In Lake Superior Port Cities Inc.s newly released book, The Night the Fitz Went Down, Captain Dudley Paquette vividly describes his voyage through the massive seas of the November 9-10, 1975, storm as master of the downbound Inland Steel Companys SS Wilfred Sykes. Caribou definition, any of several large, North American deer of the genus Rangifer, related to the reindeer of the Old World. When originally built, it was visible for 16 miles (26km) and operated on a 30-second revolving cycle. Conditions only grew worse; at 3:15 p.m., the Captain of the Anderson watched the Fitzgerald round Caribou Island, where it seemed to skirt close to Six Fathom Shoal. 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. Also, the Fitzgeralds officers had started two pumps to evacuate water, but those pumps would only remove water from the ballast tanks, not the cargo hold. Tweets by @lakesuperiormag !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? Cooper later said he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. While conditions were bad, with winds gusting to 50 knots and seas 12 to 16 feet, both Captains had often piloted their vessels in similar conditions. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. Again, though, I have to leave that decision up to you as to whether it would be hazarding your vessel or not. McSorely had also ordered the pumps to be turned on in order to keep the ingress of water out of the cargo hold.By 4:10 PM, the list had not gotten any better and theFitzgeraldwas still taking on water, effectively sinking. And then a song. Had she sailed two days later, empty, for repairs (very good timing, actually) none of this would have happened. Hinze, W.J., Allen, D.J., Fox, A.J., Sunwood, D., Woelk, T. and Green, A.G., 1992. 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. Cooper believes that from that point on, McSorley knew he was sinking. Right in the middle of this economic meltdown, and not just in the Great Lakes region, the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost. In those seas, such a command goes without saying, so why did McSorley have to emphasize it? he asks. Until 1959,Edmund Fitzgeraldheld the record for the longest ship on the Great Lakes. The "Big Fitz"as she was affectionately known by her crew, also boasted several private staterooms for corporate guests of Oglebay Norton and Northwestern Mutual. 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. 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. 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. Caribou (formerly Cariboo) is a census-designated place located in Plumas County, California, United States. The Anderson's captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory. In the Duluth News-Tribune, another former crew member, Jim Woodard, claims the Fitzgerald was a "wet" ship. Its likely that they didnt latch a lot of the hatch cover clamps because the crew was on Sunday overtime pay and they were so late getting covered up - and the weather was very nice at that time., Such speculation fits easily into the puzzle of the Fitzgerald tragedy. One man lived to tell about what happened unlike the Fitz. Seeing the violence of the wind, sky and water on the night of November 10, 1975 while in northern Michigan, I awoke the next morning, for the only time in my life with the certainty that something ominous had or was about to occur. By stretching more than 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the island Caribou north point, a dangerous reef is presently known as "Six Fathom Shoal." While Northwestern Mutual owned both ships (which woud later prove ironic in theFitzgerald'scase), the freighters were leased out to dedicated shipping companies. The closest communities are Belden to the southwest, Twain to the southeast, Canyondam to the north, and Greenville to the east. US WEATHER BUREAU BUILDING Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. In testimony before the marine board, Captain Cooper said that 10 miles southeast of Caribou he had waves cresting over the pilothouse - 35 feet above the waterline. Would like to offer any help I can. Next, EF was slated for serious repair two days later, for two known structural weaknesses. Regis, R.S., Patterson, C.J., Wattrus, N., and Rausch, D., 2003. By this point, McSorley knew his ship was in serious trouble and opted to head full steam towards the natural protection of Whitefish Bay to ride out the storm and protect his ship and crew from further damage.By 6:00 PM, the storm had worsened and its likely theFitzgeraldwas riding even lower in the water, due to much larger 35 foot high waves, heavier damage caused by the waves and an even larger amount of water in her hull the pumps seemed unable to cope with. Enter the text you see in the image below. The Fateful Journey of The Edmund Fitzgerald - A Great Lakes Disaster Since these two large waves struck the trailing Anderson mere minutes before its final radar contact with the Fitzgerald, might they have joined a third rogue wave, overtaken the struggling Fitz 10 or 15 minutes later and overwhelmed the already listing and troubled ship? Since then, there have been about a half dozen dives to the wreck using deep-diving equipment. Others overlap in some ways. Every year since the sinking, the Episcopal Mariners Church the Maritime Sailors Cathedral on East Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit, along the riverfront, has held a memorial service for the Edmund Fitzgerald crew. Technology aims to prevent Fitzgerald-scale disasters - The Detroit News ZIP Code by City and State. ZIP Code Lookup | USPS Kids & Family, Search Events The lateral continuity and consistent and parallel direction of the tunnel valleys indicated that they are carved from friable sandstones that underlies the floor of most of eastern Lake Superior. The grisliest discovery was of a giant oil slick floating atop the lake's surface. What caused Edmund Fitzgerald to sink? 