The Gales of November

[97RangerXLT]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Gordon lightfoot put this event to song in 1976, one year after the incident. As a boy, I heard this song on the radio and it really touched me as this was an event that happened in my lifetime. Lightfoot really hit home with this song. "Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours" strikes a nerve. a couple of documentaries on YouTube that did a great job of covering what possibly happened and the last conversation over the radio between the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Arthur M Anderson. (still in service today, I even saw it going through the Soo Locks in 2004)

One thing I did not realize was how big the Fitz was and how luxurious it was even as a freighter.

If any of you get the opportunity, visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point in Michigan. they have the original ships bell from the Fitz there. an excellent exhibit.

First the Gordon Lightfoot song:

and a few great documentaries:

Enjoy.

AJ

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I also listened to this song growing up. But I didn't realize it was about a recent ship sinking, I thought it was about an old 1800's shipwreck.

 

[pjtoledo]

half a century ago. I was still in the Army then.
if you want to experience of the gales of November visit Whitefish Point in the winter.
a good north wind there is like entering chaos.

that night the winds hit 90 mph at nearby Saulte St Marie
when the coast guard called for other ships to go out and search nobody answered for a while.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Actually watching this right now:

This is a interesting channel and they talk a lot about the Fitz. Both were captains on the great lakes, the older gentlemen's father and uncle both served on he Fitzgerald, his uncle actually went down with her.

It is amusing for just being a big civilian ore hauler how much shady stuff there is around the ship and its demise.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I actually remember when this happened. I was 11. My dad and I use to go fishing out along the break wall in Fairport Harbor near the light house. When it came on the news I remember wondering if it was one of the ships we had seen on Lake Erie. It's crazy how many ships have sunk out on the great lakes.

 

[rumblecloud]

Not that I'm an expert or anything like that, but I've been up there a few times - White Fish Point lighthouse and got a bit of an education on why it's so treacherous in that part of the lake. Abrupt deep water to shallow, different lake bed terrain and when the wind is right you do not want to be out there. There are many, many wrecks in that area. Storms come out of nowhere and there lots of traffic through that stretch.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I actually remember when this happened. I was 11. My dad and I use to go fishing out along the break wall in Fairport Harbor near the light house. When it came on the news I remember wondering if it was one of the ships we had seen on Lake Erie. It's crazy how many ships have sunk out on the great lakes.

Its also crazy how well preserved they are... at least until the zebra mussels take over.

It was amusing in that thing I was watching/listening to last night that was just the radio chatter as they were searching. The ocean going ships were getting along pretty good, when the Anderson went back out he was only making 1 or 2mph against the wind and waves.

Interesting tidbits I have came across:
Took three tries to break the bottle when they launched her
Constantly had structural keel issues, actually had new keel plates awaiting for winter layup repairs
"revised" coast guard load lines actually put her over her designed weight
-handled poorly
-twisted strangely and groaned in heavy seas
Radars were damaged by a loading chute during loading earlier in the season, had issues with water coming thru roof where they pass thru and with the radars cutting out for the rest of the year
Always carried a spare propeller blade on deck and had just had it swapped out before she left.
She had just passed a Coast Guard inspection two weeks before she sank.
Coast Guard light and guidance radio at Whitefish Point were not in operation.

Take all that and mix it up with:

That a large flat bottom ship doesn't have to come in direct contact with the bottom to cause hull damage, she was plotted via the Anderson going over a reef, the wreck is missing 200' of ship. There are also heresy reports that the reef she may have passed over was covered in red paint but that was left out of the report. They supposedly looked but couldn't find anything.

Did the old propeller blade come loose and cause damage on deck (down fence, missing vent, cargo hold cover damage? (that part of the ship is upside down) It obviously wasn't moved often and was secured with clamps similar to the cargo hold covers which may not have been in the best repair. This possibility was actually mentioned in the report.

