This island was considered an emergency landing airport (YCI) during World War II. Our Specialties. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.. There's even a work of Fiction, SCP-1174, titled, and I quote, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Captain Woodard, who was acquainted with McSorley and had talked with him many times previously, said in testimony that he didnt recognize the voice when first they spoke and that McSorley sounded strange. 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. "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. SS Edmund Fitzgerald - Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core All rights reserved. What also can be stated with certainty is that sometime between 7:10 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Fitzgerald simply disappeared into Lake Superior about 15 miles from the shelter of Whitefish Bay just west of Sault Ste. Because all 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald went down with the ship -- which was there one minute and gone the next -- the best accounts that investigators could rely on were those of sailors in the vicinity of the ship during the storm, or who had contact with the Fitzgerald somehow in the weeks prior to her final voyage. The cause of the sinking is still a matter of much historic debate, both Ley and Sproule note. After enough persuasion, Cooper agreed to take theAndersonback out to sea followed by the LakerWilliam Clay Ford. By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar. Capt. In Canadian ships alone there are at least one hundred ships that haul iron ore to this day. It happened too fast. Although she had a good safety record, theFitzgerald'shull was, according to the anecdotes of mariners who set foot aboard her and sailed on her, a vessel with a loose keel. It was also revealed that a fence railing on theFitzgerald's deckhad been broken and a number of vent covers were missing. 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. The weather had cleared dramatically. Theories - THE EDMUND FITZGERALD It lies entirely within the territorial waters of Canada although only about five kilometres from the international border between Canada and the United States. What was eventually found only included destroyed remains of the ships two lifeboats, life preservers and items from the ship's galleys. So why not rebuild the ship? 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 LCA thinks the Fitzgerald grounded on the poorly-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island, causing fatal damage to the hull. 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. An explanation that has been espoused several times by mariners is that the Fitzgerald suffered a stress fracture and broke apart on the surface from the effects of heavy seas twisting and flexing the hull. Superior Shoal - Wikipedia Okay, fine, Ill be talking to you later. Clark signed off. The popular misconception is that non of the crewmembers bodies were never discovered. 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. Some of the most famous lyrics in Canadian music history, anchored to what would soon become the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes, first appeared as the lede of the bylined story Great Lakes: The Cruelest Month by James R. (Jim) Gaines, national affairs writer, and Jon Lowell for a Nov. 24, 1975 Detroit-based story in Newsweek magazine. Reporting to the Anderson, the Fitzs Captain Ernest McSorley revealed the list and had activated two large ballast tank pumps to control it. Arthur M. Anderson - Shipwatcher News Great Lakes Ships 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. The Coast Guard launched a fixed-wing HU-16 aircraft at 10 pm and dispatched two cutters, the Naugatuck and the Woodrush. 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. Too soon to be coincidence. Quantity. If you think you can safely go back up to the area, I would request that you do so. Fitzgerald nearly reached Caribou Island, but the slower Anderson was behind, just approaching Machicote, almost four miles from West End Light. The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down From everything we know and remembering that they were not required at the time, neither survival suits nor EPIRB would have helped the crew of the Fitzgerald because the ship sank so suddenly, Stonehouse points out. Departing Superior about 2:30 pm, she was soon joined by the Arthur M. Anderson, which had departed Two Harbors, Minnesota under Captain Bernie Cooper. There was no answer. Furthermore, she had few watertight compartments and was rumored to be overloaded beyondwhat her designers had meant for her to carry. But I have to leave the decision up to you., Ill give it a try, but thats all I can do.. 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. Looks like he was right on this one. Keep up with the magazine, news and happenings around the Big Lake. A small three room cabin was built on the east shore of Lake Superior adjacent to Deer Lake and the Amphibian base. 301 did sink that fateful night, all hands, but should it have? A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. "We always had to go down and pump them out.". Broke in two and sank in minutes. I, respectfully, can't and won't feel the magnitude of this tragedy by those directly affected. 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.
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