I grew up in a port town watching these giant ships, we would fish right next to them as they came in the narrow channel, it was pretty awesome being 20 feet away from them as they went by. I was fascinated with these boats. I remember when My dad told me the Mighty Fitz went down, I was crushed.
My best friends brother was on one of these Great Lakes Freighters (I don't remember the name of it) and lost a life long friend on that ship.
It was a genuinely sad day.
Paul
"I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon".... D.A.D.
Trump Won!, Sandmann Won!, Rittenhouse Won!, Suck it Liberal Fuuktards.
Yes, interesting. I live 100 miles due south of the Lake. We travel to Marquette often in the summer. A Historical Marker on Presque Isle indicates the Lake as being 1300 feet deep, 45 degrees median water temp, and takes a drop of water that enters the Lake on the western side 200 years to exit on the eastern. Some of the oldest rock found in the world is located on the south shore. I was running electrical wire in our then new home when I heard the news on the radio.
Every year I mention the Fitz . It'll be a 7:20 tonight when she sank .CST . I'm just an old farm boy from Western Missouri and I remember in 3rd grade seeing the news the next day I guess . I want to go up to Duluth , Mn someday and see the iron ships .Especially the Arthur Anderson and the James R Barker . You boys up that way wanna tell me the best time of year to see them ?
This may tide you over till you get there in person
I was teaching down in the Detroit , remember it well. 16 years ago we went to White Fish Bay point in Feb, temps were around -6 with a strong North wind coming off Superior. It was very sobering, we were there by our selves, waves crashing on the shore, and knowing just a few miles away lie the wreck. Love the song.
We sometimes live on the St Clair river on Harsens island. The ships pass by very close to our seawall. we can feel and hear the rumbling coming up through the floor shaking enough wake me sometimes when a tug and barge come by at night. The Lakers are so well lit that they light up the whole house at night even with the drapes shut. The river is about 1500-2000 feet wide between our seawall and the Walpole Indian reservation on the Canadian side. The ships usually pass about 250 to 500 feet out. Sometimes they are two wide in that space. Then they'e even closer. The dredged drop off is only about 120 feet out where we are. Its amazing how close they look. Yesterday the old lady of the fleet came by for her first upbound daylight pass aince a rehab this summer. The 1948 built Lee Tragurtha Still cutting a low wake and looking good. I tried to put a picture of her up but its too big. appropriate.
There were a lot of up-bound ships making runs in the good weather the last few days. Chicago has 70 mph gusts winds tonight we were told. Its going to get nasty out on the lakes. But it would take a lot more to cause one to sink these days. For one thing, the Fitz would have ducked in with todays satellite weather forecasting. I don't see proof of some mystery corpse which doesn't belong. As I understood it only 1 body was located unintentionally and he appeared dressed to be a crewman and therefore belonged there. Families got upset so no more pics of deceased crew allowed.
Lifelong coastal residents know that the Great Lakes, at least the upper 3 are not to be scoffed at. While my experience is far from a seasoned freighter captain I can say without a doubt that sometimes you will look back on your time on these waters and be thankful that you are home safe with your family. As with anything, there are risks but for sure Huron and especially Superior will undoubtedly reveal your insignificance if you drop your guard if even for a moment.
Sad day that day. We lost a couple of surfers here trying to catch some truly big waves here on Lake Michigan. Windchills alone should've killed em. Seas here were 20+ feet.
The Big Fitz had it rough. Tough way to die, drowning in cold dark seas, in a blizzard gale. She was a big 700+ footer downbound after picking up a load of ore in Duluth/Superior. The storm came up fast and she was making full steam. She tried heading for the lee of the north shore, even trying to duck behind Isle Royale, but the winds shifted and she was caught in the fetch of the lake. 20' seas up to 35 footers in an 85mph wind. Lost a couple hatch covers, railing, and both radars. She was sailing blind. She asked the Anderson to be her "eyes". The Anderson was ahead of her about 10 miles, but lost the Fitz on radar about 7pm. The Anderson couldn't raise the USCG for an hour and the Fitz wasn't reported missing for 2 hours because they thought it just lost comms. The Soo locks were closed because the storm, many nav lights were out because of the storm, and radio was sketchy at best. A USCG plane was dispatched from USCG Station Traverse City followed by one of their SAR Seaguard helos, but they didn't get there until 3 hours after they lost contact with the Fitz. No one can survive in that water that long.
Most likely she went down fast with all hands. There was no distress signal. The hero's are the crew of the Anderson. They had made safe harbor when the USCG asked them to turn around and go back out, directly into the gale. Captain Cooper didn't hesitate. The winds came down the full fetch of the lake from NW to SE and it was in the SE part that she went down in 500fow. The waves had the whole lake, 200+ miles to build. Anderson's crew knew this and knew most likely that the Fitz went down. Damn fine men who will do that.
And sadly, that's not the deadliest day on the Great Lakes in November.
In the Fall of 1999 two buddies and I were camped on one of the islands off the north shore of Superior, moose hunting. One day while sitting on a ridge above one of the lakes on the island I would occasionally hear a big boom. Wind was fron the south west that day and when I got back to camp there were 18 to 20 foot whitecaps hitting the Rocky shore and making the boom.
Pictured Rocks on the South shore is worth the visit. The beach East of the cliffs is littered with old wooden ship wrecks. The reef at the lighthouse runs a mile off shore and is no deeper than six feet causing the wrecks.
Really weird as I recall that day, though at the time we could not have known about the EF on Lake Superior. I was a sophomore at a prep school in Wi. We were playing a football game that night in galeforce winds. Our punter had some record punts that night with the wind. It was a brutal game for a bunch of high schoolers. Rest in Peace to those who gave their lives with their ships providing our sustenance.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/m0zk1a7.jpg)
