| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 10.11.10 19:33l 59 Lines 2445 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 20505_N0KFQ
Read: VE7HFY GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 10
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0ERF<OK0NAG<OK0PCC<OK0PHL<OK0POV<OK0POW<OK0PTU<IW0QNL<
ON4HU<IK2XDE<IZ0AWG<IW8PGT<ON0AR<N9ZZK<KD4GCA<N0KFQ
Sent: 101110/1611Z @:N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA #:20505 [Branson] FBB7.00i $:20505_N
From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Nov 10, 1975:
Cargo ship suddenly sinks in Lake Superior
On this day in 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake
Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board. It was the worst
single accident in Lake Superior's history.
The ship weighed more than 13,000 tons and was 730 feet long. It
was launched in 1958 as the biggest carrier in the Great Lakes
and became the first ship to carry more than a million tons of
iron ore through the Soo Locks.
On November 9, the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, with
26,000 tons of ore heading for Detroit, Michigan. The following
afternoon, Ernest McSorely, the captain of the Fitzgerald and a
44-year veteran, contacted the Avafor, another ship traveling on
Lake Superior and reported that his ship had encountered "one of
the worst seas he had ever been in." The Fitzgerald had lost its
radar equipment and was listing badly to one side.
A couple of hours later, another ship made contact and was told
that the Fitzgerald was holding its own. However, minutes
afterward, the Fitzgerald disappeared from radar screens. A
subsequent investigation showed that the sinking of the
Fitzgerald occurred very suddenly; no distress signal was sent
and the condition of the lifeboats suggested that little or no
attempt was made to abandon the ship.
One possible reason for the wreck is that the Fitzgerald was
carrying too much cargo. This made the ship sit low in the water
and made it more vulnerable to being overwhelmed by a sudden
large wave. The official report also cited the possibility that
the hatches to the cargo area may have been faulty, leading to a
sudden shift of the cargo that capsized the boat.
The Fitzgerald was eventually found 530 feet below the surface,
17 miles from Whitefish Bay, at the northeastern tip of
Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The ship had broken into two parts
that were found approximately 150 feet apart. As there were no
survivors among the 29 crewmembers, there will likely never be a
definitive explanation of the Fitzgerald's sinking.
The Fitzgerald's sinking was the worst wreck in the Great Lakes
since November 29, 1966, when 28 people died in the sinking of
the Daniel J. Morrell in Lake Huron.
The disaster was immortalized in song the following year in
Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald."
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
Using "Outpost Lite" Ver 2.2.1 c85
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
