FITZGERALD TRAGEDY: AWESOME REMINDER OF GREAT LAKES POWER
By: Tom Dammann[1]
CHARLEVOIX – Underlying the speculation into
what caused the ore carrier “Edmund Fitzgerald”[2]
to sink in Lake Superior last Monday are a renewed respect for – and a debate
about – the awesome power of the Great Lakes.
Anger, puzzlement and pure fatalism
color nearly every conversation about the disaster.
The facts are few: The Fitzgerald, a 729-foot freighter sank suddenly as
it entered Whitefish Bay from the northwest during the height of the severest
storm in 35 years, bettered by winds in excess of 75 miles an hour and waves
ranging from 20 to 30 feet.
“Whatever happened to the
Fitzgerald, it came so fast that we still can hardly believe it,” said Capt.
Charles Millradt, commanding officer of the US Coast Guard group at Sault Ste.
Marie and director of the futile search efforts. “Maybe that´s because we still
don´t want to believe it happened.”
The freighter snapped in two when it
became suspended by two gigantic waves, one at the bow and the other at the
stern. All the ship cargo, 26,216 tons of taconite iron pellets, was stored in
the unsupported middle of the vessel.
The Fitzgerald, as it was slowly
changing its course toward the mouth of St. Mary´s River, sank as a result of
waver hitting it broadside, taking on water faster than its pumps can get rid
of it.
In only one respect was the Monday
night disaster different from two other very similar marine disasters (the
steamer Carl D. Bradley of Charlevoix in 1958 and the freighter Daniel J.
Morrel in 1966) - there are no survivors to tell what happened.
Cmdr. Frank Sperry (Ret.) of St. Ignace,
a veteran 0f 22 years in the Coast Guard and 17 years before in the merchant
marine, was puzzled by the fate that befell the Fitzgerald.
“In her 17 on the Great Lakes, the
ship survived many a storm” Sperry said, “and her skipper (Capt. Ernest
McSorley) had 44 years sailing experience on the Great Lakes. Also there were
other ships on the lake that night, like the Arthur M.Anderson, which was only
10 miles behind her.”
Sperry theorized that the ship sank
as a result of “metal fatigue” in the hull – a weakening of the ship´s
durability because the wear and fear and tear – which is difficult to spot
durint routine inspections.
(Continued…)
[1] (Text adopted under
permission of Sara Gay Dammann, only for Educative purposes, Memoirs 1970s.)
[2] The SS Edmund Fitzgerald
was an American Great
Lakes freighter
that sank in a Lake
Superior storm on
November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29.
