at maximum capacity. Later he reported to Capt Cooper, who was trailing the Fitz in the Arthur Anderson, that the pumps were making no headway; the water was rushing in as fast as it cd be pumped back out. They certainly knew they were in trouble.
As to the sinking itself, however, it was obviously ‘sudden and catastrophic’ [to quote Cooper]; they didn’t even have time to pick up one of the ship’s many phones & issue a May Day alert. When you realize that wd have taken only a couple of seconds, you get a sense of just how fast the ship plunged, once the bow went under.
I was on active duty, studying radar in Great Lakes, Ill. I remember the storm well, lots of wind and snow.
I went on a 10 day camping trip to Isle Royale when I was about 12 or 13. A 4 hour trip from either Copper Harbor or Eagle Harbor. It was maybe a 40 foot boat but in 12 to 15 foot waves it was a slow go and very queasy. Water was very cold even in August. The open ocean has nothing on Superior.
I had a boss who used to sail around the Apostles a lot. He said that every year some poor slob would drown because he’d get his boat out to the middle of the lake, drop anchor, and jump in for a dip. If the shock of the 38-degree water didn’t kill him, the currents would.
It is not a lake to be trifled with.
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