The Edmund Fitzgerald

[owlhoot]

I was Deer hunting (or trying to) on an island in the St Mary's River the day the EFG went down, It was a wicked storm. The St Mary's river flows out of Lake Superior at Sault Ste Marie. A friend of mine is reading a history of it. Here's an email he sent me with the events of that day, He uses acronyms, WX-weather T -The or Top or To ....

Ah've bin readin me book on t Edmund Fitzgerald. How t wx changed that day. Fast & fierce. At 1am, t crew was measurin 60mph winds an' 10' high waves hittin t sides o t ship. T ship had bin loaded so that it had only 11'5" freeboard t t top o t spar deck (t long flat deck where t cargo is loaded into). An' this was only t very beginnin o t storm. After midnight with t storm worsenin, both t EF an' t other ship it was sailin with, t Anderson, headed N byNE t get into more shallower water t lessen t effect o t storm an' possibly avoid huger waves that could build in deeper water. Aboot noon t ships began turnin south an' eventually came oot by Michipicoten Island headin twards Whitefish Bay in t south. There was just Caribou Island ahead. T big storm had passed by t t south. T sky cleared aboot 1pm an' t winds dropt t aboot 10mph. BUT they were wrong! They had actually entered T EYE O T STORM! Caramba! Fungoola! Aboot 2pm, t ships hit a revamped storm that was hell bent on destruction. Winds had changed direction & were now comin from t NW & headin directly across t lake at t ships. A chance t make some really BIG waves. At 230pm t EF was 16 miles ahead o t Anderson steerin SE an' approachin t Six Fathom Shoal o Caribou Island. T temp dropt rapidly, snow blew in a blizzard an' visibility dropt t 1/4 mile. T Anderson crew lost visual contact with t EF an' neer saw it again other'n on radar. At that time, MOST but NOT ALL o Six Fathom Shoal had bin charted. No one knows fer sure, but t EF was known t hae lost its radar with t high winds & waves (from radio talk with t Anderson). Also t Anderson radar showed that t EF may hae bin way in too close t t Six Fathom Shoal (or t piece that was not on t charts). T EF captain radioed t Anderson an' reported he was takin on water into t ballast tanks. He may hae hit t shoal an' ruptured t ballast tanks. His pumps were both goin but he was worried. At 640pm t Anderson was hit by a rogue wave estimated at 40' high an' survived. T Anderson radioed t EF at intervals t check on progress with tremendous sized waves constantly happening. At 715pm t Anderson first mate saw t EF out beyond Whitefish Bay on t radar - fer t last time. At 725pm t radar blip was gone. T EF was gone.

[Map Maker]

The legend lives on from Chippewa on down,
On the big lake they call Gitchee gomee….

[Selkirk]

.



Well worth the 6.5 minutes ➡ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw

Selkirk

[Sundog57]

Plate hatch covers secured by clamps with very low hatch coamings.
Hand rails rather than bulwarks so nothing to protect the deck
All design features to lower the vessel's lightweight and increase her deadweight capacity.
Never designed or intended to survive green water on deck
Very low freeboard, big seas with a short period
Once one cover lifted it was all over but the cryin' (and Gordon Lightfoot)

[mooseknuckle]

Me and my dad are hoping to hit the great lake shipwreck museum for the 50th anniversary. Always interests me the. The story is a crazy one. The ship was like 200ft longer than the depth it sank in. If they put 15 more miles behind her....

[trapperdodge]

The Big Fitz

[jstubbs]

Weird, I was just listening to the Gordon Lightfoot song about this for the first time in ages this week.

[antmai]

I am from the soo. I vaguely remember Cousteau’s son coming and looking for her but clearly remember when they brought up the bell.
Crazy story. Still.

[fordtruckin]

I remember my parents taking me out to look at the lake boys when I was a young boy before we moved back to Saskatchewan. Sad situation but like every tragedy some good came out of it with different safety regulations.

[antmai]

Superior is a body of water a great deal of Canadians cannot even fathom, let alone relate to.
The mystery of the Fitz will likely never be solved.

[tullfan]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckle

Me and my dad are hoping to hit the great lake shipwreck museum for the 50th anniversary. Always interests me the. The story is a crazy one. The ship was like 200ft longer than the depth it sank in. If they put 15 more miles behind her....

I went to the Great lakes ship museum at Whitefish point. It was a pretty great experience.
To top it off, as we were standing on the beach the SS Arthur M. Anderson was passing by. It was just the right place at the right time. There was also the bonus blueberry festival in Paradise.
It was a great experience and I still have my mug.

Tullfan

[WV911]

Originally Posted by antmai

Superior is a body of water a great deal of Canadians cannot even fathom, let alone relate to.
The mystery of the Fitz will likely never be solved.

This is true of all the Great Lakes.

If you haven't lived near them you don't realize they can be as bad or worse than the ocean.

[fordtruckin]

Originally Posted by WV911

This is true of all the Great Lakes.

If you haven't lived near them you don't realize they can be as bad or worse than the ocean.

Not to mention the life span of a laker is significantly longer than an ocean going vessel. Old technology more stress from years of service and modifications/refits that weren’t how the vessel was designed.