By this point,McSorely was heard over the radio hollering at his crew to stay off the deck and remain inside the vessel. to which McSorely replied the infamous last words "We are holding our own." Improvements in personal lifesaving equipment have resulted in suits to protect sailors from hypothermia in Lake Superiors cold waters. Beyond these improvements on board the ships, the marine weather reports have become more sophisticated and accessible, with detailed charts now printed out electronically in the pilothouse. Fitzgerald nearly reached Caribou Island, but the slower Anderson was behind, just approaching Machicote, almost four miles from West End Light. This took them between Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. What's obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking. Still later, at about 6 p.m., Woodard called the Fitz to report that the light had just come on at Whitefish Point. 2. The Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. 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 Caribou populations naturally fluctuate on 40-70 . The Anderson changes course to avoid Six Fathom Shoal area north of Caribou Island. 400 W. Portage Avenue The comment that this industry stopped completely are false. "It was designed to haul a certain amount and they kept getting the Coast Guard to increase the load line." McSorley was forced to rely off reports from the United States Coast guard and the still functional radar of theAndersonto operate through the storm. By late afternoon, the Anderson's captain was noting wind gusts up to 70 knots and waves up to 8 metres. * The ship had run aground on a reef during the worst of the storm (likely the reef in question was Six Fathom Shoal near Caribou Island). Eight minutes at the Fitz was all that he earned for his four-hour dive because of the necessary decompression. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. Aware of a building November storm entering the Great Lakes from the great plains, Captain McSorley and Captain Cooper agreed to take the northerly course across Lake Superior, where they would be protected by highlands on the Canadian shore. Captain Cooper maintained that he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. When originally built, it was visible for 16 miles (26km) and operated on a 30-second revolving cycle. [1][3] In addition, exposures of gently dipping, friable Jacobsville Sandstone, have been reported from Caribou Island. No sailors in life vests were found. Whether spoken from a desire to maintain calm in his pilothouse or from his own false sense of security, his assessment was obviously quite wrong. Next, EF was slated for serious repair two days later, for two known structural weaknesses. 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. Kids & Family, Search Events 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. Was a bad night. Captain Jessie B. and Johnson, T.C., 1982. Contributing factors noted were a lack of internal watertight bulkheads and allowances for more cargo weight during the ship's 17 years afloat. It happened too fast. The Headstones originally hailing from Kingston, Ont. That would seem to indicate that their instruments convinced them that water was leaking into the tank area. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles. In 2018 6 caribou were moved to Caribou Island from Michipicoten Island to the north, due to pressure from Michipicoten First Nation. The last radio communication between the Fitzgerald and the Anderson was at 7:10 pm. what is the real truth to this? Your comment will appear after being approved. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. It's still not completely agreed upon whether the Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface or underwater. WHITEFISH POINT Film, Art & Exhibitions 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. 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. The same problems were reported aboard theHomer. On this voyage, Fitzgerald was fully loaded with iron ore. 4:10 PM - Nov. 10th, 1975 - Eastern Lake Superior, southeast of Caribou Island. U.S. Coast Guard rescue vessel Woodrush took 21 hours to arrive on scene from the Duluth port. Diving expeditions on the shoals also found no evidence of any recent groundings there by a ship. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. They passed several miles offshore from Split Rock Lighthouse, on Minnesotas North Shore. By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems? asked Clark. Marie, Michigan, during ferocious northwest winds and seas that washed as high as eight to 12 feet over the ships main deck. 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. The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board both issued official investigation reports that many dismiss in favor of a theory favored by the Lake Carriers Association. Im checking down. However, Northwestern Mutual apparently decided to remedy the problem regardingFitzgerald'sloose keel. Ships were first equipped with the Long Range Aid to Navigation (Loran-C), an electronic aid for pilots that had previously been widely used by oceanic navigators, but had not extended to the Great Lakes. But it also added time and nautical miles to her course in the middle of shifting, increasing winds and waves -- FROM THE WEST -- behind her. The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light. 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.. MLive meteorologist Mark Torregrossa postulates rogue waves as possible based on the 2006 NOAA storm simulation. First mate Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10 pm: Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. The radar signal, or pip of the Fitzgerald kept getting obscured by sea return. Canadian flag on the bow, American flag at stern, the Edmund Fitzgerald was a frequent site on the Great Lakes during its almost two decades of service before it sank with the loss of all 29 crew members. Marie, Ontario, only about 8090 miles SE. Sault Ste Marie, MI 49783 As originally built,Edmund Fitzgeraldwas a coal burning steamship with a Westinghouse steam turbine driving a single four bladed propeller at her rear. None, of course, were found and only floating debris gave clues that the Fitzgerald and its crew were lost. In 2003, the herd was estimated to have 490,000 individuals, 6 and in 2016, the herd count decreased to 201,000. Also, a larger, more powerful tug, the Katmai Bay, is now stationed at Sault Ste. In a similar vein, Paul Hainault, a retired Michigan Tech University professor, postulated a seiche caused the ship to scrape the bottom of Superior Shoal early that morning and the weakened hull eventually gave out. Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25mi) south of Michipicoten Island. Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Michipicoten Island. 