caribou island six fathom shoal

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. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Since no Coast Guard vessel capable of sailing in the conditions prevalent in eastern Lake Superior was available in the vicinity of the wreck, maintenance procedures were amended to ensure that cutters would be in a ready condition during the spring and fall periods of bad weather. Was a bad night. Not long after the search ended, years of arguments and disagreements over what could have caused theEdmund Fitzgeraldto sink have clouded up any hope of truly understanding what occurred the night of November 10, 1975 as the shipping companies, government agencies and sea fairers of the Great Lakes all have different theories and opinions that do not match. At the time of her launch in 1958, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes. 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. Despite having been built in Michigan and having operated mostly around Michigan,Edmund Fitzgeraldwas homeported in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Size wise, both theArthur B. HomerandEdmund Fitzgeraldwere impressive even compared to oceanic ships, with an outstanding length of 711 to 729 feet. The laker, the pride of the American side, was still bigger than most, and had been the largest freighter to sail the Great Lakes when it was launched in 1958. 1. It is rumored that the light house keepers poached caribou and beaver. But the ship's owners were insurance men, not mariners, who reconfigured her for even more iron ore. No limit on the Perch, so we returned pretty low in the water. Cooper tried desperately to raise McSorley on the radio to no avail. The LCA thinks the Fitzgerald grounded on the poorly-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island, causing fatal damage to the hull. 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 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. The light at Whitefish Point was out temporarily on the night the Fitz went down. The caribou were very aggressive, treeing the lighthouse keeper for hours on several occasions. On May 20, 1976, the words Edmund Fitzgerald were clearly seen on the stern, upside down, 535 feet below the surface of the lake. It shouldn't have. If the ship had "hogged" upon striking the. That would likely mean that it was at the forward end of the weather deck. Conjecture by proponents of the Six Fathom Shoal theory concluded that Fitzgerald ' s downed fence rail reported by McSorley could occur only if the ship "hogged" during shoaling, . Their only hope was the safety of White Fish Bay, where maybe they could be rescued off or near the ship. Capt. 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. Broke in two and sank in minutes. Were going to try to contact those saltwater vessels and see if they cant possibly come about and possibly come back alsothings look pretty bad right now; it looks like she may have split apart at the seams like the Morrell did a few years back., Well, thats what I been thinking. Phantom Fireworks is the leading retailer of consumer fireworks in the U.S. Phantom provides the widest range of consumer fireworks in all categories. The slow flooding supposedly went unnoticed by the captain and crew until it caused an imperceptible but fatal buoyancy loss and eventually sent the Fitzgerald plunging to the bottom. He said that he was going along like an old shoe; no problems at all., Well, again, do you think you could come about and go back and have a look in the area?, Well, Ill go back and take a look, but God, Im afraid Im going to take a hell of a beating out there Ill turn around and give er a whirl, but God, I dont know. At some point it all becomes moot, except for the 29 families who remain, and do without bread from their missing bread-winners. The island was acquired completely by the Roys A. Ellis family in the 1960s and was transferred to the Mellon Conservancy Trust of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the early 1980s to never be developed. Cooper radioed theFitzgerald at 7:10 PMuknown to him that it would be the final communication with McSorley. Next, EF was slated for serious repair two days later, for two known structural weaknesses. The interior is low scrub and bog with small lakes, Little Italy, Hambone, and Deer Lake among many unnamed ones. 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. But an hour later, when Anderson First Mate Morgan Clark asked how he was making out with his problems, McSorley assured him, We are holding our own.. 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. 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. But the Arthur M. Anderson survived and the Fitzgerald did not. Marie. The first official report on the wreck sparked a flood of second-guessing. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram. Cities by ZIP Code. Fitzgerald nearly reached Caribou Island, but the slower Anderson was behind, just approaching Machicote, almost four miles from West End Light. 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. The modification never took place and the patch plates could be seen at the shipyard a couple of years after theFitzgerald'sdemise.TheEdmund Fitzgeralddeparted on what would be her last voyage the afternoon of November 9, 1975 leaving the iron ore docks of Superior, Wisconsin bound for aZug Island steel foundry near Detroit,Michigan. So, what happened? 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. 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. Various cars scatter the bottom of the river covered in grass and zebra muscles. 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. Later, in a videotaped conversation with GLSHS, Captain Cooper said that he always believed McSorley knew something serious had happened to Fitzgerald as the ship passed over Caribou Shoal. WHITEFISH POINT Marine and other experts who examined Coast Guard photos and videotape of the wreckage for the board of inquiry dismissed fracture as a cause of the wreck, based on the fact that no photo evidence shows brittle fracture separation, which is described as having straight or flat edges. Marie, Michigan, during ferocious northwest winds and seas that washed as high as eight to 12 feet over the ships main deck. He reduced speed to allow the Anderson to close the 17-mile gap between them. While EPIRB would not have aided the crew of the Fitzgerald, it would have identified the sunken ship and given searchers a location to start their effort to find survivors. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest boat on the Great Lakes. She never should have sailed, and could have turned back when "The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound, as a wave broke over the railing." 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. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647ha) in area. Okay, fine, Ill be talking to you later. Clark signed off. The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. 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. Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) are now standard equipment on lakes vessels, allowing instantaneous identification of the area where a vessel founders. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. There is no conspiracy or disinformation campaign on that fact. Various cars scatter the bottom of the river covered in grass and zebra muscles. 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. Great respect must be accorded to the wreck site, however, which still contains the remains of crew members and is considered a gravesite. The bodies have not been recovered. They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point. It is not known ifFitzgeraldhad struck bottom on the shoal or another nearby outcropping, but upon passing Caribou Island, the problems started. 400 W. Portage Avenue A body that was seen but not retrieved is not a recovered body. Officers from the Anderson observed that the Fitzgerald sailed through this exact area. A half hour later I heard the news. I myself and my classmates are without a doubt able to state that is not only a prime example of media misinformation. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles. 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. The Western Arctic Herd is one of the largest caribou herds in Alaska and the world. The Anderson's captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory.