Posted on 05/19/2006 9:12:53 PM PDT by ZGuy
Weather experts have "hindcasted" the storm that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior during the November 1975.
Hurricane-force gusts and waves coming from an unexpected angle likely contributed to the disaster immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in the song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," researchers say.
All 29 crewmembers died.
"During the late afternoon and early evening of Nov. 10, conditions deteriorated rapidly with winds in excess of 69 mph, hurricane-force gusts [over 74 mph] and waves more than 25 feet high," said Thomas Hultquist, science and operations officer at the NOAA National Weather Service forecast office in Negaunee, Mich.
The freighter, thought like the Titanic to be invincible, was heading south. Waves were traveling west-to-east, the new analysis shows. This could have created a hazardous rolling motion. The ship sank about 15 miles from Whitefish Bay.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes.
"While high winds on Lake Superior are not rare, it is unusual for the waves to get that high on the lake," said Schwab. "It's unlikely that Captain Ernest McSorley, the skipper of the Edmund Fitzgerald, had ever seen anything like that in his career."
The findings are detailed in the May issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Oh, thanks for additional links.
I love the first one.
We haven't posted back and forth since the death watch night and I've missed ya.
Welcome to FR.
"I can tell you, water always wins and Mother Nature wins. If it wants to take a ship down, its going to take a ship down."
Very cool.
Thanks.
What probably happened was that the waves -- driven by the winds out of the northwest -- were approaching the ships from the rear, and one of them was large enough to lift the ship out of the water and drop the bow down into the trough between two waves. This explains why the ship sank so fast. It was basically driven bow-first into a trough between two waves by the up-and-down action of the wave combined with the sudden (and enormous) shifting of weight toward the bow as the ship's cargo slid forward in the hold.
Better hurry up before all of them are taken,,,, lol.
I look forward to a lively dialog on this forum. I've spent over 20 years in service to this country, Coast Guard and Army, reserve and active duty.
I look forward to an honest, and honorable, dialong here.
thanks
That is one frightening lake.
Have you been to the museum?
You can have a dialogue AND a dialong. ;-)
I've driven the length of Lake Superior along the Trans-Canada Highway. That stretch of road between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay is one of the loneliest I've ever driven.
Thank you for your service!
We have at least one other Coastie and I am pinging him now.
and then, another part was when the cook said " Cook said, it's been nice to know ya "
I was surprised to learn that it was based on a sinking that had only happened within a year of the song having been written. I thought it was a song that was written about a wreck that had taken place many years before.
"The Society believes that the ship came very close to Caribou Island and Caribou Shoals which is 37 feet underwater. The draft of the Fitzgerald was 27 feet. "We know that captains have told us on the Great Lakes that they knew they were in 500 feet of water and felt like they hit the bottom because of wave action," said Quirin. "If you reverse that, it is very possible that McSorley, hoping and knowing that he may have been close to Caribou Island, actually hit bottom and convinced himself it was wave action. We think that is what happened," said Quirin. "We think that they actually did hit bottom at Caribou Shoals and he broke open the side of the hull. The ship was loaded. We think he hit bottom mainly because he told (Cooper) that he had a list. The only way he would have a list is if the ballast tank on one side was full of water, and he couldn't get it pumped out. He said his pumps were running and he wasn't making much headway. We also know that he had a vent broken," said Quirin."
You should check it out, pretty informative.
That's what I thought, too, Suzie. It seemed so haunting that it caused it to seem distant in time.
Ironically, that line contains one of a number of patently false bits of information in the song. The ship's official cook had come down with some kind of illness in Wisconsin just before it was scheduled to depart, so he was left behind. He's often called "the only survivor of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
That struck me funny - "even throwing in two extra Lake Eries" - as in, who would be capable of doing that? Paul Bunyan?
======================
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind
When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
================
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