The Edmund Fitzgerald – I Can’t Let Go

Readers of previous postings have probably noticed my fascination with water. That should be no surprise, since I grew up in northwest Louisiana where the Red River flows through Shreveport, the Mississippi River lies to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico is 200 miles to the south. This fascination continued after I moved to Wisconsin, which is bordered to the north and east by two of the five Great Lakes. I’ve become particularly fixated on Lake Superior, which covers 31,700 square miles and is the largest of the five lakes.

Today is the 46th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking on Lake Superior. I’ve felt a connection to the sinking because the Fitzgerald went down the same year I moved to Wisconsin, and I remain mystified at how such a tragedy could occur in modern times. Last November, my posting examined the boat’s connection to Wisconsin (I’ve since learned that “ship” is reserved for seafaring vessels), and this posting recounts the possible reasons for the sinking, although the exact cause remains unknown.

Here is what is known. The Fitzgerald lies at the southeast end of Lake Superior, east of Copper Mine Point, Ontario, and 17 miles north of Whitefish Point, Michigan (Upper Peninsula). At 535 feet below the surface, the boat is in two pieces. The bow section lies upright on its keel and measures 276 feet, while 170 feet away and almost perpendicular, the stern section lies inverted, resting on its deck, and measuring 253 feet. Approximately 200 feet of the midsection is missing.

The sinking occurred after the center of a powerful storm passed over Marquette, Michigan, early in the morning of November 10, 1975, and proceeded across Lake Superior. The storm caused the Fitzgerald and the SS Arthur M Anderson to abandon the shorter southern route across the Lake, in favor of a northeasterly route affording more protection from the storm’s winds and waves. About halfway across the Lake, the route turns southeasterly to parallel the Canadian coastline and threads between Michipicoten and Caribou Islands, before reaching Whitefish Bay and the Soo Locks. As the Fitzgerald passed Caribou Island, the storm’s winds shifted from the northeast to the northwest. At that time, the Anderson reported wind gusts of up to 90 mph and waves of 25 to 30 feet.

At 3:30 p.m., the Fitzgerald radioed the Anderson that it had a list, had sustained damage to a fence rail on its deck, and had lost two 8-inch, mushroom-shaped vent covers to its starboard ballast tanks. Ballast tanks lie in each side of a boat’s hull and are filled with water when the cargo bays are empty, so that the boat’s propeller remains in the water. The Fitzgerald engaged its two starboard ballast pumps and slowed its speed so the Anderson could close the 17-mile distance between them. At 4:10, the Fitzgerald reported that both of its surface scan radar sets were “out” and asked the Anderson to render navigational help. By this time, the list had worsened. At 7 p.m., the Anderson had closed to 10 miles behind the Fitzgerald, and in what would be the two vessels last communication at 7:10, the Anderson warned the Fitzgerald of an approaching boat, about nine miles ahead. When asked about the earlier reported damage, the Fitzgerald’s captain replied, “we are holding our own.” Within minutes, the Fitzgerald was at Lake Superior’s bottom.

There are numerous theories explaining the Fitzgerald’s sinking. One theory suggests a “monster wave” capsized the Fitzgerald. Another believes it broke in half when the bow rode the crest of one wave and the stern rode the crest of another, leaving the midsection unsupported and bearing the weight of 26,116 tons of cargo. Both theories have been discredited, and the following paragraphs offer two plausible alternatives.

Both the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) focused on water penetrating the Fitzgerald’s cargo hold through its hatch covers. The Fitzgerald had three cargo holds that were covered by 21 hatch covers (7 per hold), each measuring 11 x 48 feet and constructed of 5/16 inch steel. Each hatch cover weighed 14,000 pounds, rested on a coaming (wall) that was 2 feet tall, and was secured by a sealing gasket and 68 clamps. A routine inspection of the Fitzgerald on October 31, 1975, found damage, including cracks and gouges, to four hatches. Because the damage was regarded as routine, repairs were deferred to sometime prior to the 1976 shipping season.

The Coast Guard investigation believed that the hatch covers were faulty and that water penetrated the cargo hold as waves rolled over the Fitzgerald’s deck. The water’s penetration may have been exacerbated by improper fastening of some hatch cover clamps. Over time, the Fitzgerald gradually lost buoyancy. The NTSB believed the Fitzgerald’s list, caused by its flooded ballast tanks, made the boat susceptible to waves overboarding the deck, and these “heavy boarding seas … caused the hatch covers to collapse.” Don’t be surprised to learn that my science brain is challenged to explain the amount of hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure that is necessary to collapse a 14,000 pound steel hatch cover. With a flooded cargo hold, as well as 26,116 tons of taconite, and the bow entering the trough of a wave, the Fitzgerald is believed to have plunged to the Lake’s floor, with the midsection disintegrating from the force of the bow’s impact. Taconite spilled from the aft cargo holds, leaving the stern section with enough buoyancy to come to rest 170 feet away from the bow.

The other theory of the sinking believes the Fitzgerald scraped bottom, probably on Six Fathom Shoal, just north of Caribou Island. The Fitzgerald passed the Island shortly before the reported deck damage and listing (3:30), and while this is well before the Fitzgerald reported the loss of radar (4:10), it is uncertain exactly when the radar was lost. As the Anderson began tracking the Fitzgerald’s position, the Anderson steered a more southeasterly course, to ensure it avoided the Shoals. A shoal is an outcropping of rock from a lake’s bottom, and a fathom equals six feet, so Six Fathom Shoal is about 36 feet below Lake Superior’s surface, although some areas have a reported depth of only 26 feet. When the Fitzgerald loaded its cargo at Superior, the boat’s draft was 27 feet. After the Shoal ruptured the Fitzgerald’s right-side ballast tank or tanks, it is believed to have listed and gradually lost buoyancy, as the ballast pumps would not have been able to remedy the flooding. With the loss of buoyancy, a large wave, or series of waves, is believed to have tipped the Fitzgerald’s bow downward, causing it to plummet to Superior’s bottom.

Regardless of the theory, one factor that contributed to the sinking may be the amount of freeboard, or distance between the water surface and the shipping vessel’s deck. When the Fitzgerald was launched in 1958, the Coast Guard’s freeboard requirement for Great Lakes shipping vessels was 14’9¼“. A lesser freeboard allows vessels to carry more cargo, and the requirement was reduced in 1971 and 1973. At the time of the Fitzgerald’s sinking, the freeboard requirement was 11’5”, or 3’4¼“ below the 1958 level. For the inquiring mind, there is lots written on each of these theories and plenty more to learn. I have only scratched the surface, but I have to leave room for music.

Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 tribute to the Edmund Fitzgerald and its 29 crew members is timeless, and I never tire of hearing it, especially each November 10th.

Because I wrote about the Fitzgerald last November, I was reluctant to revisit it here. However, the coincidence of the sinking and my migration to Wisconsin is something I can’t let go. To end this posting on a lighter note and to celebrate my compulsiveness give a listen to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s cover of Lucinda Williams’ I Can’t Let Go.

Lagniappe: More Porgy and Bess. For those readers who enjoyed the three versions of Summertime in last month’s posting, here’s an opportunity to hear more. The Metropolitan Opera is performing Porgy and Bess between October 31st and December 12th. Tickets start at only $25 (plus a plane ticket to New York City)!