The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was released as a 7-inch 45 rpm A-side single in August 1976, taken from Lightfoots album Summertime Dream released that July. The two ships were in radio contact. I myself and my classmates are without a doubt able to state that is not only a prime example of media misinformation. But the questions surrounding the cause of the wreck kept mounting and continue to do so. Although no findings concluded that the Fitz suffered grounding damage, the addition of depth finders on lake boats now gives officers information not previously required on their vessels. Marie, Ontario, only about 8090 miles SE. Because of a long fetch on Superior that night, the Fitzgerald and the Anderson were in an area of the lake where huge waves were indeed occurring. On this voyage,Fitzgeraldwas fully loaded with iron ore. An entire generation now has no active memory of November 10, 1975, but the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald continues to fascinate, mystify and preoccupy young and old. Just to late for the 29. [1], The island was privately held by a group of hunters and stocked with caribou in the late 1800s. Crafts They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point. The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light. Captain Jesse Cooper, (J.C.) of the S.S. Arthur M. Anderson watches the Fitzgerald round Caribou Island and comments that the Fitzgerald is much closer to Six Fathom Shoal than he would want to be. Another sonar survey was conducted November 22-25. The Headstones originally hailing from Kingston, Ont. Six-Fathom Shoal Updates During a taped conversation with his office, which was made a part of the record, the ANDERSON's master stated that the FITZGERALD "passed right over that 6-fathom spot." The. Another explanation offered from the many undamaged hatch clamps is that the clamps were never latched in the first place. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. Both theHomerandFitzgeraldwere the largest iron ore carriers built on the Great Lakes. Aware of a building November storm entering the Great Lakes from the great plains, Captain McSorley and Captain Cooper agreed to take the northerly course across Lake Superior, where they would be protected by highlands on the Canadian shore. The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald lies at the bottom of the southeastern portion of Lake Superior in 530 feet of water. Was a bad night. In addition, Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. However, the Lake Carriers Association vigorously disagreed with the Coast Guards suggestion that the lack of attention to properly closing the hatch covers by the crew was responsible for the disaster. Could these have contributed to the sudden disappearance of the ship? USS Indianapolis (CA-35)
Captain Cooper maintained that he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. There have been about half a dozen dives to the site since the shipwreck in 1975. For the boating safety class Tom treated us to footage of some of the many shipwrecks that he has dove over his own career which included a full unedited version of the Jacques Cousteau expedition. None, of course, were found and only floating debris gave clues that the Fitzgerald and its crew were lost. By that time the Anderson had reached the safety of Whitefish Bay to the relief of all aboard. in 1980, Jacques Cousteau's famous Calypso arrived for the first manned dive inside an underwater vessel to the site. "It was designed to haul a certain amount and they kept getting the Coast Guard to increase the load line." Quantity. If you think you can safely go back up to the area, I would request that you do so. Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. An unpopulated island at the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 km south of Michipicoten Island, named Caribou Island. She was under command of Canadian born and highly experienced ship master Captain Ernest M. McSorely. This theory was advanced by the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) after the U.S. Coast Guard report and seems to be the most popular among mariners and armchair wreck investigators. No sailors in life vests were found. Diving on the wreck has been completely banned by the Canadian goverment by all means including ROVs and manned submersibles as the wreck is entirely located within the territorial waters of the Canadian province of Ontario. The Coast Guard then initiated its search for the missing ship. By this point,McSorely was heard over the radio hollering at his crew to stay off the deck and remain inside the vessel. But the Arthur M. Anderson survived and the Fitzgerald did not. This theory was supported by a 1976 Canadian hydrographic survey, which disclosed that an unknown shoal ran a mile further east of Six Fathom Shoal than shown on the Canadian charts. With the load she was carrying as she was driven down would it not shift forward and drive the ship down at a rapid rate causing so much damage? Reporting to the Anderson, the Fitzs Captain Ernest McSorley revealed the list and had activated two large ballast tank pumps to control it. Kids & Family, Search Events Meantime, northwest winds built massive seas from the starboard quarter (right rear), washing powerful waves completely over the deck as the ship left the eastern lee of Caribou Island. Also, a larger, more powerful tug, the Katmai Bay, is now stationed at Sault Ste. The protective visor over the wheelhouse windows has been completely flattened down and there is a lot of similar damage throughout the superstructure of the bow, indicating theEdmund Fitzgeraldmet a very violent and catastrophic end. (Edmund Fitzgeraldin her early years as a coal firedsteel hulled steamship. Grew up learning about this. The retrofit was planned for November 12, 1975 upon completion of the1975 season. Todays captain, however, has much more accurate and immediate information than did those sailing in 1975, when the Fitzgerald was virtually blind and wallowing in huge seas and heavy winds on its way from Caribou Island to its final resting place. Your comment will appear after being approved. Cooper later said he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. You can listen to it here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LBkYjniTU. The comment that this industry stopped completely are false. What if the ship is rebuilt, with more safety features? This theory is the thought that the Fitzgerald hit the bottom near Caribou Island, ripping a hole in the ship. