Was there something onboard the Edmund Fitzgerald?

I lived on the shore of lake superior growing up and saw what that lake can do when it kicks up. It is like sloshing a bowl of water around. The waves would pick up iron ore boats, and toss them in rows twards shore. I remember watching one year as 6 or 7 large ships got beached like they were nothing.

I'm not going to list the facts, I'm too lazy, but I researched the Edmund Fitzgerald about 10 or so years ago for a website I was working on, and if you want to really know why it sunk, it is because it had recently been repaired after two different accidents. It wasn't even sea worthy in my opinion. Anyways, it snapped into pieces and sunk after what they suspect was a three wave hit...in Duluth when I was living there people refered to it as the three sisters. 3 big waves that follow each other in the lake,kind of like rogue waves, and anything caught between the waves sinks.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was weakened from earlier accidents and where there were weaknesses, it snapped when going over the crest of these three large waves, at least this is generally what was accepted in Duluth and Superior, where the ship came out of harbor on its way up the north shore of lake superior.
My brother used to work at the Duluth Marine Museum and I used to go down and visit him a lot. They had an awesome model of the wreck as well as artifacts and facts on the ship and the suspected ways the ship went down.

Check out that link if this kind of thing interests you. Lake superior is one NASTY lake when the weather is rough.

Originally posted by ItsTheQuestion
reply to post by leo123

 

Great song. Interesting video. Makes me very homesick for Michigan.

Your last statement will go un-checked, except to say Go Wings.

What part of Michigan are you from?

reply to post by Oneolddude


Well said Sir.
Well said.

Originally posted by leo123 don't you EVER question the Canadian forces commitment

I sometimes wish for a repeat of the burning of the White house and Congress Too. Our system would be so much better for it.

Originally posted by SPYvsSPY
reply to post by leo123

 

Ever heard of liberty ships...guess not
you highly educated young person. do you
realize ocean vessels and GL vessels are
built different....guess not again. Did you loose
your job at the shipyard? Dumbass

edit on 2-9-2010 by SPYvsSPY because: To poke my fight picking canadian girly friend

en.wikipedia.org...(1939–1945)

"The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign[1][2] of World War II running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) against Allied convoys. The convoys of merchant ships, coming mainly from North America and the South Atlantic and going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces."

By the end of WW2 Canada had the third largest navy in the world.

Any more name calling, and there will be more serious repercussions..

Fair Warning

Semper

In 1974, a trawler from my home town of Hull in England went down, the Gaul. She went down so fast she hardly had time to send a radio message. She was probably one of the most modern and well bilt trawlers in the world.

She went down off the coast of Russia, some say she was being used to spy on submarines, which was normal, it was the height iof the cold war, others said that the crew didnt bolt down the rubbish hatches well enough during a tremendous storm and she flooded below deck.

Either way, if a boats destined to go down, all the technology in the world cant save her.

Mother nature is one mean mother....and when she kicks up a storm...

It is a commonly recognised fact , that lakes ( especially 500 ft. deep ones ) ,
can be much rougher than the sea .
Waves up to 15 metres could be experienced.
Very close together and steep .
Combined with the backwash effect from a weather shore ,
a scary prospect .
I believe in the Great Lakes , there is no retirement age for large
vessels , because it's fresh water . ( this may have changed )
Large vessels there , can experience stresses greater than 23,000 lbs./sq. inch
.... that's more than in the ocean.


Great Lakes shipwrecks and survival
books.google.com.au... gKPjoiDQ&hl=en&ei=X7LfTKPjBs2rcey7tJkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=lakes%20get%20rougher%20than%20the%20sea&f=f alse