The wreck & sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald November 10th, 1975 has been a subject that has fascinated me since my childhood. How a storm on Lake Superior could take down a ship that was experiencing no apparent major problems with such speed that no distress call could be made has given me a profound respect and an appropriate fear of the Great Lakes. The ship itself was the approximate length of 2 city blocks (729 feet total) and at the time it was launched in 1958 was the largest freighter on the great lakes. It remained as the largest on the lakes until 1971. At the time of its sinking, 17 years later, it was still among the largest. The massive size of the ship, paired with mystery that surrounds the cause of the wreck is the what makes this shipwreck so fascinating.  Theories exist, most of which have distinct differences from the Official Coast Guard report which you can view here.

I have read 2 books on the sinking, "The Gales of November" written in 1981, and "Fitzgerald's Storm" written in 1998. Both books are excellent and take different  approaches to telling the story of the wreck. "Gales of November"chooses to tell the story of the people on board and their back grounds, building theory into a fictional end to the story. The only problem with it is that it tends to read like a soap opera at times and requires you at points to separate fact from fiction. However its extensive detailing of the actual people involved is interesting nonetheless. "Fitzgerald's Storm" is much more factual in its account, and concentrates much more on the sinking itself. Due to improved search technologies that were not available in '81 Fitzgerald's Storm is able to provide more insight to actual sinking & more technical evidence.

The closest thing to a "witness" to the sinking would have to be the Captain & Crew of the Arthur M. Anderson, a freighter of similar size (pictured further down the page).  The ships traveled east together and took a more Northern route than was typical for the voyage due to the impending storm that had been forecast. The weather reports had anticipated the gale force winds to come out of the Northeast, & the more northern route would bring the ships close to the Canadian shoreline at the storms peak . This would  provide a "lee" for the ships and reduce the speed of the winds and the waves that the ships would experience. The two  ships remained fairly close together through the storm, the Fitzgerald leading due to it being the faster vessel. In an unfortunate twist of fate, at about 3 PM on the 10th the winds made an unanticipated shift and began to blow from the Northwest blowing down across the lake towards the ships. The increased distance that the winds would now travel across the water before reaching the ships greatly increased the size of the waves they experienced.

During the storm the ships were in constant communication and it was at around this time (3 - 3:30 PM) that the Fitzgerald began to experience and report problems. At around 3:20 PM the Officers of The Anderson witnessed the Fitzgerald pass Michipicoten Island some 7 miles to its west on their radar. Michipicoten can be seen as the land mass located between the first & second red arrows on the above map. To the west of the Island is an area charted and named as "Six Fathom Shoal" a rocky plateau rising from the lakes bottom approximately 36 feet from the lakes surface.  It is the opinion of Captain Cooper that The Fitzgerald passed too closely to the shoals and instructed his crew to stay further to the west than the path that Fitzgerald had followed. Fully loaded the Fitzgerald would sit approximately 27 feet deep in the water, only 9 feet of clearance if they were indeed to have passed over these shoals (The picture to the left should give an idea of the depth of the ship). The reported wave heights at this time were on the average of 16 - 20 feet in height and it is the opinion of Captain Cooper that in the extreme lifting and dropping that Fitzgerald would have experienced the Fitzgerald was lifted and set down on these rock shoals creating holes in the vessels hull causing it to begin to flood. Around 3:30 Captain Ernest McSorley radioed the Anderson reporting damage, "a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list (an imbalance or a lean to one side)." Theoretically this could occur if the center of the hull had been damaged ,and the stress of the weakened center could have caused a bending  in the shape of the frame that could have snapped the wire fencing. It was also determined at a later date that the shoals had been incorrectly charted extending further from Michipicoten than had been thought at the time.

At around 4:10 PM McSorley again radioed the Anderson stating that both sets of radar had been washed away and requested that the Anderson track them with their radar and communicate their position by radio telephone. Sometime also between 4:00 & 4:30 PM the Captain McSorley spoke with Capt. Cedric C. Woodard, on board the Swedish vessel Avafors, headed North near Whitefish Point. The Avafors answered a call from the Fitzgerald for any vessel in the vicinity of Whitefish Point.  Captain McSorley asked if Whitefish Point beacon or light was on. Captain Woodard replied that he could neither see the light nor receive the beacon. Somewhat later, Captain Woodard overheard the Fitzgerald call the Coast Guard at Sault Ste. Marie and then at Grand Marais. He did not hear whether or not the Coast Guard answered. Approximately one hour after his first conversation, Captain Woodard called the Fitzgerald and, after confirming that he was speaking to Captain McSorley, told him that Whitefish Point Light was on but the beacon was still off. At one point in this conversation, Captain  McSorley paused and, apparently in response to a question by someone on his ship, said, "Don't allow nobody on deck" and something else about a vent which Captain Woodard was unable to understand. He then returned to his conversation with CaptainWoodard, saying that the FIitzgerald had a "bad list," had lost both radars, and was taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas he had ever been in. The last communication from the Anderson to the Fitzgerald came at 7:10 pm as the Andersons first mate Morgan E. Clark had radioed to inform Captain McSorley (a veteran of 44 years on the lakes) of an approaching ship they were tracking on their radar, the last words spoke were as the first mate inquired to McSorley as to how they were handling "their problem,"McSorleys reply was "we are holding our own." Shortly thereafter a snow squall created blurring of the radar which made ships indistinguishable, when the squall subsided & the radar had cleared the Fitzgerald was no longer visible. To hear the distress call of Captain Jesse "Bernie" Cooper to the US Coast Guard concerning the Fitzgerald click here.  The Anderson's crew notified the Coastguard. They scoured the horizon by eye & with binoculars in hopes that the Fitzgerald had merely suffered a blackout, but at 7:25, 15 minutes from the last communication The Edmund Fitzgerald was gone.

The most common belief is that due to the instabilty caused by the water in the hull, and the likely shifting of cargo (26,000 ton of iron ore pellets) the Fitzgerald nose dived to the bottom of the lake after being engulfed by one (or two) of the monumental waves that were battering the ship. Captain Cooper recalled to the Coast Guard review board how he remembered 2 gigantic waves, approximately 35 feet in height, engulfing the Anderson in quick succession shortly after 6:30 pm.

Captain Cooper: "I think we had wind gusts of over 100 miles an hour on a few occasions, but it was a constant 60 knots....And when we got into the lee of Caribou, sometime after 6:30 in the evening....we took two of the largest seas we had yaken on the whole trip.....Seas don't always run 35 feet, but these were two of the biggest. Normally they were 16 to 26 feet, and we could handle that..." "...I had a hatch crane on deck. It stood about 12 feet above our deck.... those seas came across and buried my deck in about 12 feet of water.....but that old girl, The Anderson, she came out shaking like a dog.... shaking water off, water flying all over...I never gave it a thought.  We had a good ship under us, but The Fitzgerald was crippled and probably sinking for the 3-1/2 hours after she called me....these two huge waves came by and flooded out my poop deck where my lifeboat was...the deck just disappeared....it's approximately 30 feet above the water line, so these seas had to be 30 to 35 feet. Those seas were running by us at 12 to 15 miles an hour, passing on the starboard side. If you figure that The Fitzgerald was probably 10 miles ahead of us, and at 15 miles an hour how far those seas were going to travel....I don't know, but I've often wondered if those two might have been the ones...."

It is believed by many that at that point the Fitzgerald submerged, all lights intact & streaming below the surface. With the engine propelling it the big ship drove itself 535 feet to the bottom of Lake Superior, where the impact broke it in two flipping the stern (rear) of the ship and scattering the cargo and partially burying the bow (front) in the muddy bottom of the lake . However, to this day despite the improved technologies and equipment available for underwater searching and recovery the actual cause and occurance is a subject of debate. Read this article on the dive and exploration of Underwater Shipwreck Explorer Fred Shannon. The piece written in 1994 after a dive of the wreck says that his belief after viewing the wreck Shannon feels that the the Fitzgerald was the victim of structural damage, and that the ship could have broken apart while still on the surface of the lake. As there were no survivors, no distress call, and no further communications after 7:10 pm the mystery may always remain as to what actually caused the sinking.  I for one would probably prefer that it remain that way, as I think the uncertainess that surrounds the wreck is a large part of the intrigue that attracts people to it, but at the same time I'm sure that I will pay close attention in the coming years waiting for the day that the mystery is solved.

FITZGERALD AND OTHER GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK LINKS. Mary Wilhems Page: Daughter of crewmember Blaine Wilhem. The most extensive page I've seen on the sinking. "The Witch of November": An article from Weatherwise Magazine.

HOME