888-492-3747, Copyright 2023 | All Rights Reserved | Produced by Pro Web Marketing. As the afternoon wore on, radio communications with the Fitzgerald concerned navigational information but no extraordinarily alarming reports were offered by Captain McSorley. Near-hurricane force winds seemed to pick up strength throughout the day while visibility was greatly reduced. 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. Twenty-nine men were lost when the Fitzgerald went down. 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. Photo by user "Greenmars" on Wikimedia Commons. 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. Proven by: Large holes, Anderson's captain's concern for how close the Fitzgerald was to the shoal, inaccurate charts. Water intrusion came less than 30 minutes later. 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. From what I know, the Fitzgerald sank 45 years ago as of posting this comment, soon to be 46. [1], The island was privately held by a group of hunters and stocked with caribou in the late 1800s. 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. 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. 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. 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. This contact or a near miss would damage the hull and allow water to begin accumulating inside the affected ballast tanks. I hear they found the crewmen's bodies and than I heard they never did that this was a rumor. Caribou Island was considered for an emergency landing airport (YCI) during World War II but it was never built because of the proximity of the twin cities of Sault Ste. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. 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. 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. 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.. 5. 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. I then called the William Clay Ford to ask him if my phone was putting out a good signal and also if perhaps the Fitzgerald had rounded the point and was in shelter, after a negative report I called the Soo Coast Guard because I was sure something had happened to the Fitzgerald. Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee Had she sailed two days later, empty, for repairs (very good timing, actually) none of this would have happened. TheAndersonwasn't in much better shape, its engine room leaking consistently and its superstructure often being submerged entirely under water every time a wave hit. Right in the middle of this economic meltdown, and not just in the Great Lakes region, the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647 ha . 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 main deck behind the superstructure, which included the forward cargo hatches appears to have collapsed entirely and the sides of the hull are bending outwards. His written report states: At this time I became very concerned about the Fitzgerald couldnt see his lights when we should have. 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 bad welds were confirmed by the Coast Guard, which approved repairs. Perhaps the real cause of the sinking may never be known for certain. The B-side on the single was The House You Live In.. From the time of its first voyage on Sept. 24, 1958, the ship set six records by carrying heavier and heavier loads. 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. After reviewing testimony that Fitzgerald had passed near shoals north of Caribou Island, the USCG Marine Board examined the relevant navigational charts. Both ships crews could feel the effects.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. Forty-four years ago today on Nov. 10, 1975, 18 kilometres off Coppermine Point, and 60 kilometres north of Sault Ste Marie, Ont., the 222-metre iron ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald, with a crew of 29 aboard, sank. The ship broke in half and quickly sank. Within a few years, Loran was rendered obsolete by the pinpoint accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which uses satellites to answer virtually any navigational question an officer might have. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water, Ley wrote. In 2000, author Hugh Bishop pushed the "Three Sisters" theory about a trio of rogue waves that overwhelmed the Fitzgerald in quick succession. A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. The closest communities are Belden to the southwest, Twain to the southeast, Canyondam to the north, and Greenville to the east. The misinformation that has been spread by the media then and now is a great example of how clueless the general public is going to continue to be unless they stand up for a full disclosure of information and laws that regulate punish and fine the profiteers of misinformation. 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. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. Couseau had theorized a surface break up, which sounds similar to the Merril several years later. The Coast Guard were at this time trying to locate a 16-foot boat that was overdue.. 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. Cooper believes that from that point on, McSorley knew he was sinking. They said, however, they were inclined to accept that the Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Cooper. That's what underwriters do. The shoaling hypothesis suggests that the most probable cause of the Edmund Fitzgerald's wreckage was her shoaling or grounding in the Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island when the crew was unable to use the Whitefish Point Light as a navigational aid. Theory 2: Six-Fathom Shoal 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, which nestles off the north end of the island with water as shallow as 26 feet. He kept losing sight of the Fitzgerald on the radar from sea return, meaning that seas were so high they interfered with the radar reflection. The two ships were in radio contact. Great respect must be accorded to the wreck site, which still contains the remains of crew members and is considered a gravesite. Their only hope was the safety of White Fish Bay, where maybe they could be rescued off or near the ship. This theory is the thought that the Fitzgerald hit the bottom near Caribou Island, ripping a hole in the ship. The Great Lakes Ore Carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald, Known to Lake Mariners as "The Mighty Fitz". Significantly, within a few minutes of passing the shoal, the Fitzs Captain Ernest McSorley reported a starboard list, missing vents and a fence rail down. 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. Sawyer AFB in the UP of Michigan, crew member on a rescue helo. Minor incidents included groundings and collisions between 1969 and 1974. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram. If theFitzgeraldwere to be dived, then it would be a technical dive as it is over 200 feet. Quantity. With the ship pounding and rolling badly, the crew of the Anderson discovered the Fitzgeralds two lifeboats and other debris but no sign of survivors. During that conversation, he stated that McSorley inadvertently left the microphone on when he said to someone in his pilothouse, Dont allow nobody on deck, also saying something about a vent that Woodard couldnt understand. 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. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish? McSorley was checking down his speed to allow the Anderson to close the distance for safety. 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. The first one flooded our boat deck. Would like to offer any help I can. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water barrooff just like a big dog. 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. Crafts The battered ship despite the odds continued to soldier on towards Whitefish Bay. In 1977, the U.S Coast Guard pinned the sinking on massive flooding of the cargo hold caused by faulty or poorly fastened hatch covers. Because the ship had no depth sounding technology, the crew had no way of knowing that incoming water was pushing the ship lower in the water until the flooding exceeded the height of the iron ore in the holds. Art & Exhibitions But the Arthur M. Anderson survived and the Fitzgerald did not. This theory was supported by a 1976 Canadian hydrographic survey, which disclosed that an unknown shoal ran a mile further east of Six Fathom Shoal than shown on the Canadian charts. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest boat on the Great Lakes. 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. Caribou Island and Southwest Bank Protection Area means the area enclosed by rhumb lines connecting the following coordinates, beginning on the northernmost point and proceeding clockwise: 4730.0 N, 08550.0 W 4724.2 N, 08538.5 W 4704.0 N, 08549.0 W 4705.7 N, 08559.0 W 4718.1 N, 08605.0 W. Ill give it a try., Do you realize what the conditions are out there?. By early the next morning, theAndersonandFitzgeraldencountered a powerful November gale with winds up to 50miles an hour. And then a song. Furthermore, she had few watertight compartments and was rumored to be overloaded beyondwhat her designers had meant for her to carry. 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 suits are also equipped with flashing lights and radio position beacons. Officers from the Anderson observed that the Fitzgerald sailed through this exact area. ZIP Code by City and State. 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.. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was released as a 7-inch 45 rpm A-side single in August 1976, taken from Lightfoots album Summertime Dream released that July. Ahif you want me to, I can, but Im not going to be making any time; Ill be lucky to make two or three miles an hour going back out that way., Well, youll have to make a decision as to whether you will be hazarding your vessel or not, but youre probably one of the only vessels right now that can get to the scene. Broke in two and sank in minutes. "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. 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. There was no answer. All rights reserved (About Us). 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.. Arthur B. Homerwas assigned to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation whileEdmund Fitzgeraldwas assigned to the Columbia Transportation Division of the Oglebay Norton Company and immediately became flagship. 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. Capt. Numerous authors have written books on the tragedy. Hinze, W.J., Allen, D.J., Fox, A.J., Sunwood, D., Woelk, T. and Green, A.G., 1992. The wreck is in two main sections, the bow and the stern. 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." Photo Credit: Greenmars (Wikimedia Commons: Link) Marie. The studio was, yes, indeed, later torn down and replaced by a parking lot. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat. The second large sea put green water (the powerful center of a wave) on our bridge deck! Below is a breakdown of the main theories: Faulty hatch covers caused massive internal flooding. Even before her demise, the Fitzgeraldwas a well known icon of the Great Lakes to those that lived along it.). It was also revealed that a fence railing on theFitzgerald's deckhad been broken and a number of vent covers were missing. Regis, R.S., Patterson, C.J., Wattrus, N., and Rausch, D., 2003. 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. Keep up with the magazine, news and happenings around the Big Lake. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. They therefore have the best genetics for surviving in this area. The first official report on the wreck sparked a flood of second-guessing. Captain McSorley told Woodard that the ship has a bad list, implying that it had gotten worse since his earlier report to Captain Cooper. The Coast Guard then initiated its search for the missing ship. In July 1979, he would go onto co-author the book Great American Dreams: A Portrait of the Way We Are with the Washington Posts Robert Kaiser. They issued a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board in September, 1977. The steel and iron plates still sat on the dock two years later. 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. Grounded on Six Fathom Shoal. They have persisted where all others have perished. I am from Sault Ste Marie Michigan and a former student of the founder of the great lakes shipwreck historical society Tom Farnquist. A small three room cabin was built on the east shore of Lake Superior adjacent to Deer Lake and the Amphibian base. "I've often wondered whether these two particular seas might have been the ones that finally did the Fitzgerald in, because they were really huge," he said. 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. A real eye opening view from the man who was the last person to ever speak to theEdmund Fitzgerald's crew. [9][10], This article is about the island in eastern Lake Superior. Captain Cooper asked McSorley if he had his pumps going, and McSorley said, Yes, both of them.. They are the last of their kind exposed to the human development and predation on the mainland. 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. 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. 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). [3][8][9] Samples dredged from a shoal northwest of Caribou Island and close to one of these valleys resemble Jacobsville Sandstone. Cooper tried desperately to raise McSorley on the radio to no avail. There have been about half a dozen dives to the site since the shipwreck in 1975. 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. Since then, there have been about a half dozen dives to the wreck using deep-diving equipment. 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.