Crafts I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles. However an interior lake, Deer Lake on the center East side of the island, was used as an Amphibian base with a dock and ramp built by the last private owners of the island because of the unpredictable water/wave condition of Lake Superior. Film, Art & Exhibitions They believe that caribou is the most significant creature to hunt. In the steel towns to Gary's east, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburg, Bethlehem and others, urban decay also set in and still remains today (2021). The wreck is in two main sections, the bow and the stern. I am from Sault Ste Marie Michigan and a former student of the founder of the great lakes shipwreck historical society Tom Farnquist. 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. and Johnson, T.C., 1982. Cooper asked "How are you doing?" 1. In that sense, the Fitzgerald met her fate on the path she took to avoid it. 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? However, divers found no recent damage to the shoal after the wreck and the ship's exact course could only be estimated because the Fitzgerald radars were inoperable and the Anderson kept inexact course records during the journey. In Canadian ships alone there are at least one hundred ships that haul iron ore to this day. Caribou (formerly Cariboo) is a census-designated place located in Plumas County, California, United States. Beyond that, Captain Bernie Cooper of the Anderson commented in testimony that his radar showed the Fitz to be closer to the shoal than he wanted his ship to be. Officers from the Anderson observed that the Fitzgerald sailed through this exact area. 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. 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. Was a bad night. While EPIRB would not have aided the crew of the Fitzgerald, it would have identified the sunken ship and given searchers a location to start their effort to find survivors. 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. The first one flooded our boat deck. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. It lies entirely within the territorial waters of Canada although only about five kilometres from the international border between Canada and the United States. 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. 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. NARA microfilm publication M1931, Index to Selected City Streets and Enumeration Districts, 1930 Census (7 rolls) reproduces a 57-volume typescript index to selected city streets and enumeration districts of the Fifteenth Census of the United States taken in 1930. Add to Cart. 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. 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. [7], These reefs are not coral reefs. 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. It's a national disgrace. Phantom Fireworks is the leading retailer of consumer fireworks in the U.S. Phantom provides the widest range of consumer fireworks in all categories. From what I know, the Fitzgerald sank 45 years ago as of posting this comment, soon to be 46. By late afternoon, the Anderson's captain was noting wind gusts up to 70 knots and waves up to 8 metres. In addition, Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point. Officers and candidates in navigation classes and manufacturer schools receive up-to-the-minute training in using the latest equipment and in interpreting information that equipment provides to keep their ships out of harms way. Captain Cooper of the Anderson mentioned the possibility of a stress fracture in his testimony before the marine board and also included it in his personal story of the wreck in James R. Marshalls Shipwrecks of Lake Superior. 18335 N. Whitefish Point Road Captain Cooper reported winds from the NW x W (305 ) at a steady 58 knots with gusts to 70 knots, and seas of 18 to 25 feet. Tweets by @lakesuperiormag !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? 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. The official Coast Guard board of inquiry came to the conclusion that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank as a result of massive flooding of the cargo hold, saying that this likely resulted from ineffective hatch closure. Noting that many of the hatch clamps photographed on the sunken freighter show little or no damage or distortion, the report states that this could result from improper maintenance of the adjustment bolts that put tension on the hatch covers and secured them to the top of the coamings around the hatches. By 1979, a new Loran broadcast station began operating at Baudette, Minnesota, giving sailors easy access to their location, speed, course being steered and other information. The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light. No sailors in life vests were found. Too soon to be coincidence. MLive meteorologist Mark Torregrossa postulates rogue waves as possible based on the 2006 NOAA storm simulation. 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. Not long after the search ended, years of arguments and disagreements over what could have caused theEdmund Fitzgeraldto sink have clouded up any hope of truly understanding what occurred the night of November 10, 1975 as the shipping companies, government agencies and sea fairers of the Great Lakes all have different theories and opinions that do not match. One winter, in the 1920s, the caribou walked off the island when the lake froze over. 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. Near-hurricane force winds seemed to pick up strength throughout the day while visibility was greatly reduced. What was eventually found only included destroyed remains of the ships two lifeboats, life preservers and items from the ship's galleys. I read a report about a phenomena called the Three Sisters-rogue waves. WHITEFISH POINT The Coast Guard were at this time trying to locate a 16-foot boat that was overdue.. They would later make a turn to the southeast toward Whitefish Point. Marie at 7:39 p.m., continued to try to raise radio contact with the big ship. Sad story. Gordon Lightfoot liked this theory, posited by the National Transportation Safety Board a year after the Coast Guard issued its report. 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. But I have to leave the decision up to you., Ill give it a try, but thats all I can do.. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647ha) in area. The interior is low scrub and bog with small lakes, Little Italy, Hambone, and Deer Lake among many unnamed ones. 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. 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. 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. That would seem to indicate that their instruments convinced them that water was leaking into the tank area. Adding to that puzzle is the fact that its captain never uttered a word of serious concern for his ship nor reported his problems to the Coast Guard. An unpopulated island at the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 km south of Michipicoten Island, named Caribou Island. 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. Caribou is located on the North Fork Feather River, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south of Almanor. in 1980, Jacques Cousteau's famous Calypso arrived for the first manned dive inside an underwater vessel to the site. 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. A 2012 sonar image shows theFitzgeraldto have deteriorated heavily since 1993. The debate rages to this day. Wold, R.J., Hutchinson, D.R. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. 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? The cause of the sinking is still a matter of much historic debate, both Ley and Sproule note. The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Previously suggested possibilities are that a hatch cover washed off or the heavy deck crane or the spare blade for the propeller broke loose and crashed about. So, what happened? Caribou is included in the pages of the myths of Inuit. Photo by user "Greenmars" on Wikimedia Commons. Yes, she almost certainly hit the shoals. 