[ Post a Response | DULUTH MISSABE & IRON RANGE BOARD ]
Posted by Fitz on November 9, 2005, 6:25 am With a cargo of 26,116 tons of Minnesota taconite iron ore pellets aboard, the vessel broke in two in very heavy seas during an especially vicious November 10 storm. According to one experienced Great Lakes mariner who was aboard another vessel out on Superior that awful night, this monster storm generated waves that "looked like mountains". The second week of November has developed a nasty reputation for severe weather in the Great Lakes region and, indeed, even November, 2005 presently seems to be living down to that wicked reputation.
The wreck of the 729-foot S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, a Great Lakes tragedy made internationally famous in 1976 by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot's mournful dirge that still gets airplay on radio stations around these parts, happened in Lake Superior three decades ago on Thursday night, at approximately 7:30 p.m.
One of the several official expeditions to later examine the Fitzgerald wreck site, which lies in 530 feet of water, was conducted from aboard Jacques Cousteau's famous research vessel, the Calypso, and took place under the leadership of Cousteau's son, Jean Michel. The exact cause of the Fitzgerald's sinking remains a matter of debate, since no one aboard survived to tell exactly what happened, and the physical evidence could support one of several scenarios. What seems to be beyond dispute, however, is that the vessel appears to have experienced some cataclysmic event. The two badly-damage, 50-man lifeboats were later found with witness marks suggesting they'd been violently ripped loose. Also, no distress call was received from the Fitzgerald, even though her captain had been in contact by radio with another vessel just minutes before foundering.
There were crewmen from seven states aboard the 'Big Fitz' that fateful night, but just under half of her 29-man crew hailed from a geographic band along Lake Erie known colloquially as the 'North Coast of Ohio', stretching from Toledo east through the Cleveland and Ashtabula areas. The crew ranged in age from a youthful 21-year-old cadet to a seasoned 63-year-old captain. All of the losses were terrible, individual tragedies, but a particularly poignant irony is that one of the men was making an extra, last pre-retirement voyage after more than 30 years on the Lakes in order to sail one, last time with his captain...who (shades of Titanic) also was to retire, after that trip. In the words of Tim McCall, Founder of 'S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online', "...twenty-nine families mourned the loss of a loved one...they were fathers, they were brothers, they were sons."
The legend lives on. May the souls of her crew rest in peace.
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SUN SETTING ON THE MISSABE ROAD
THANKS TO
DAVE SCHAUER
FOR PROVIDING SOME OF THE IMAGES USED ON THIS BOARD!
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