FAQs. Gordon Lightfoot liked this theory, posited by the National Transportation Safety Board a year after the Coast Guard issued its report. She was under command of Canadian born and highly experienced ship master Captain Ernest M. McSorely. "She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her," Woodward said. Edmund Fitzgerald: Decades of Speculation, Fascination and Grieving In 2006, a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration study recreated the storm in a computer and discovered that the Fitzgerald and its floating companion, the Arthur M. Anderson, inadvertently steamed into the heart of the storm by taking the northern route across Lake Superior to avoid what they thought would be treacherous waves along the established, more direct southern route. Captain Cooper maintained that he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. 906-635-1742 | 800-635-1742, GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM At the time of the foundering, there was no requirement for depth-finding instruments on commercial vessels. The last radio communication between the Fitzgerald and the Anderson was at 7:10 pm. 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. What is known is that 29 men lost their lives in the cold waters of Lake Superior and that their families continue to mourn in private amid the celebrity of the shipwreck. Almost none of the bodies including that of Captain McSorley were ever found. 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. Affirmative. The first one flooded our boat deck. eCFR :: 33 CFR 151.66 -- Operating requirements: Discharge of garbage Fullerton Islands Restaurant Fullerton. Near-hurricane force winds seemed to pick up strength throughout the day while visibility was greatly reduced. It was also revealed that a fence railing on theFitzgerald's deckhad been broken and a number of vent covers were missing. This week, Minnesota tugboat captain Bob Hom, who sailed with McSorley before the man became captain of the Fitzgerald, claims McSorley once told him five years before the sinking he'd hate to be on the Fitzgerald in a big storm because 'They got it all worn out from years of overloading,'" Hom told the Duluth News-Tribune. Sault Ste Marie, MI 49783 [1], The island was privately held by a group of hunters and stocked with caribou in the late 1800s. Had she sailed two days later, empty, for repairs (very good timing, actually) none of this would have happened. "He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water," Ley wrote. It's a national disgrace. Another sonar survey was conducted November 22-25. Some of the most famous lyrics in Canadian music history, anchored to what would soon become the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes, first appeared as the lede of the bylined story Great Lakes: The Cruelest Month by James R. (Jim) Gaines, national affairs writer, and Jon Lowell for a Nov. 24, 1975 Detroit-based story in Newsweek magazine. Since one theory is that the ship was damaged by grounding, within two years of the wreck all commercial vessels of 1,600 or more gross tons were required to have equipment that would warn the officers of shallow water beneath the hull. It is rumored that the light house keepers poached caribou and beaver. No reply from the Coast Guard. Right in the middle of this economic meltdown, and not just in the Great Lakes region, the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost. Captain McSorley told Woodard that the ship has a bad list, implying that it had gotten worse since his earlier report to Captain Cooper. Captains challenge high waves with he bow, not the stern. You can also follow me on Twitter at:https://twitter.com/jwbarker22, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee never gives up her dead, Great American Dreams: A Portrait of the Way We Are, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LBkYjniTU, https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/the-fateful-journey/?fbclid=IwAR33M-6_G0X15ab73z4KkAIM3owr3GaVpRsHdaE5n_OIbSP3PzX7_FTMIGo, http://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/edmund-fitzgerald-40-years-later/. WHITEFISH POINT Because of the Great Depression, the island was not restocked and the island was more or less abandoned by the approximately 15 owners-in-common. Below is a breakdown of the main theories: Faulty hatch covers caused massive internal flooding. There was no answer. The wave worked its way along the deck, crashing on the back of the pilothouse, driving the bow of the Anderson down into the sea. They are the last of their kind exposed to the human development and predation on the mainland. LAKE SUPERIOR -- Nobody really knows what caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink, but that sure hasnt stopped people from trying to solve the mystery. Since then, there have been about a half dozen dives to the wreck using deep-diving equipment. 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. But we were talking to him about seven and he said that everything was going fine. A half hour later I heard the news. There have been about half a dozen dives to the site since the shipwreck in 1975. Their only hope was the safety of White Fish Bay, where maybe they could be rescued off or near the ship. SS Edmund Fitzgerald - Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core The shoal in fact may have been mis-mapped as it appeared to jut out a mile further than official maps showed, and the Fitzgerald may have hit it in this one-mile stretch. The Anderson was struck by large waves which then travelled in the direction of the Edmond Fitzgerald. In 2000, author Hugh Bishop pushed the "Three Sisters" theory about a trio of rogue waves that overwhelmed the Fitzgerald in quick succession. Her owners wanted her to maximize revenue, but "The Lake it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy." The Lake Carriers Association disagreed, proposing that the Six Fathom Shoal was the Fitzgerald's undoing. Marie. I wouldnt be surprised if a hatch cover came off, because I loaded right beside him in Superior on November 9 and the deck crew was still putting on hatch covers when they left the Superior Entry into Lake Superior, Captain Paquette says. 