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. This depiction shows the Edmund Fitzgerald touching bottom as she passes over the Six Fathom Shoal on the . It was considered a private hunting preserve through the early 1900s. 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 bell of the ship is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. 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. The unedited video of the expedition did not show a complete body how it did show a clear shot of a leg along with the shoe of the unfortunate crewman. Captain McSorley told Woodard that the ship has a bad list, implying that it had gotten worse since his earlier report to Captain Cooper. 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 Your comment will appear after being approved. Proven by: Large holes, Anderson's captain's concern for how close the Fitzgerald was to the shoal, inaccurate charts. As with all of the other theories, it may well be that we will never know the total story of this wreck - leaving each theory, for now, as good as any other. Why the Edmund Fitzgerald remains a cultural touchstone, Follow the final journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 17 miles to safety: Edmund Fitzgerald by the numbers, A NOAA model showing the storm that sunk the Edmund FItzgerald, Garret Ellison covers business, environment & the Great Lakes for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Next, EF was slated for serious repair two days later, for two known structural weaknesses. 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). The Western Arctic Herd is one of the largest caribou herds in Alaska and the world. The retrofit was planned for November 12, 1975 upon completion of the1975 season. However, it resonates. He is particularly intrigued by the command that Woodard overheard. I was a student of Tom's in 85 7th grade science at Sault jr high. By early the next morning, theAndersonandFitzgeraldencountered a powerful November gale with winds up to 50miles an hour. The CURV III unit took 43,000 feet of video tape and 900 photographs of the wreck. Contributing factors noted were a lack of internal watertight bulkheads and allowances for more cargo weight during the ship's 17 years afloat. 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. Others overlap in some ways. Don McIsaac observed last July that Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is from my hometown, Orillia. McIsaac, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Cirrus Aircraft, based at headquarters in Duluth, Minnesota, added, From where I sit now, I can see the port the ship last left.. Another sonar survey was conducted November 22-25. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. 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. They said, however, they were inclined to accept that the Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Cooper. Caribou Island is part of a large glacial moraine that accumulated south of Michipicoten Island. 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. Upon reaching Whitefish Bay, theCoast Guard requested that any freighter waiting out the storm in Whitefish Bay go out to search for theFitzgeraldand her 29 man crew as the Coast Guard itself was unable to reach the scene immediately. 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. what is the real truth to this? 2. According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee never gives up her dead.. Water intrusion came less than 30 minutes later. 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. Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and Emory Kristof, National Geographic Magazine. 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. There is a lot of by Anonymous - Located about a third forward of the stern, this working area is approximately the same as the area where the intact stern of the Fitz separated from the rest of the wreckage. 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. TheFitzgeraldwould have extra steel plates installed between the hull bottom and her keel which would ensure the keel would no loner move freely from the hull and would stay fastened in place. The ships were nearing Whitefish Bay. 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.. Jesse B. Cooper told an audience in Wisconsin the Anderson was struck from astern that evening by a pair of huge waves, which rolled over his ship and continued on toward the Fitzgerald. [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. Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Michipicoten Island. U.S. Coast Guard rescue vessel Woodrush took 21 hours to arrive on scene from the Duluth port. 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. 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." A bit later, McSorley reported that his radars werent working and requested that the Anderson keep track of his route and give him navigational aid. No reply from the Coast Guard. 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. Below is a breakdown of the main theories: Faulty hatch covers caused massive internal flooding. She was already moving slow and was listing as well. In 2003, the herd was estimated to have 490,000 individuals, 6 and in 2016, the herd count decreased to 201,000. 906-635-1742 | 800-635-1742, GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM 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. 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. 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. Until 1959,Edmund Fitzgeraldheld the record for the longest ship on the Great Lakes. Paradise, MI 49768 The light at Whitefish Point was out temporarily on the night the Fitz went down. 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. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. The weather had cleared dramatically. Cooper believes that from that point on, McSorley knew he was sinking. Other information comes from an interview witn Captain Bernie Cooper shortly before his death in 1993. The bodies have not been recovered. Having been a consultant and active member of the original Jacques Cousteau expedition in 1980 along with the raising of the bell 1994 expedition. The comment that this industry stopped completely are false. Departing Superior about 2:30 p.m., she was soon joined by the Arthur M. Anderson, which had sailed from Two Harbors, Minnesota under Capt. At some point it all becomes moot, except for the 29 families who remain, and do without bread from their missing bread-winners. 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. 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. "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. 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. From what your reports are I can appreciate the conditions. I have never been able to get that shot out of my head to this day 35 years later. The B-side on the single was The House You Live In.. 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. Sawyer AFB in the UP of Michigan, crew member on a rescue helo. In the early afternoon of Nov. 10, the Fitzgerald had passed Michipicoten Island and was approaching Caribou Island, steaming toward Whitefish Bay at Superiors east end.. 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. She never should have sailed, and could have turned back when "The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound, as a wave broke over the railing." 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. Marie, Michigan. 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. 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. Without direct witnesses or survivors, every explanation about the cause of the wreck is purely theoretical and, from the very beginning, a rash of theories concerning it were postulated.
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