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Significantly, within a few minutes of passing the shoal, the Fitzs Captain Ernest McSorley reported a starboard list, missing vents and a fence rail down. Tom was also the hunting boating and orv safety instructor. These tunnel valleys were excavated by subglacial meltwater at the base of the Laurentide Ice Sheet along pre-existing fractures and joints that exist within the bedrock floor of Lake Superior. As Fred Stonehouse points out, nothing completely removes hazard from life at sea, for nature still enforces its whim and ships are still expected to brave adverse weather to deliver their cargoes. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls. While Northwestern Mutual owned both ships (which woud later prove ironic in theFitzgerald'scase), the freighters were leased out to dedicated shipping companies. These records are part of the Records of Bureau of the Census, Record Group (RG) 29. Furthermore, any chance of using the wreck itself as a means of understanding what happened is next to impossible as the Canadian government has banned all diving operations period to the wreck since the recovery of theFitzgerald'sbell in 1993. it is likely that the world may never know the true ending of theEdmund Fitzgerald. Has anyone ever calculated how much shorter the normal route across Superior would have been had the Fitzgerald not changed course? ZIP Code by Address. But we were talking to him about seven and he said that everything was going fine. Again, Captain Cooper of the Anderson provides fuel for this theory, as he relates in Marshalls Shipwrecks of Lake Superior that slightly before 7 p.m. we took two of the largest seas of the trip. It started as a shipwreck, followed by a newsmagazine story in the still-golden age of newsmagazines like Time, U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek. Despite many people accepting this as the most likely scenario for the sudden list and deck damage, the photographic evidence for such a grounding simply doesnt exist. 5. Burgner said a shipyard worker showed him evidence of old keel weld breaks during the 1972-73 winter lay-up that were brought to McSorley and dismissed. Some theories are nonsense relating to UFOs or a Great Lakes Bermuda Triangle in the area where the ship sank. At the time of the foundering, there was no requirement for depth-finding instruments on commercial vessels. By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar. Ten miles ahead, Captain McSorley learned from Captain Cedric Woodard, a U.S. pilot aboard the Swedish-flagged Avafors, that neither the light nor directional radio beacon at Whitefish Point were working. The Fateful Journey of The Edmund Fitzgerald - A Great Lakes Disaster Perhaps the most widely accepted of the several theories about the loss of the Fitzgerald is that the ship crossed Caribou Islands Six-Fathom Shoal, which nestles off the north end of the island with water as shallow as 26 feet. The search turned up no results for the first hour. Crafts Theorists have sized upon the permanent lay-up of the Fitzgerald sister ship, the Arthur Homer, in 1980 as indicative of structural deficiency both vessels. Whether spoken from a desire to maintain calm in his pilothouse or from his own false sense of security, his assessment was obviously quite wrong. The closest communities are Belden to the southwest, Twain to the southeast, Canyondam to the north, and Greenville to the east. It is rumored that the light house keepers poached caribou and beaver. What is your present position?, Were down here, about two miles off Parisienne Island right nowthe wind is northwest forty to forty-five miles here in the bay., Is it calming down at all, do you think?, In the bay it is, but I heard a couple of the salties talking up there, and they wish they hadnt gone out., Do you think there is any possibility and you couldahcome about and go back there and do any searching?, AhGod, I dont knowahthatthat sea out there is tremendously large. The last dive in 1993 indicated that zebra and cuaga muscles were begginning to grow on her metal superstructure and that rusting had gotten worse. The Anderson's captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory. One man lived to tell about what happened unlike the Fitz. Edmund Fitzgerald: Decades of Speculation, Fascination and Grieving Cooper believes that from that point on, McSorley knew he was sinking. Cooper later reported that he had seen the Fitzgerald get closer than she should have to Six Fathom Shoal, which is north of Caribou Island. Every expedition to the freighter has reported that there is no evidence of scraping, gouging or damage to the rudder or propeller, which should show on the overturned bottom of the stern. Caribou: Did You Know? - National Park Service 18335 N. Whitefish Point Road Photo by user "Greenmars" on Wikimedia Commons. Canadian flag on the bow, American flag at stern, the Edmund Fitzgerald was a frequent site on the Great Lakes during its almost two decades of service before it sank with the loss of all 29 crew members. In the more than 40 years since the ship went down, a cottage industry of shipwreck theorists have tried in vain to solve the sinking of the Fitzgerald, which rests in two pieces in 530 feet of water on the lake bottom 17 miles north of Whitefish Bay. Ships were first equipped with the Long Range Aid to Navigation (Loran-C), an electronic aid for pilots that had previously been widely used by oceanic navigators, but had not extended to the Great Lakes. [1] I read a report about a phenomena called the Three Sisters-rogue waves. Lost Ships in Canadian Waters Silver Coin Series Continues with S.S After reviewing testimony that Fitzgerald had passed near shoals north of Caribou Island, the USCG Marine Board examined the relevant navigational charts. Hinze, W.J., Allen, D.J., Fox, A.J., Sunwood, D., Woelk, T. and Green, A.G., 1992. Its as certain as anything can be that sooner or later there will be another ship lost on Lake Superior, says maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. Captain Cooper observed the Fitzgerald passing very close to the dangerous Six Fathom Shoal near Caribou Island on the east side of the lake at around 1520 on November 10. Already have an account? I have read recently that the shoal near the island doesn't exist but it was from a guy who favors the loose hold cover theory. The Edmund Fitzgerald started its tragic journey 47 years ago today Minor incidents included groundings and collisions between 1969 and 1974. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was also the first commercial early digital multi-track recording tracked on the prototype 3M 32-track digital recorder, a novel technology for the time. The LCA stated that the patented steel hatch covers had been in continuous use for more than 30 years and had proven to be effective hatch closures in all weather conditions throughout that period. The last radio communication between the Fitzgerald and the Anderson was at 7:10 pm. Coast Guard aircraft were on the scene by 10:55 p.m. Commercial vessels in the protective waters of Whitefish Bay were requested to form a search effort and several, including the Anderson, did venture out of shelter to search the storm-tossed seas for survivors. Caribou Island, Caribou Island | Ticket Price | Timings | Address: TripHobo This contact or a near miss would damage the hull and allow water to begin accumulating inside the affected ballast tanks. A body that was seen but not retrieved is not a recovered body. Because the ship had no depth sounding technology, the crew had no way of knowing that incoming water was pushing the ship lower in the water until the flooding exceeded the height of the iron ore in the holds. However, the Westlake, Ohio-based Lake Carriers Association, representing U.S.-flag vessel operators on the Great Lakes, responded in a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board in September 1977 disagreeing with the Coast Guards suggestion that the lack of attention to properly closing the hatch covers by the crew was responsible for the disaster. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. Lowell, who died in 2016, started out as a journalist in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, and had already covered politics, and civil rights events and disturbances, for the Detroit News, then Newsweek; including events like the 1967 Detroit Riot, the May 1970 Kent State shootings in Ohio, and the September 1971 Attica Prison riot, as well as covering organized crime, labour, and the auto industry, by the time the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in November 1975. "She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her," Woodward said. Weather conditions continued to deteriorate, Ley wrote. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). This is futher indicated by the stern which lies completely upside down beside the bow; all superstructure buried deep into the mud. It's still not completely agreed upon whether the Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface or underwater. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. The ship would bend and flex in sometimes un-natural means and the keel would at times be lifted over two inches above the bottom ofFitzgerald'shull during a violent storm. During that conversation, he stated that McSorley inadvertently left the microphone on when he said to someone in his pilothouse, Dont allow nobody on deck, also saying something about a vent that Woodard couldnt understand. A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. Add to Cart. Captain Dudley J. Paquette of the SS Wilfred Sykes sailed through the entire two-day storm, was part of the search effort and is a vocal adherent of the idea that the sunken ore carrier suffered stress damage at what he calls the hinge area where the greatest amount of flex is observed in a ships hull. Caribou is located on the North Fork Feather River, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south of Almanor. I hear they found the crewmen's bodies and than I heard they never did that this was a rumor. Cooper later said he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. But what caused the ship to take on water, enough to lose buoyancy and dive to the bottom so quickly, without a single cry for help, cannot be determined. The now unmanned lighthouse which is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard is located on a tiny adjacent island called Lighthouse Island a few hundred feet across and positioned 1 mile (1.6km) west of the southern tip of the island. In fact, the Fitzgerald -- known as a workhorse ship that set numerous cargo hauling records -- was allowed by 1975 to sit a touch over 3 feet deeper in the water when laden with cargo than originally intended when the ship was launched in 1958. They said, however, they were inclined to accept that the Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Cooper. Fullerton - Islands Restaurants In the fewest words possible, I say She never should have embarked on this cruise, but She had to. Yes, she almost certainly hit the shoals. As originally built,Edmund Fitzgeraldwas a coal burning steamship with a Westinghouse steam turbine driving a single four bladed propeller at her rear. It was considered a private hunting preserve through the early 1900s. [4] The Jacobsville Sandstone is the uppermost and youngest layer comprising about 8 kilometers (5.0mi) of sandstone and conglomerate that underlies Lake Superior and fills the upper part of the Lake Superior segment of the Midcontinent Rift. That finding was quickly challenged by the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) and by many seasoned sailors. Proven by: Large holes, Anderson's captain's concern for how close the Fitzgerald was to the shoal, inaccurate charts. Because all 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald went down with the ship -- which was there one minute and gone the next -- the best accounts that investigators could rely on were those of sailors in the vicinity of the ship during the storm, or who had contact with the Fitzgerald somehow in the weeks prior to her final voyage. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. There is a very good chance that this is what helped lead to her demise. Stationed at K.I. All rights reserved (About Us). Bernie Cooper. But the Coast Guard called Captain Cooper back at 9:00 pm: Anderson, this is Group Soo. Status of the Lake Superior Caribou - Northern Wilds Magazine Until 1959,Edmund Fitzgeraldheld the record for the longest ship on the Great Lakes. What sank the Edmund Fitzgerald? 6 theories on what caused the - mlive "We always had to go down and pump them out.". Having been a consultant and active member of the original Jacques Cousteau expedition in 1980 along with the raising of the bell 1994 expedition.