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. But I have to leave the decision up to you., Ill give it a try, but thats all I can do.. With no visibility in a hurricane-like storm and no radar to guide him, theFitzgeraldwas sailing blinded moving slower with every gallon of water entering her hull. This years service was held at 11 a.m. this morning, with the bell tolling 29 times for each man on the Fitzgerald. The battered ship despite the odds continued to soldier on towards Whitefish Bay. Understandably the footage was edited out of respect for the dead and the families. $45.00. Between 1959 and 1975, the life of theEdmund Fitzgeraldwas routineand mostly uneventful, clocking nearly 750 succesful round trips, though was occasionally greeted by positive and negative events. I read a report about a phenomena called the Three Sisters-rogue waves. Fullerton Islands Restaurant Fullerton. Less than 20 minutes later when the Anderson cleared a snow squall, its radars lost contact and the Big Fitz, as seamen called the ship, passed from the land of the living into legend. America's #1 Fireworks Retailer| Phantom Fireworks Fitzgerald nearly reached Caribou Island, but the slower Anderson was behind, just approaching Machicote, almost four miles from West End Light. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. He said that he was going along like an old shoe; no problems at all., Well, again, do you think you could come about and go back and have a look in the area?, Well, Ill go back and take a look, but God, Im afraid Im going to take a hell of a beating out there Ill turn around and give er a whirl, but God, I dont know. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. 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. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647ha) in area. At 3:30 pm that afternoon, Captain McSorley radioed Captain Cooper and said: Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. In the fewest words possible, I say She never should have embarked on this cruise, but She had to. One winter, in the 1920s, the caribou walked off the island when the lake froze over. Conditions reported by the late crewmember Ronald Roman, who was aboard theAndersonthat night. First mate Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10 pm: Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. No sailors in life vests were found. A body that was seen but not retrieved is not a recovered body. (A video of the once proud ship transiting the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. So, what happened? By this point,McSorely was heard over the radio hollering at his crew to stay off the deck and remain inside the vessel. But we were talking to him about seven and he said that everything was going fine. [7], These reefs are not coral reefs. According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55 pm, he and the men in the Andersons pilothouse felt a bump, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. 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. Marie. By that time the Anderson had reached the safety of Whitefish Bay to the relief of all aboard. However, it resonates. Superior Shoal - Wikipedia The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water, Ley wrote. There is no conspiracy or disinformation campaign on that fact. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest boat on the Great Lakes. 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/. If theFitzgeraldwere to be dived, then it would be a technical dive as it is over 200 feet. With the catastrophic damage to the ship and the way the ship is buried in the mud and the windows blown out and the collision with the bottom is there any possibility of a rogue wave catching the floundering ship and driving it to the bottom. 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. What was eventually found only included destroyed remains of the ships two lifeboats, life preservers and items from the ship's galleys. Weather conditions continued to deteriorate, Ley wrote. Bernie Cooper. They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point. Also, a larger, more powerful tug, the Katmai Bay, is now stationed at Sault Ste. Dave Sproule, a natural heritage education and marketing specialist with Ontarios Department of Environment, Conservation and Parks Land and Water Division in Sudbury, has written Lake Superior is a weathermaker so big it creates its own weather The supreme caribou myth ever told is about Santa and his sleigh, but having said that, this seems to be the most famous myth out of all the animal totems. Not the same yard, but what if it was rebuilt, same cargo, same shape, same functionality, but a new keel? In only 8 years time, this magnificent American vessel would be at the bottom of Lake Superior.). GLSHS three expeditions to the wreck revealed that it is likely she submarined bow first into an enormous sea, as damage forward is indicative of a powerful, quick force to the superstructure. By late afternoon, the Anderson's captain was noting wind gusts up to 70 knots and waves up to 8 metres. Crafts Below is a breakdown of the main theories: Faulty hatch covers caused massive internal flooding. it be nice if they stopped talking about White Fish Bay which is 15 (N) miles from where it went down. 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. No reply from the Coast Guard. 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. On May 20, 1976, the words Edmund Fitzgerald were clearly seen on the stern, upside down, 535 feet below the surface of the lake. Yes, she almost certainly hit the shoals. After enough persuasion, Cooper agreed to take theAndersonback out to sea followed by the LakerWilliam Clay Ford. Almost none of the bodies including that of Captain McSorley were ever found. Add to Cart. But an hour later, when Anderson First Mate Morgan Clark asked how he was making out with his problems, McSorley assured him, We are holding our own.. Officers from the Anderson observed that the Fitzgerald sailed through this exact area. The comment that this industry stopped completely are false. Just to late for the 29. 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 was inclined to accept that Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Captain Cooper. 