Edmund Fitzgerald

[Jaylotw]

Today marks 46 years since the Fitz sank in Lake Superior.

Every year, I mark the anniversary with a drink of whiskey and a smoke at 710pm, the last time the boat was sighted.

It's Glenfiddich and some 2002 McClelland's Anniversary.

I'm a Great Lakes shipwreck nut.

 

[Grangerous]

Gordon Lightfoot singing the tale now.

 

[Jaylotw]

Gordon Lightfoot singing the tale now.

He's still performing. At 396 years of age.

 

[Streeper541]

I shared this video in the YouTube thread, but given the occasion, thought I'd share it again.

Raise a glass in honor, to the crew of the Mighty Fitz;
29 sailors in a November storm, who went down with their mighty ship!

 

[ssjones]

Wow, it seems like that event happened much longer than 46 years ago.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with Taconite pellets. As a young boy, train tracks were literally in my back yard. Many of the freight cars were filled with open containers of taconite pellets. For a young man with a wrist rocket, there was an endless supply of ammo to be found. When the Pennsylvania iron mills shut down, the trains slowed to almost non-existant and the pellets disappeared.

 

[Derby]

I have seen Lake Superior during a storm. I was on the land and still it was so violent it was scary.
Superior has taken a lot of ships and a lot of sailors. RIP.

 

[Jaylotw]

I have seen Lake Superior during a storm. I was on the land and still it was so violent it was scary.
Superior has taken a lot of ships and a lot of sailors. RIP.

All the Lakes have. Erie has the most wrecks.

One thing about waves on the Lakes, is that they can "bounce" off shore creating confused and violent wave action..like waves in a bathtub. So, instead of long wave forms coming from one direction, you get peaks of water coming from all directions. It's terrifying.

The night the Fitz went down, there were waves at 35 feet, and very possibly higher.

 

[Jaylotw]

Wow, it seems like that event happened much longer than 46 years ago.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with Taconite pellets. As a young boy, train tracks were literally in my back yard. Many of the freight cars were filled with open containers of taconite pellets. For a young man with a wrist rocket, there was an endless supply of ammo to be found. When the Pennsylvania iron mills shut down, the trains slowed to almost non-existant and the pellets disappeared.

Taconite does indeed make some potent sling shot ammo!

One of the last dives to the wreck site retrieved some taconite pellets, which were then symbolically delivered to Zug Island in Detroit, the Fitz's destination.

 

[Jaylotw]

I shared this video in the YouTube thread, but given the occasion, thought I'd share it again.

Raise a glass in honor, to the crew of the Mighty Fitz;
29 sailors in a November storm, who went down with their mighty ship!

Thats a good telling of the story.

You'll find, if you talk to sailors who were around back then, that everyone knew why the boat sank. It was commonly known that the Fitz had a bad keel, and had been overloaded and driven full speed through heavy weather for season after season. The coast guard allowed the Fitz to sail overloaded by a few thousand tons, though the boat was within design range when she sank.

McSorely was as experienced as a Captain could be, but he had a reputation as a heavy weather guy who would rarely anchor up and sit out the blows. He also wasn't too fond of the Fitzgerald. He pounded the shit out of that boat until it snapped at 710 on November 10th.

He got a bonus at the end of the year for how much cargo he delivered over a certain amount. They all did.

After the Fitz sank, companies stopped paying the extra tonnage bonus...

 

[craig61a]

Wow, it seems like that event happened much longer than 46 years ago.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with Taconite pellets. As a young boy, train tracks were literally in my back yard. Many of the freight cars were filled with open containers of taconite pellets. For a young man with a wrist rocket, there was an endless supply of ammo to be found. When the Pennsylvania iron mills shut down, the trains slowed to almost non-existant and the pellets disappeared.

? Yeah, those taconite pellets were the ammo of choice… and the price was right. There were several rail yards around the neighborhood when I was growing up. We would jump in the hoppers and scoop em up…

 

[craig61a]

I’ve been on the Great Lakes in 18’ seas in a 28’ boat… that’ll get your pucker factor goin’

I remember seeing the news reports on the Fitz.

I think a rogue wave got em. Then the boat submarined.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I was under the impression she sank after she broke apart midship. Anyway, that's the myth I've read.

 

[Jaylotw]

I was under the impression she sank after she broke apart midship. Anyway, that's the myth I've read.

That's the most plausible. She was taking water and listing all through the morning of the 10th. Eventually the storm was enough to snap her in half. It sank quickly, so fast that the men were likely dead or incapacitated before they even realized what was happening. In a post above, I talked about my theory (and that of man old sailors) on why she broke in two.

The last radio contact was around 705pm. Shortly after 710pm, the Fitz was gone.

 

[craig61a]

I was under the impression she sank after she broke apart midship. Anyway, that's the myth I've read.

It's never been conclusively determined what the cause of the sinking was, but the Fitz had developed a bad list by 7:00 pm, and the Arthur Andersen had reported being hit shortly after 7:00 pm by two massive rogue waves, with green water over the entire length of the vessel. The rogue waves would have hit the Fitz 10 minutes later. A boat with a list in heavy seas is a recipe for disaster. Very easy to roll the boat.

 

[Jaylotw]

I’ve been on the Great Lakes in 18’ seas in a 28’ boat… that’ll get your pucker factor goin’

I remember seeing the news reports on the Fitz.

I think a rogue wave got em. Then the boat submarined.

A rogue wave may have been the death knell, but that boat was destined for doom when it left the dock.

The Anderson, which was following the Fitz, had a wave smash a lifeboat which was on its davits, 30 feet above the water line...that wave would've marched right down to the Fitz and hit her, as well.

And as far as a conclusive determination on what caused the sinking... we'll never have one. The official coast guard "leaky hatch covers" theory was BS then, and it's BS now.

 

[jpmcwjr]

It's never been conclusively determined what the cause of the sinking was, but the Fitz had developed a bad list by 7:00 pm, and the Arthur Andersen had reported being hit shortly after 7:00 pm by two massive rogue waves, with green water over the entire length of the vessel. The rogue waves would have hit the Fitz 10 minutes later. A boat with a list in heavy seas is a recipe for disaster. Very easy to roll the boat.

Were they not able to determine that the ship snapped in two from the wreckage? I suppose sound vessels with watertight bulkheads needn't sink due to "merely" breaking in two, but whatever the cause, the cards were heavily stacked against her for multiple reasons.

 

[craig61a]

Were they not able to determine that the ship snapped in two from the wreckage? I suppose sound vessels with watertight bulkheads needn't sink due to "merely" breaking in two, but whatever the cause, the cards were heavily stacked against her for multiple reasons.

The ship ended up in two pieces, yes, but it was never determined whether it broke apart on the surface, or as it was heading for the bottom. There are several theories as to why it ended up on the bottom, but none of them have been determined to be conclusive to this day...

 

[craig61a]

My opinion of what might have happened...

 

[Jaylotw]

My opinion of what might have happened...

That was the best documentary ever made of the Fitz. It's what made me obsessed with Great Lakes wrecks.

That animation gives me the chills, and its just as likely to be the cause as my theory.

Were they not able to determine that the ship snapped in two from the wreckage? I suppose sound vessels with watertight bulkheads needn't sink due to "merely" breaking in two, but whatever the cause, the cards were heavily stacked against her for multiple reasons.

@craig61a answered this well. His animation shows one way the ship (boat, they're boats on the Lakes) may have broke and sank.

I think it broke on the surface, suspended at either end by two monster waves. The boat had a history of bending and flexing in odd, unsettling ways, and every captain and engineer who sailed it had something to say about it. One former chief engineer is on tape explaining how he demanded the owners look at and fix the problem, or the boat would sink. I think he even threatened law suits, or to go to the CG. This, combined with overloading and hard sailing makes me believe the boat broke on the surface. None of the other 10 or 11 boats on the lake that night sank...

Both of these theories make sense while looking at the wreckage and how the cargo is scattered on the lake bed. What doesn't make sense is the Coast Guard's official reason, that the hatch covers were leaking. It seems to be a classic CYA answer, as it absolves the Coast Guard (who allowed the Fitz to sail overloaded and certified her as seaworthy when she had obvious issues) and ship owners and operators (who deferred maintenance wherever possible and encouraged heavy sailing) of any responsibility. The families never accepted that, though. They knew their guys were good sailors and wouldn't head into a storm with hatch covers not dogged.

We'll never know, as diving on the wreck is effectively banned after they released footage of a body lying down there.

 

[pappymac]

Before the Fitzgerald was constructed there were a number of Liberty Ships that suffered hull and deck cracks, that led to fatal sinkings. (The ones that come to mind most often for me were the SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton both of which broke apart and sank off the coast of Chatham, Mass. in February 1952. The movie "The Finest Hours" is based on the rescue of the survivors from the Pendleton."

At first the cause was believed to be the welding method used and how fast the vessels were constructed. Years later the cold temperatures of the North Atlantic was linked to the sinkings as it was believed the cold made the steel brittle and lead to cracking. The poor welding would allow the cracks to spread.

The Fitz was constructed in the late 1950s and the problem with welding and design should not have still existed. However, there are similarities between how the sinking of all three. The water in Lake Superior is definitely cold. All three vessels broke in half and sank during storms.

In my opinion, it is possible the Fitz had cracks in the hull that the twisting of the hull during the storm made worse. As for the Coast Guard "official" reason that leaking hatch covers were a contributor to the sinking, well that is also a possibility. The thing to remember is that no one was able to examine the vessel after the sinking so most of what is in the investigation report is theory and supposition and not definitive proof.