"The pumps" only pump out the bilge, not the cargo holds so she had leaks elsewhere besides the cargo covers if they were leaking at all. That said the covers were steel on steel and were never intended to fully be watertight.

Then the rogue waves that hit the Anderson about the same time the Fitz went off radar.

Then the company that owned her would not let the NTSB inspect the Fitzgerald's sister ship, the Arthur B Homer which they proceeded to stretch 100' run a couple years and then layup in 1980 before scrapping in 1986 (for reference the Arthur M Anderson which was travelling with the Fitz was older than either the Fitz or Homer and is still in service and was also stretched.

The hard ban on anyone doing anything around the wrecksite because it is a historic gravesite. Even sidescan sonar is banned. Older logbooks have been discovered and restored which would have key information on what was going on in the ship. Closest thing to a flight data recorder they have and nobody cared. There was a 20 year window before that ban nobody really did anything constructive aside from salvage the bell.

Very few other captains were called in to testify. I don't remember of the captain of the Anderson was even called in or not.

The NTSB ruling was wishy washy and nothing/nobody was really blamed, each crewmember's family got $600 for their loss.

- If she grounded because the radars would quit the company could have been sued for allowing the ship to sail without properly repairing the radars

- If the propeller blade came loose because the clamps were out of repair... it could come back on the company

- If she was deficient in design/maintenance it would also come back on the company. That they strongarmed the NTSB from inspecting the sister ship was pretty incredible. Also that they turned her into razor blades right after doing so much work to her is curious. Few people today even know there was a sister ship.

It was the last run for the year and actually the captain's last before he retired, no doubt things were put off until the year was over to get done in the off season (radars, keel, even general wear and tear stuff etc)

Even the CG had a vest interest in not looking into it too hard, they had just approved her as seaworthy two weeks before and didn't have the navigation light or direction signal radio functional at Whitefish Point.

Imagine a world where an airplane crashed and nobody cared enough to look for the flight data recorder and a private company could tell the FAA where to go when they want to inspect similar aircraft...

If that was a 727 it would have been recovered and rebuilt in a hanger to nail down exactly what happened...

 

[97RangerXLT]

some other interesting facts... the ship had two hallways that ran the length of the ship beside the cargo holds with light fixtures every 10 feet on the lengthwise wall. in rough seas the hallway twisted and deflected enough that some of those fixtures at the far end would be out of sight and then come back in sight.

At the launch, the ships splash into the river startled someone so bad he had a heart attack and died.

the shoal off of Carribou Island that the Fitz supposedly hit. the charts that the Anderson and Fitz had were last updated in 1918....

I honestly believe that McSorlie knew he hit a shoal. he was a good 20 minutes ahead of the Anderson which was his eyes and ears since he had no working radar and the light and radio beacon at Whitefish Point was down. he was within an hour of the safety of Whitefish bay, yet he slowed down for the Anderson to catch up to him to guide him in. he stated that the ship was listing and had lost its fence, any other close call with shoals probably would have immediately done them in.

Construction of the Fitz was a new style. there was more welded plates than rivets putting it together. maybe some of those welds were cracking causing needs for replacement plating that was scheduled to happen over winter.
I agree with 85... if this was a large cargo plane, they would have investigated every last weld and rivet of the wreck.

As I mentioned, the Great Lakes Shipwreck museum in Whitefish Point has an excellent exhibit on the Fitz. worth the trip to go see it.

AJ

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Fitz was trying to dodge oncoming traffic too that he couldn't see with the radars down.

I don't know if he would have known if he reefed it, the understated comment "we are holding our own" says a lot though. He knew he had problems, especially when the pumps were not keeping up.

There were replacement plates waiting for them at the yard after this run, she had fought keel issues her whole career.

That is part of what is so interesting to me, while nothing was really "wrong" so much about the whole thing isn't right but not really wrong wrong either.

And it may be none of it. Water piled up behind the wheelhouse and caved in a cargo hatch, the wheelhouse just went into one wave and never came back out.

Video of the launch: