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MICHIGAN NEWS
What sank the Edmund Fitzgerald? 6 theories on what caused the shipwreck

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Updated on November 11, 2015 at 1:03 AM Posted on November 10, 2015 at 2:25 PM
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By Garret Ellison
LAKE SUPERIOR — Nobody really knows what caused the Edmond Fitzgerald to sink, but that sure hasn’t stopped people from trying to solve the mystery.

In the 40 years since the ship went down, a cottage industry of shipwreck theorists have tried in vain to solve the sinking of the Fitzgerald, which rests in two pieces in 530 feet of water on the lake bottom 17 miles north of Whitefish Bay.

Numerous authors have written books on the tragedy. The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board both issued official investigation reports that many dismiss in favor of a theory favored by the Lake Carriers Association.

Because all 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald went down with the ship — which was there one minute and gone the next — the best accounts that investigators could rely on were those of sailors in the vicinity of the ship during the storm, or who had contact with the Fitzgerald somehow in the weeks prior to her final voyage.

Some theories are nonsense relating to UFOs or a Great Lakes Bermuda Triangle in the area where the ship sank. Others overlap in some ways. It’s still not completely agreed upon whether the Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface or underwater. The mystery is compounded by mud covering key parts of the wreck and a legal prohibition on further dives imposed by the Canadian government.

What’s obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking. In 2006, a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration study recreated the storm in a computer and discovered that the Fitzgerald and its floating companion, the Arthur M. Anderson, inadvertently steamed into the heart of the storm by taking the northern route across Lake Superior to avoid what they thought would be treacherous waves along the established, more direct southern route.

In that sense, the Fitzgerald met her fate on the path she took to avoid it. But the Arthur M. Anderson survived and the Fitzgerald did not. So, what happened?

Below is a breakdown of the main theories. Enjoy.

Faulty hatch covers caused massive internal flooding

The first official report on the wreck sparked a flood of second-guessing. In 1977, the U.S Coast Guard pinned the sinking on massive flooding of the cargo hold caused by faulty or poorly fastened hatch covers. The slow flooding supposedly went unnoticed by the captain and crew until it caused an imperceptible but fatal buoyancy loss and eventually sent the Fitzgerald plunging to the bottom. Because the ship had no depth sounding technology, the crew had no way of knowing that incoming water was pushing the ship lower in the water until the flooding exceeded the height of the iron ore in the holds. The Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald’s hatches that were planned for winter repair.

Water poured in through a sudden hatch failure

Gordon Lightfoot liked this theory, posited by the National Transportation Safety Board a year after the Coast Guard issued its report. The NTSB hewed to the Coast Guard line somewhat, agreeing that that non-weathertight hatch covers probably caused flooding during the trip, but the board ultimately concluded the probable sinking cause was “sudden massive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers.” The heavy seas overwhelmed a ship that had already lost freeboard and was listing. Contributing factors noted were a lack of internal watertight bulkheads and allowances for more cargo weight during the ship’s 17 years afloat.

The Fitz hull took a fatal blow on a shoal

This theory was advanced by the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) after the U.S. Coast Guard report and seems to be the most popular among mariners and armchair wreck investigators. The LCA thinks the Fitzgerald grounded on the poorly-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island, causing fatal damage to the hull. If the ship had “hogged” upon striking the shoal, it could have caused the topside damage reported by Fitzgerald captain Ernest McSorley in the hours before the sinking. However, divers found no recent damage to the shoal after the wreck and the ship’s exact course could only be estimated because the Fitzgerald radars were inoperable and the Anderson kept inexact course records during the journey. Of note, the NTSB report included a dissenting opinion that held to this theory. In a similar vein, Paul Hainault, a retired Michigan Tech University professor, postulated a seiche caused the ship to scrape the bottom of Superior Shoal early that morning and the weakened hull eventually gave out.

The ship was overtaxed and overloaded

This week, Minnesota tugboat captain Bob Hom, who sailed with McSorley before the man became captain of the Fitzgerald, claims McSorley once told him five years before the sinking he’d hate to be on the Fitzgerald in a big storm because ‘They got it all worn out from years of overloading,’” Hom told the Duluth News-Tribune. “They were killing the boat,” he said. “It was designed to haul a certain amount and they kept getting the Coast Guard to increase the load line.” In fact, the Fitzgerald — known as a workhorse ship that set numerous cargo hauling records — was allowed by 1975 to sit a touch over 3 feet deeper in the water when laden with cargo than originally intended when the ship was launched in 1958.

The Fitzgerald suffered from structural problems

Ex-Fitzgerald crew member George Burgner claimed in a deposition that unrepaired cracks and weakened metal on the ship caused the loss, according to the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Fred Stonehouse. Burgner said a shipyard worker showed him evidence of old keel weld breaks during the 1972-73 winter lay-up that were brought to McSorley and dismissed. The bad welds were confirmed by the Coast Guard, which approved repairs. Theorists have sized upon the permanent lay-up of the Fitzgerald sister ship, the Arthur Homer, in 1980 as indicative of structural deficiency both vessels. In 2009, retired naval architect Raymond Ramsey, who helped design the Fitzgerald hull wrote that the maintenance history, increased cargo loading allowances and construction of the Fitzgerald made her unseaworthy the night she went down. In the Duluth News-Tribune, another former crew member, Jim Woodard, claims the Fitzgerald was a “wet” ship. “She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her,” Woodward said. “We always had to go down and pump them out.”

The ship was pushed under by rogue waves

In 2000, author Hugh Bishop pushed the “Three Sisters” theory about a trio of rogue waves that overwhelmed the Fitzgerald in quick succession. Because of a long fetch on Superior that night, the Fitzgerald and the Anderson were in an area of the lake where huge waves were indeed occurring. MLive meteorologist Mark Torregrossa postulates rogue waves as possible based on the 2006 NOAA storm simulation. A 2010 television episode of Dive Detectives simulated the effect of a 56-foot wave on a scale model of the Fitzgerald. The Anderson’s captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory. Capt. Jesse B. Cooper told an audience in Wisconsin the Anderson was struck from astern that evening by a pair of huge waves, which rolled over his ship and continued on toward the Fitzgerald. “I’ve often wondered whether these two particular seas might have been the ones that finally did the Fitzgerald in, because they were really huge,” he said.

Related Stories:
• Why the Edmund Fitzgerald remains a cultural touchstone
• Follow the final journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald
• 17 miles to safety: Edmund Fitzgerald by the numbers

A NOAA model showing the storm that sunk the Edmund FItzgerald

Garret Ellison covers business, environment & the Great Lakes for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at [email protected] or follow on Twitter & Instagram

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http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/what_sank_the_edmund_fitzgeral.html

MICHAEL HOWARD REED on 5/27/2018 10:51:05 AM wrote
Well By God, Whatup?? to day is another day and it is butt-t-full and for the first day of the week for which is sun-day can’t be any better And yes I already pinched my self, so other than that I do-not know what to say, see you soon Love you Yours Boa,
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