Edmund Fitzgerald Nov. 10, 1975

[Norm reynolds]

30 years ago, today in history

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald Nov. 10, 1975

http://solosong.net/gordon/edmund/edmund.html

Learn more at: http://boatnerd.com/

[Belair62]

There were other worse wrecks on the Great Lakes but that song insured the wreck of the Fitz would be remembered forever...there is still no consensus on what really happened when the Witch of November came....several different official inquiries but nothing for sure...and they still ring the bells 29 times at the Maritime Sailors Cathedral !! I read a cool article on it recently. The ships bell was salvaged from the tomb years ago..

[Don_Lightfoot]

There was an excellent Special on TV recently about this whole situation. Don't know if it only aired here in Canada or if it was broadcast in the United States as well. A good portion at the end of the show focused on the recovery of the bell. If I recall, quite a few of the family members of the crew were not happy the bell was brought up. They felt it should have stayed with the ship.

BTW - I had nothing to do with the song , that was done by the "talented" Lightfoot

[Belair62]

That was the first question I asked you when you came on the site !!!

[Jonesy]

It left here the night it sank. The Arthur M Anderson (the ship that was following the Fitz and survived the same storm) is docked here for the winter. I remember the next day and the waves were real high. I was a Soph in High School. The song is slightly wrong, it loaded it's ore here in Minnesota. I guess Wisconsin rhymed better than Minnesota.

[olredalert]

-------The Anderson goes by our house on a regular basis along with just about every other boat on the Great Lakes. I got lucky about 6 years ago and got a ride on the Paul A. Tregurtha all the way to Duluth and back. It brings back coal to the electric plant just south of me. What a trip, deluxe all the way!!!.........Bill S

[budnate]

I thought there was show where they went down in a sub and photed the hatches and found they were just closed but NOT latched and they had sheared off on the hinge side from taking waves over the top, then ultimately taking on water through the open hatches..I think it was on the discovery channel a while back.

[Xplantdad]

I thought the Discovery show was about Gordon Lightfoot downing one too many "down the hatch" then trying to perform onstage...oh wait...maybe that was VH1 "Where are they now?"

[Belair62]

The Fitzgerald cleared Superior, Wisconsin, on her last trip on November 9, 1975, with a cargo of 26,116 tons of taconite pellets consigned to Detroit. Traveling down Lake Superior in company with ARTHUR M. ANDERSON of the United States Steel Corporation's Great Lakes Fleet, she encountered heavy weather and in the early evening of November 10th, suddenly foundered approximately 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay (47º North Latitude, 85º 7' West Longitude)

Captain McSorley of the "FITZ" had indicated he was having difficulty and was taking on water. She was listing to port and had two of three ballast pumps working. She had lost her radar and damage was noted to ballast tank vent pipes and he was overheard on the radio saying, "don't allow nobody (sic) on deck." McSorley said it was the worst storm he had ever seen. All 29 officers and crew, including a Great Lakes Maritime Academy cadet, went down with the ship, which lies broken in two sections in 530 feet of water.
Surveyed by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1976 using the U.S. Navy CURV III system, the wreckage consisted of an upright bow section, approximately 275 feet long and an inverted stern section, about 253 feet long, and a debris field comprised of the rest of the hull in between. Both sections lie within 170 feet of each other.

The EDMUND FITZGERALD was removed from documentation January, 1976.

The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously voted on March 23, 1978 to reject the U. S. Coast Guard's official report supporting the theory of faulty hatches. Later the N.T.S.B. revised its verdict and reached a majority vote to agree that the sinking was caused by taking on water through one or more hatch covers damaged by the impact of heavy seas over her deck.

This is contrary to the Lake Carriers Association's contention that her foundering was caused by flooding through bottom and ballast tank damage resulting from bottoming on the Six Fathom Shoal between Caribou and Michipicoten Islands.

The U.S. Coast Guard, report on August 2, 1977 cited faulty hatch covers, lack of water tight cargo hold bulkheads and damage caused from an undetermined source.

[ANDY M]

Howard Stern voted the song as the #1 worst tune to play in a strip club.
So other than that, how'd you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?