1975 — Nov 10, Storm, SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks, Lake Superior, Whitefish Bay, MI– 29

— 29 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 417.
— 29 History.com. “This Day in History. 1975, Nov 10. Cargo ship suddenly sinks…Superior.”
— 29 Nash. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters… 1977, p. 709.
— 29 Posner. “The Edmund Fitzgerald’s Legend Lives On…,” Globe and Mail, Mar 25, 2010.
— 29 Stonehouse. Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. 1985, p. 207.
— 29 Swayze. Great Lakes Shipwrecks Beginning with the Letter “F.”
— 29 Swayze. Shipwreck! A Comprehensive Directory…Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. 1992, p. 87.
— 29 USCG. Marine Casualty Report. SS Edmund Fitzgerald…Lake Superior… 1977.
— 29 Wikipedia, “SS Edmund Fitzgerald.”
— 29 Wolff. Lake Superior Shipwrecks: Complete Reference to Maritime Accidents… 1990, 217.

Narrative Information

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping: “The U.S. Coast Guard’s report on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was released on August 2, 1977. It cited faulty hatch covers, lack of water tight cargo hold bulkheads and damage caused from an undetermined source as the cause of her loss.” (Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. Report News (August 2009).)

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News: “The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously voted on March 23,1978, to reject the U. S. Coast Guard’s official report supporting the theory of faulty hatches in their EDMUND FITZGERALD investigation. Later the N.T.S.B. revised its verdict and reached a majority vote to agree that the sinking was caused by taking on water through one or more hatch covers damaged by the impact of heavy seas over her deck. This is contrary to the Lake Carriers Association’s contention that her foundering was caused by flooding through bottom and ballast tank damage resulting from bottoming on the Six Fathom Shoal between Caribou and Michipicoten Islands.” (Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. Report News (March 2009).)

History.com. “This Day in History 1975: Cargo Ship Suddenly Sinks in Lake Superior”:

“On this day in 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board. It was the worst single accident in Lake Superior’s history. The ship weighed more than 13,000 tons and was 730 feet long. It was launched in 1958 as the biggest carrier in the Great Lakes and became the first ship to carry more than a million tons of iron ore through the Soo Locks.

“On November 9, the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, with 26,000 tons of ore heading for Detroit, Michigan. The following afternoon, Ernest McSorely, the captain of the Fitzgerald and a 44-year veteran, contacted the Avafor, another ship traveling on Lake Superior and reported that his ship had encountered “one of the worst seas he had ever been in.” The Fitzgerald had lost its radar equipment and was listing badly to one side.

“A couple of hours later, another ship made contact and was told that the Fitzgerald was holding its own. However, minutes afterward, the Fitzgerald disappeared from radar screens. A subsequent investigation showed that the sinking of the Fitzgerald occurred very suddenly; no distress signal was sent and the condition of the lifeboats suggested that little or no attempt was made to abandon the ship.

“One possible reason for the wreck is that the Fitzgerald was carrying too much cargo. This made the ship sit low in the water and made it more vulnerable to being overwhelmed by a sudden large wave. The official report also cited the possibility that the hatches to the cargo area may have been faulty, leading to a sudden shift of the cargo that capsized the boat.

“The Fitzgerald was eventually found 530 feet below the surface, 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, at the northeastern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The ship had broken into two parts that were found approximately 150 feet apart. As there were no survivors among the 29 crewmembers, there will likely never be a definitive explanation of the Fitzgerald’s sinking.

“The Fitzgerald’s sinking was the worst wreck in the Great Lakes since November 29, 1966, when 28 people died in the sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell in Lake Huron.

“The disaster was immortalized in song the following year in Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’.” (History.com. This Day in History 1975: Cargo Ship Suddenly Sinks in Lake Superior.)

Posner: “The Edmund Fitzgerald’s Legend Lives On…,” Globe and Mail, Mar 25, 2010:

‘In the first episode of Dive Detectives, a new series for History Television, the father-and-son diving team of Mike and Warren Fletcher from Port Dover, Ont., conclude that a gigantic, 50-foot rogue wave – not human error – was responsible for sinking the Edmund Fitzgerald….

“Carrying 26,000 tonnes of iron ore, the Edmund Fitzgerald – at 220 metres long, one of the largest boats ever built for Great Lakes transport – left Superior, Wisc. On the evening of Nov. 9, 1975, bound east for a steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit. The next day, it encountered a fierce early winter storm, with hurricane-force winds in excess of 50 knots.

“For hours, it was buffeted by sea and wind, eventually taking on water, losing radar, and beginning to list. Captain Ernest M. McSorley, struggling to get the freighter to the Canadian coast, said over the radio it was “one of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.” Seventeen miles offshore, it sank 160 metres to the muddy bottom.

“Twenty-nine lives were lost….

“Conducting a marine casualty report, the U.S. coast guard concluded that the boat sank because the cargo hatches were ‘improperly serviced.’ In other words, the crew left them open, allowing the holds to fill with water and dooming the ship.

“Families of crew members, other Great Lakes captains and marine engineers have long disputed the verdict. The first response to a storm as savage as the one the freighter faced, they note, would have been to secure the metal clamps that sealed the cargo holds.

“Pointing the finger at ‘human error’ prevented lawsuits against the boat’s owners, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Milwaukee, or its operators, Oglebay Norton Corp.

“But other theories have also been suggested, including the suggestion that the ship may have been damaged by running aground or been victimized by a rogue wave….

“Once regarded as maritime myths, rogue waves, scientists now say, occur when a group of waves, travelling in different directions and speeds, coalesce into a single new wave, maximizing destructive power. Any wave 2.6 times the height of a significant wave could be regarded as a rogue wave. Such waves, sometimes known as ‘three sisters,’ were spotted on the lake the day of the disaster by other ships.

“Using the Institute for Ocean technology in St. John’s, the Fletchers deploy wave-generating technology to simulate the conditions faced by the Edmund Fitzgerald. Their tests demonstrate how the force of the freak wave, crashing down on the mid-section of the boat – already low in the water because of its heavy cargo – might have caused it to split in two. Captain Chris Hearn, director of the Centre for Marine Simulation at Memorial University, says such a wave, in combination with the age of the vessel and its heavy load, is the most likely cause of the catastrophe.” (Posner. “The Edmund Fitzgerald’s Legend Lives On…,” March 25, 2010.)

USCG Abstract: “On the evening of 10 November 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, while in a severe storm, with a full cargo of taconite pellets, sank in eastern Lake Superior at 46⁰ 59.9′ N, 85⁰ 06.6W, approximately 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay, Michigan. All of the 29 crewmen on board at the time of the casualty are missing and presumed dead…

“The Commandant concurred with the Marine Board that the most probable cause of the sinking was the loss of buoyancy resulting from massive flooding of the cargo hold.…The vessel dove into a wall of water and never recovered, with the breaking up of the ship occurring as it plunged or as the ship struck the bottom.” (United States Coast Guard, Marine Board of Investigation. Marine Casualty Report. SS Edmund Fitzgerald; Sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with Loss of Life. Washington DC, Commandant, USCG, July 26, 1977, 121 pages.)

Wolff: “A sinister reminder that Lake Superior could still be the Grim Reaper came on the evening of November 10. The 729-foot Edmund Fitzgerald, flagship of the Columbia Transportation fleet, Oglebay Norton Company, mysteriously plunged to the bottom in the midst of an intense storm hovering over the eastern lake. Lost with the Fitzgerald were Captain Ernest M. McSorley of Toledo and his 28-man crew….” (Wolff, Julius F., Jr. Lake Superior Shipwrecks: Complete Reference to Maritime Accidents and Disasters. 1990, p. 217.)

Sources

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News, August 2009.” Accessed at: http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/8-09.htm

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News, March 2009.” Accessed at: http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/3-09.htm

History.com. “This Day in History. 1975, November 10. Cargo ship suddenly sinks in Lake Superior.” Accessed 7-22-2020 at: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cargo-ship-suddenly-sinks-in-lake-superior

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

Posner, Michael. “The Edmund Fitzgerald’s Legend Lives On…but with a Major Change,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), 3-25-2010. Accessed at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com:80/news/national/the-edmund-fitzgeralds-legend-lives-on-but-with-a-major-change/article1511191/

Stonehouse, Frederick. Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. AuTrain, MI: Avery Color Studios, 1985.

Swayze, David D. Great Lakes Shipwrecks Beginning with the letter “F.” Accessed at: http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/f.htm

United States Coast Guard, Marine Board of Investigation. Marine Casualty Report. SS Edmund Fitzgerald; Sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with Loss of Life (Report No. USCG 16732/64216). Washington DC, Commandant, USCG, July 26, 1977, 121 pages. Accessed at: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/docs/boards/edmundfitz.pdf

Wikipedia. “SS Edmund Fitzgerald.” Accessed 12-29-2008 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

Wolff, Julius F., Jr. Lake Superior Shipwrecks: Complete Reference to Maritime Accidents and Disasters. Duluth, MN: Lake Superior Port Cities, Inc., 1990.