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. All rights reserved. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Numerous authors have written books on the tragedy. 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. Still remember it after all this time.. Quantity. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat. The second large sea put green water (the powerful center of a wave) on our bridge deck! 5. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); A Great Lakes Information Network partner, 2020 Lake Superior Publishing LLC. With the ship pounding and rolling badly, the crew of the Anderson discovered the Fitzgeralds two lifeboats and other debris but no sign of survivors. The Lake Carriers Association was inclined to accept that Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Captain Cooper. 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. On April 15, 1977 the U.S. Coast Guard released its official report on Subject: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, official number 277437, sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with loss of life. While the Coast Guard said the cause of the sinking could not be conclusively determined, it maintained that the most probable cause of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the loss of buoyancy and stability resulting from massive flooding of the cargo hold. 109 W. Superior St. #200 Duluth, MN 55802 218-722-5002 edit@LakeSuperior.com. 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). "6 wolves on Lake Superior island saved from starvation by Canadian-U.S. team | Globalnews.ca", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caribou_Island_(near_Michipicoten_Island)&oldid=1136093001, This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 18:26. Caribou Island, Caribou Island | Ticket Price | Timings | Address: TripHobo [1] Conjecture by proponents of the Six Fathom Shoal theory concluded that Fitzgerald ' s downed fence rail reported by McSorley could occur only if the ship "hogged" during shoaling, . If the ship had "hogged" upon striking the. Later, in a videotaped conversation with GLSHS, Captain Cooper said that he always believed McSorley knew something serious had happened to Fitzgerald as the ship passed over Caribou Shoal. The ships were nearing Whitefish Bay. The shoal is a hump of Keweenawan basaltic lava flows with ophitic interiors and amygdaloidal tops in an otherwise deep part of the lake, and though fishermen had known of its existence for generations it was only officially charted in 1929 by the United States Lake Survey. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647 ha . The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light. 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 LCA thinks the Fitzgerald grounded on the poorly-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island, causing fatal damage to the hull. What was eventually found only included destroyed remains of the ships two lifeboats, life preservers and items from the ship's galleys. TheEdmund Fitzgeraldwas a "Laker" type iron ore bulk freighter launched on June 7, 1958 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rogue, Michigan for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company one year after its near sister shipArthur B. Homer. Ill give it a try., Do you realize what the conditions are out there?. The search turned up no results for the first hour. The first official report on the wreck sparked a flood of second-guessing. What caused Edmund Fitzgerald to sink? Cannon, W.F., Green, A.G., Hutchinson, D.R., Lee, M., Milkereit, B., Behrendt, J.C., Halls, H.C., Green, J.C., Dickas, A.B., Morey, G.B. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. Have you checked down?, Fitzgerald, we are about 10 miles behind you, and gaining about 1 1/2 miles per hour. After 10:00 PM, Cooper and his crew noticed large and small pieces of floating wreckage from theFitzgeraldwhich didn't make the situation any better.By the morning of November 11, the Coast Guard had managed to arrive at the scene to assist in the search and rescue operation. This is futher indicated by the stern which lies completely upside down beside the bow; all superstructure buried deep into the mud. Capt. Departing Superior about 2:30 pm, she was soon joined by the Arthur M. Anderson, which had departed Two Harbors, Minnesota under Captain Bernie Cooper. "I've often wondered whether these two particular seas might have been the ones that finally did the Fitzgerald in, because they were really huge," he said. Either of these explanations fails to address the fact that the ship had a list, which would not be likely if water were invading the large central cargo hold, but would be if water were leaking into ballast tanks or a tunnel along the side of the hold. 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. Grounded on Six Fathom Shoal. By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems? asked Clark. 2. Contacts were strong enough to bring in the U.S. Navys CURV III controlled underwater recovery vehicle, operating from Woodrush. The steel and iron plates still sat on the dock two years later. Paradise, MI 49768 Instead they consist of bedrock ridges and interfluves that lie between northerly trending bedrock valleys, which are known as tunnel valleys. 