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. Arthur M. Anderson - Shipwatcher News Great Lakes Ships They said, however, they were inclined to accept that the Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Cooper. 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. 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. The Lake Carriers Association disagreed, proposing that the Six Fathom Shoal was the Fitzgerald's undoing. U.S. Coast Guard rescue vessel Woodrush took 21 hours to arrive on scene from the Duluth port. The steel and iron plates still sat on the dock two years later. Interesting question. I was a student of Tom's in 85 7th grade science at Sault jr high. You can listen to it here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LBkYjniTU. The theories include structural failure, rouge waves and the possibility the ship bottomed out while passing over Six Fathom Shoal thereby causing the hull to fracture. Hinze, W.J., Allen, D.J., Fox, A.J., Sunwood, D., Woelk, T. and Green, A.G., 1992. 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. In addition, Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. As the afternoon wore on, radio communications with the Fitzgerald concerned navigational information but no extraordinarily alarming reports were offered by Captain McSorley. Would like to offer any help I can. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. Caribou is included in the pages of the myths of Inuit. The bow lies mostly buried in the mud upright pointing towards Whitefish Bay. The bell of the ship is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew. 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. That would likely mean that it was at the forward end of the weather deck. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. Touching Bottom At Six Fathom Shoal - DeviantArt Yes, she almost certainly hit the shoals. Contributing factors noted were a lack of internal watertight bulkheads and allowances for more cargo weight during the ship's 17 years afloat. There is no conspiracy or disinformation campaign on that fact. Phantom Fireworks is the leading retailer of consumer fireworks in the U.S. Phantom provides the widest range of consumer fireworks in all categories. FREE BOXES. Photo by user "Greenmars" on Wikimedia Commons. 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. TheEdmund Fitzgeraldwas a "Laker" type iron ore bulk freighter launched on June 7, 1958 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rogue, Michigan for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company one year after its near sister shipArthur B. Homer. In Canadian ships alone there are at least one hundred ships that haul iron ore to this day. 5. Too soon to be coincidence. 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. The lifeboats recovered were unused. On May 20, 1976, the words Edmund Fitzgerald were clearly seen on the stern, upside down, 535 feet below the surface of the lake. Water poured in through a sudden hatch failure. Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls 26,116 long tons more than the great iron boat weighed empty. Officially, the report of the U.S. Coast Guard marine board of inquiry states that the most probable cause of the sinking was loss of buoyancy due to massive flooding of the cargo hold through ineffective hatch closures. Sault Ste Marie, MI 49783 The Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. They issued a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board in September, 1977. Again, though, I have to leave that decision up to you as to whether it would be hazarding your vessel or not. But we were talking to him about seven and he said that everything was going fine. The same problems were reported aboard theHomer. Capt. Has anyone ever calculated how much shorter the normal route across Superior would have been had the Fitzgerald not changed course? 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. 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. Several of the lakes are maintained by beavers and all are several feet above Lake Superior. Grounded on Six Fathom Shoal. 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. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. TheFitzgeraldoften held records for excellent safety and broke records for most tonnage hauled during a single shipping season. 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. 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. The bad welds were confirmed by the Coast Guard, which approved repairs. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. 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. They . First mate Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10 pm: Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. 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. Weather conditions continued to deteriorate. 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. Caribou Island is part of a large glacial moraine that accumulated south of Michipicoten Island. With regards to iron ore shipping on the Great Lakes, it most certainly is still taking place. The ships were nearing Whitefish Bay. In 2003, the herd was estimated to have 490,000 individuals, 6 and in 2016, the herd count decreased to 201,000. 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. What's obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls. 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. Quantity. I myself and my classmates are without a doubt able to state that is not only a prime example of media misinformation. What is the most accepted theory for the sinking of the Edmund - Quora The wreck is in two main sections, the bow and the stern. Instead, the LCA theorized that the lost freighter had stumbled over the Six-Fathom Shoal at the north end of Caribou Island, sustaining damage that would prove to be fatal to the ship. The Gales of November: remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald - Parks Blog 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.. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. Soon after, McSorely on the Fitzgerald reported taking topside damage and a list. 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..