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. However, Northwestern Mutual apparently decided to remedy the problem regardingFitzgerald'sloose keel. McSorley replied, We are holding our own. A few minutes later, the Fitzgerald disappeared from the radar screen for the last time, sinking without giving a distress signal. By its last voyage, the freighter had made about 748 round trips. eCFR :: 33 CFR 151.66 -- Operating requirements: Discharge of garbage Improvements in personal lifesaving equipment have resulted in suits to protect sailors from hypothermia in Lake Superiors cold waters. In addition, Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. 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. Stationed at K.I. Art & Exhibitions He again voiced grave concern that the Fitzgerald was missing at 8:32 p.m. Search and rescue efforts started immediately after Coopers second call, but the nearest Coast Guard vessel that could sail in the huge seas was the Woodrush, stationed 300 miles away in Duluth, Minnesota. 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. 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. 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. There had to have been something happening on the deck that a mate thought they had to get control of - even if it meant putting lives in danger.. Film, Art & Exhibitions Photo by user "Greenmars" on Wikimedia Commons. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. "She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her," Woodward said. 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. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. None. In 2003, the herd was estimated to have 490,000 individuals, 6 and in 2016, the herd count decreased to 201,000. Contacts were strong enough to bring in the U.S. Navys CURV III controlled underwater recovery vehicle, operating from Woodrush. The mystery is compounded by mud covering key parts of the wreck and a legal prohibition on further dives imposed by the Canadian government. There was no answer. 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. [5][6], A dangerous reef known as "Six Fathom Shoal" stretches more than 1 mile (1.6km) north of the north point of the island, and is rumored to be the one the SS Edmund Fitzgerald shoaled on prior to sinking. In 2009, retired naval architect Raymond Ramsey, who helped design the Fitzgerald hull wrote that the maintenance history, increased cargo loading allowances and construction of the Fitzgerald made her unseaworthy the night she went down. 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). 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.. The Fitzgerald suffered from structural problems, Ex-Fitzgerald crew member George Burgner claimed in a deposition that unrepaired cracks and weakened metal on the ship caused the loss, according to the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Fred Stonehouse. Caribou Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com SS Edmund Fitzgerald - Wreck Location Map & GPS Coordinates - Shipwreck The same problems were reported aboard theHomer. 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? Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. Capt. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. In addition to taking on water after *potentially* hitting bottom near Six fathom Shoals earlier this afternoon, the. 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.. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.. Marie in 1967. Your comment will appear after being approved. What if the ship is rebuilt, with more safety features? The Gales of November: remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald - Parks Blog 43 and 1/2 years later the feeling of that morning is still vivid in my mind. 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. The situation was worsened when McSorely reported to Cooper that his radar was gone. The mainland caribou are extremely important for their genetics. Further searches with sonar turned up what appeared to be a giant vessel on the bottom in two pieces the rough size of theFitzgerald. Since then, there have been about a half dozen dives to the wreck using deep-diving equipment. 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. His written report states: At this time I became very concerned about the Fitzgerald couldnt see his lights when we should have. A 2012 sonar image shows theFitzgeraldto have deteriorated heavily since 1993. 1. Looks like he was right on this one. His assumption is obviously shared by others in the maritime industry, but changes instituted after the loss of the Fitzgerald are meant to help to prevent some perceived causes of the wreck. The 1976 hit single "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by musician Gordon Lightfoot is the reason why theEdmund Fitzgeraldis currently the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes. sometimes we forget to pray that at times we could have been saved, at this time of events, it was meant to have happened, at it is not us who make the storm or to calm the storm..but, Sad to have lost what was a great ship and the people on board History is what I like.. A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. They passed several miles offshore from Split Rock Lighthouse, on Minnesotas North Shore. He reduced speed to allow the Anderson to close the 17-mile gap between them. Caribou Island is part of a large glacial moraine that accumulated south of Michipicoten Island. Whatever prompted that command just a little over an hour before the sinking, Paquette analyzes that it would have been catastrophic and visible from the pilothouse in the darkness of an early November evening. May god rest the souls of the 29 men who perished that fateful night, The iron ore freighter is only about 9 nautical miles from Pancake Bay off highway #17 Ontario Canada, it sits in Canadain waters. The final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald began Nov. 9, 1975 at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No.1 in Superior, Wisconsin, Sean Ley, a development officer at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point Light Station in Whitefish Point on the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan, wrote in a blog post for the museum titled The Fateful Journey (https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/the-fateful-journey/?fbclid=IwAR33M-6_G0X15ab73z4KkAIM3owr3GaVpRsHdaE5n_OIbSP3PzX7_FTMIGo).
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