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 26,116 long tons more than the great iron boat weighed empty. Gaines, who began is career at the Saturday Review, the storied American weekly magazine that had started out as The Saturday Review of Literature in 1924, is now a Paris-based writer, would go onto become the first editor in chief of People magazine, as well as the editor of Time magazine, and also to serve as regional editor for the Americas, and then global editor-at-large for Reuters. Morgan Clark, first mate of the Anderson, kept watching the Fitzgerald on the radar set to calculate her distance from some other vessels near Whitefish Point. It is not known ifFitzgeraldhad struck bottom on the shoal or another nearby outcropping, but upon passing Caribou Island, the problems started. As the wise man once said, you can't outlaw stupidity nor legislate morality. 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. (TheEdmund Fitzgeraldseen in her final years riding far lower in the water than she should have ever been allowed to. Marie at 7:39 p.m., continued to try to raise radio contact with the big ship. At about 5:20 pm the crest of a wave smashed the Andersons starboard lifeboat, making it unusable. EDMUND FITZGERALD WRECK 10 Newly Gleaned Details and its Disappearance 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. If the ship had "hogged" upon striking the shoal, it could have caused the topside damage reported by Fitzgerald captain Ernest McSorley in the hours before the sinking. Both ships crews could feel the effects.Around 3:00 in the afternoon, both ships had passed Caribou Island, Ontario, home of the notorious Six Fathom Shoal, a sharpy rocky outcropping more than capable of tearing into the hull of a deep draft vessel in stormy weather. 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. By this point,McSorely was heard over the radio hollering at his crew to stay off the deck and remain inside the vessel. Of course, the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) blamed grounding on the not-well-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island. There's even a work of Fiction, SCP-1174, titled, and I quote, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The laker, the pride of the American side, was still bigger than most, and had been the largest freighter to sail the Great Lakes when it was launched in 1958. In the Duluth News-Tribune, another former crew member, Jim Woodard, claims the Fitzgerald was a "wet" ship. Only one other vessel, the William Clay Ford, was able to leave the safety of Whitefish Bay to join in the search at the time. Cooper radioed theFitzgerald at 7:10 PMuknown to him that it would be the final communication with McSorley. A shallow reef 2.5 miles (4.0km) to the southwest of Caribou Island Lighthouse lies only 11 feet (3.4m) below the lake's surface. Sad story. 1930 Census | National Archives 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. So the target would be 9 miles on ahead of you., Well, answered Captain McSorley, Am I going to clear?, Yes, he is going to pass to the west of you.. With mounting apprehension, Captain Cooper called the Coast Guard once again, about 8:00 pm, and firmly expressed his concern for the welfare of the Fitzgerald. No limit on the Perch, so we returned pretty low in the water. Submit Yours. Understandably the footage was edited out of respect for the dead and the families. Since no Coast Guard vessel capable of sailing in the conditions prevalent in eastern Lake Superior was available in the vicinity of the wreck, maintenance procedures were amended to ensure that cutters would be in a ready condition during the spring and fall periods of bad weather. Would like to offer any help I can. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. The Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. Perhaps the most widely accepted of the several theories about the loss of the Fitzgerald is that the ship crossed Caribou Island's Six-Fathom Shoal, with water as shallow as 26 feet.. 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. The main deck behind the superstructure, which included the forward cargo hatches appears to have collapsed entirely and the sides of the hull are bending outwards. The closest communities are Belden to the southwest, Twain to the southeast, Canyondam to the north, and Greenville to the east. Grew up learning about this. At the time of her launch in 1958, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes. USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the Grindstone Island Cars TheAndersonwasn't in much better shape, its engine room leaking consistently and its superstructure often being submerged entirely under water every time a wave hit. Caribou is located on the North Fork Feather River, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south of Almanor. For the island near Thunder Bay, see, Caribou Island (near Michipicoten Island), Caribou Island near the international border. If theFitzgeraldwere to be dived, then it would be a technical dive as it is over 200 feet. I have never been able to get that shot out of my head to this day 35 years later. The Western Arctic Herd is one of the largest caribou herds in Alaska and the world. Great respect must be accorded to the wreck site, however, which still contains the remains of crew members and is considered a gravesite. McSorley was forced to rely off reports from the United States Coast guard and the still functional radar of theAndersonto operate through the storm. A caribou hunting site, built by native people 9,000 years ago, has been discovered underneath Lake Huron. Perhaps the most romantic theory about the wreck of the Fitzgerald is that the ship succumbed to the forces of the Three Sisters, a Lake Superior phenomenon described as a combination of two large waves inundating the decks of a boat and a third, slightly later monster wave that boards the vessel as it struggles to shrug off the effects of the first two. On this voyage,Fitzgeraldwas fully loaded with iron ore. 18335 N. Whitefish Point Road From what your reports are I can appreciate the conditions. Ahif you want me to, I can, but Im not going to be making any time; Ill be lucky to make two or three miles an hour going back out that way., Well, youll have to make a decision as to whether you will be hazarding your vessel or not, but youre probably one of the only vessels right now that can get to the scene. 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. Within days, the location of the wreck on the bottom of the lake was pinpointed by U.S. Navy aircraft and the following spring the Coast Guard positively identified the wreckage using underwater photography. When originally built, it was visible for 16 miles (26km) and operated on a 30-second revolving cycle. ZIP Code by City and State. 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. Gale warnings had been issued at 7 pm on November 9, upgraded to storm warnings early in the morning of November 10. It's still not completely agreed upon whether the Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface or underwater. Tom Farnquist is also notably the foremost expert on the wreck of the S.S. Edmunds Fitzgerald. Sawyer AFB in the UP of Michigan, crew member on a rescue helo. The Fitzgerald is about 16 miles ahead. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.. For 17 years the Fitzgerald hauled taconite iron ore from the mines of Duluth, MN to Detroit and other Great Lakes ports setting . Having been a consultant and active member of the original Jacques Cousteau expedition in 1980 along with the raising of the bell 1994 expedition. Captain Cooper, too, had always maintained that Captain McSorley knew his ship was compromised on the shoal, but had faith that his ship would make it to Whitefish Bay. All the windows have been blown out and destroyed. The mystery is compounded by mud covering key parts of the wreck and a legal prohibition on further dives imposed by the Canadian government. The Anderson changes course to avoid Six Fathom Shoal area north of Caribou Island. All were lost to the depths of Lake Superior. 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. Weather conditions continued to deteriorate. Marie, Michigan, during ferocious northwest winds and seas that washed as high as eight to 12 feet over the ships main deck. Soon after, McSorely on the Fitzgerald reported taking topside damage and a list. Although not a heavy weather vessel like a cutter, it is capable of handling larger seas than the Naugatuck, the harbor tug previously stationed at the Soo. Keep up with the magazine, news and happenings around the Big Lake. I am from Sault Ste Marie Michigan and a former student of the founder of the great lakes shipwreck historical society Tom Farnquist. Caribou: Did You Know? - National Park Service The Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest boat on the Great Lakes. Its usual route was from Superior, Wisconsin, to Toledo, Ohio, although the destination varied. For books, videos, and memorabilia about the Fitzgerald, her loss, and her legacy, visit theShipwreck Coast Museum Store . There is a very good chance that this is what helped lead to her demise. The light at Whitefish Point was out temporarily on the night the Fitz went down. The Gales of November: remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald - Parks Blog Many theorize the ship unknowingly struck the poorly marked 6 Fathom Shoal on the island's north side, but that has never been conclusively proven. Beyond these improvements on board the ships, the marine weather reports have become more sophisticated and accessible, with detailed charts now printed out electronically in the pilothouse. FREE BOXES. It was considered a private hunting preserve through the early 1900s. The Coast Guard conducted an extensive and thorough search. Improvements in personal lifesaving equipment have resulted in suits to protect sailors from hypothermia in Lake Superiors cold waters. Next, EF was slated for serious repair two days later, for two known structural weaknesses. The mainland caribou are extremely important for their genetics. No. Never could have found any survivors in that storm but we sure tried hour after hour. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Michipicoten Island. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles. A 2012 sonar image shows theFitzgeraldto have deteriorated heavily since 1993. 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 battered ship despite the odds continued to soldier on towards Whitefish Bay. 4:30 p.m. Fitzgerald passes 3 to 5 miles east of Caribou Island. On November 14, a U.S. Navy plane equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector located a strong contact 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point. The first holds that some kind of large, heavy object crashed into the ship while it was passing by Caribou Island in Lake Superior during the early hours of the terrible storm of 10 November, 1975. The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down There is no conspiracy or disinformation campaign on that fact. In only 8 years time, this magnificent American vessel would be at the bottom of Lake Superior.). Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. But almost certainly the suits would have saved the lives of some crewmen in the wrecks of the Carl D. Bradley and the Daniel J. Morrell, the two previous Great Lakes wrecks where most of the crews were lost.. They therefore have the best genetics for surviving in this area. A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. Clark called the Fitzgerald again at about 7:22 pm. Marie, Michigan. What sank the Edmund Fitzgerald? : r/UnresolvedMysteries - Reddit Enter the text you see in the image below. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. They passed several miles offshore from Split Rock Lighthouse, on Minnesotas North Shore. The Anderson's captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory. The Naugatuck arrived at 12:45 pm on November 11, and the Woodrush arrived on November 14, having journeyed all the way from Duluth, Minnesota. and Sutcliffe, R., 1989. Although she had a good safety record, theFitzgerald'shull was, according to the anecdotes of mariners who set foot aboard her and sailed on her, a vessel with a loose keel.

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