Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 32 years ago today....

November 10, 1975

A storm comes across the Great Lakes, by the end of the night the Edmund Fitzgerald would be at the bottom of Lake Superior. Other men would be out risking their necks to try and find survivors in boats much smaller than the one resting at 530 feet beneath the surface of Lake Superior.

The ship was the largest on the Lakes at the time of its christening and it was a very large ship compared to others when it sank. It was only 38 feet shorter than the Anderson (10 miles behind it when it sank) and less than 100 feet shorter than Titanic.

To people who have never been on the lakes - they are not to be messed with. Watch the video - see the waves and weather and compare that to the local lake you water ski on or swim around in. Green water over the decks of a 729 foot ore boat - all on a lake.

Fitz

Heard some scary sea-tales from USCG cuttermen who served on the small icebreakers in the Lakes.
I named my small boat "Seas 2 Ft", so that tells you a lot about me!

What is scary is that boat went down so fast the crew didn't even realize it. No life boat launched nor distress signal sent. GONE. It disappeared off radar in the blink of an eye and they waves that night were showing up on radar they were that big. McSorely had been on the lakes 40+ years and me mentioned in a radio broadcast to the Anderson that is was the worse weather he had ever seen.

They are not called "The Great Lakes" for nothing!

Yep, the Lakes can take down large ships quickly. Many, many are on the bottom. The Fitzgerald was the largest, I believe, of the ones to go down.

I've been on Lake Michigan ( quite a bit tamer than Superior ) a few times in a relatively small boat and it can get scary very quickly.

I've never been to the ocean, but have seen many waves during storms on Lake Superior that were amazing...especially since it is a lake...even during winter when the ice is feet thick across much of Cheq. Bay ...I've witnessed the currents underneath rip pressure cracks wide open seperating it great distances & hoping you are on the land side of the split. There are many places the ice actually stays paper thin no matter how cold it gets due to these tremendous currents...really is amazing

I've seen the Lakes go bad,it's not a pleasant feeling.I Salmon fish Lake Michigan a few times each year,usually with the same second generation charter Captain.He is very in tune to the weather and has all the radios and weather bands.Normally he will not go if waves are predictaed at six feet.Even four footers will make him stay closer to the Harbor than normal.One trip about four years or so ago,we showed up at 4:30 am to fish.The Captain was onboard,rigging and listening to the weather channel.He said the fish were several miles out,the weather was iffy and asked if we wanted to go."Sure" came the reply "let's fish".We ran out to where he had been on fish,bobbing through 3-4 footers.He quickly set downriggers and was in the process of putting out the planer boards and dipsey divers,I think he had about eight lines out,when his weather band radio squawked.It may as well have been a foreign language to me,but I saw his face drain of all color...ghost white.He told us to start reeling in,don't be fussy just start retrieving tackle,PRONTO.We hadn't even gotten all the lines in when the waves went to 10 footers.The Captain turned his EggHarbor boat ,I believe it's a thirty footer maybe thirty two,into the wind and put the power to a pair of 318 Chryslers.By the time we got to the relative calm water,perhaps twenty to thirty minutes had passed and I have never been so scared in my life!The Captain assured us that the vessel was rated for far worse than we had seen,but he was as shook up as we were.His estimates were twelve footers with an ocassional "big one" mixed in.Thats as close as I wanna come to sinkin one.

Yes, one should never assume he can whip mother nature. For fishing purposes I run white water in my 16 ft fiberglass drift boat only going to class 4's if it's loaded with gear. I do not run white water just for fun, but will do it for steelhead. The closest I've come to loosing the boat was on about a 1 section lake while trout fishing. Decided to cross just as a storm was blowing in. The brother inlaw convinced me his dog, that was tied to rig on the other side, needed attention if thunder and lightening got too fierce. We were literally in seas when we reached the halfway point with no way to row back against the wind. Probably had 150 gallons of water in the boat when we reached shore.

I read somewhere once that what is supposed to have happened is that the heavily laden ship's bow and stern were respectively suspended on two massive swells, leaving its immense midsection without water under it. End result was that it snapped in half under its own weight and went straight to the bottom. Don't mess with Ma Nature.