Posted on 11/10/2025 12:43:45 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
The strait between Lake Michigan and Green Bay is called Porte des Morts for a reason - “Deaths Door”.
I’ve mentioned this before. My two older brothers are Andrea Doria survivors. They sailed with my grandmother in 1955 so they didn’t have to abandon ship. My grandmother took me in 1960 when I was four (on a different ship). I don’t remember anything about the buffet.
I’ll have you know, I am a survivor of Ella Fitsgerald’s rectum malfunction. I was a comely lad, a society boy.
I saw my old friend Mr. Creosote and sat for an after dinner mint, Ella showed up ... and all hell broke loose.
The unsung heroes were the crew members of at least two other ships — the Arthur M. Anderson and the William Clay Ford — who had reached the safety of Whitefish Bay that night but turned around and went back out into the teeth of that epic storm to look for survivors.
My wife and I visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point back in July 2013.
Very informative.
Interestingly, when we went inside, the weather was bright, sunny, and clear, and the lake was calm, with no noticeable waves. When we came out about 3 hours later, the wind had kicked up, the waves were running 6-8 feet, the sun had disappeared, and it was raining.
A real eye-opener.
Yes Witch of November or Bitch of November.
“…he knew it would be his last voyage—not because he had some dark premonition, but because he was set to retire. “
He had that in common with the Captain of the Titanic.
In November 1976, I was on a Great Lakes Freight and the gales of November were getting worse. We left Duluth heading for the Soo locks. The captain headed for a safe calm bay, we anchored and left the next day.
I have often wondered why the captain of the Fitzgerald, McSorley, left Duluth. He had 40 years experience on the Lakes-I wonder if hubris got in the way.
Yeh, I lost my apartment because of that stupid ship.
👍
Old age and known needed criticwl repairs not performed
Interesting animation...kind of goes along with one of the theories of Cap. Cooper of the Anderson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv4n-03mdXg
That was a pretty good video. It also shows that there was no time to launch the life boats or rafts and that the ship sank in 30 seconds or so.
With the water coming over the decks as shown in the video water could have come into the vents and flooded the cargo holds. Given that the ship was fully loaded with iron ore the cargo and the water could have sunk the ship quickly.
We were in Duluth 2 weeks ago and saw a 1,000 ft ore carrier pad through the canal where the Fitz left.
Pretty sobering thinking about it.
10,000 mariners have died on Superior.
Major safety improvements since 1975 have almost eliminated shipwrecks
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