Final Run: Storms of the Century

foreign [Music] the rush is on as the forecast threatens freezing temperatures and hundreds of Steamers try to get cargo across the Great Lakes before Mother Nature closes navigation the 1905 season had been delayed because of ice which snagged several Freighters for days off Whitefish Point [Music] ship owners were excited with a high demand for copper and 25 million tons of iron ore expected to be pulled across Lake Superior Minnesota now owned the World Market for iron ore with mines like Iron Ridge blasting 2 million tons annually miners made a dollar fifty to fill five rail cars daily and that ore was being hauled to furnaces in the Lower Lakes especially Pennsylvania foreign the railroad to Conneaut Ohio brought a constant flow to U.S steel using the first Hewlett unloaders to grab 10 tons in a single scoop Captain Richard humble was from Conneaut and many of the crew of the matapa lived near Lake erie's Shoreline [Music] on November 27th forecasters posted Northeast storm warnings but Captain humble later admitted he misjudged the weather pulling out of Duluth with the barge nacement 60 mile per hour winds ravaged the two boats and humble turned North to put the waves at his bow it was obvious he couldn't survive Towing another ship behind him the steamer matafa cut its barge loose when Captain humble noticed his hatches were failing so he attempted to thread his way between the two Piers here at Duluth the wind spun the ship into the north brake while and punctured the hull of the ship matapha started to settle and the crew were marooned less than a half mile from the safety of the city Lifesavers tried three times to shoot a line to the wreck but the sharp rocks evidently cut the lifeline in two Pittsburgh steamships management agreed the rescue would have to wait until morning and a bonfire was lit right here on Shore to encourage the stranded crew that fire had another side benefit guiding Captain Cottrell of the steamer George Gould into Duluth there was a tremendous snowstorm in because of the the kind of Amphitheater construction of the Duluth hillsides here virtually everybody in the community could see what was happening on the waterfront and it was customary when there was you know serious storm activity to kind of focus on the activity down at the canal and it was usually fairly dramatic pageant with Ships coming and going in the canal here with with heavy waves but in this storm in November of 1905 in particular several ships were caught out and it was a real spectacle one ship was beached about a mile down Minnesota point in full view of all the citizens of Duluth later in the afternoon another vessel came in and struck the piers and sunk inside The Harbor at 2 30 the matapha came and struck the end of the piers and sunk in the lake right off the end of the piers [Music] the mate would later say three waves took the matapha out of commission tearing off the rudder and crushing their lifeboats their only hope for rescue now remained with the thousands who watched from Shore in the pounding waves a photographer captured one of the crew making it Forward where the cabins raised them a few more feet above the pounding waves four of the men in the stern made it to safety with the captain there was a very dramatic sequence of events that that went on through the entire night that followed from 2 30 in the afternoon until the morning of the day following uh thousands of people came down to the beach and you know watched or tried to lend a hand or that fires three lines were shot to the ship but eventually Rescuers agreed they would wait until Daybreak to bring the crew ashore a beam of light was witnessed in the captain's cabin that morning and a cheer went up from the shoreline to encourage those still alive on the matapha the scenes were so high that nobody could render any assistance at all and of the the 24 men on board nine drowned or froze to death before help could get to them the following morning and they were almost within shouting distance of the beach where you know thousands of Spectators were watching so it was a it was a terrible feeling and and anybody who lived through the experience of witnessing it uh remembered it for the rest of the night [Music] eight other Fleet mates would be damaged or destroyed the William edenborn had lost the barge Madeira which crashed against Gold Rock Point where crewman was lost as they jumped to a cliff before the ship slipped beneath the waves south of there Pittsburgh's Lafayette crashed ashore with the Manila and a fireman on the steamer was lost as they jumped to safety on the rocky Shoreline nearby the steamer Crescent City had turned away from its destination at Two Harbors now dragging anchors towards that same deadly coastline the Crescent City fetched up here wedged with her bow between two Bluffs near Lakewood Minnesota a salvage team led by Pittsburgh steamship Marine superintendent Smith was dispatched to the wreck site and it turned out lifting the freighter from the Rocks was only part of the battle as Captain Smith and 45 workers got food poisoning during the Salvage eventually the ship was released and towed to Lorraine where 140 steel plates were replaced Pittsburgh steamship's President Harry Colby went on the defensive when newspapers accused management of forcing captains to take on Storms he said the company spares no expense to keep its ships absolutely seaworthy no one gives orders when they shall leave port or seek shelter the loss of lives tripled when wreckage was found off the Apostle Islands the Ira Owen had vanished with 19 lives 70 miles Northeast of Duluth good news finally arrived at the George Spencer and Barge amboy's Crews were being rescued by local fishermen Lifesavers at Duluth took off the crew and Captain Richard Englund from the RW England just a mile and a half from their station Pittsburgh steamship's brand new flagship William Corey was pulled off the rocks at Gall Island this was considered an easy job compared to the Salvage at Split Rock it took almost a year to jack up and release the massive William edenborn from Split Rock and with four ships badly damaged during the 1905 storm it's no surprise that U.S steel lobbied for a lighthouse in this area Mariners believe the light would help them get their bearings when the ore deposits here deviated their compasses Congress approved funds and in 1910 the light was lit that same year gichigumi lived up to its deadly reputation killing the first two assistant keepers at Split Rock they were making a mail run and flipped over in their small sailboat the edenborn was destined to become a shipwreck once again sunk intentionally off the coast of Cleveland the freighter joined its fleetmate James J Hill and 6 000 rusting automobiles to become Gordon Park in 1962. [Music] hold her bow in the wind and the wave and the deafening scream of the storm many iron boats rolled in the crashing kale far off of the Michigan shore eight years after the 1905 Storm Lake Superior again was blown into a fury just off Thunder Bay Ontario the Lee field vanished with its entire crew the kiwanap peninsula snagged two wrecks the turret Chief and Elsie Waldo Lifesavers from two Michigan stations took off the crew of the Waldo earning 17 gold medals for their heroism Whitefish Point lived up to its title of Shipwrecked Coast during the 1913 storm stealing three crewmen who tried to rescue themselves from the steamer Nottingham the ship ran out of coal and started putting some of their grain cargo into the boilers to try to keep warm stuck between sand and Parisian Islands they would eventually be released other ships stranded in this area include the Huron A.E Stewart major f g Hartwell and JT Hutchinson the lead story from Lake Superior was actually based in Marquette Michigan where Captain Jimmy Owen had pulled the 500-foot freighter Henry B Smith into the lower Harbor the Henry B Smith's second made James Burke left his crew when it was tied up to dock five here at Marquette the dock is gone now but you can see a smaller dock on its pilings between me and the giant South Shore dock which was built in 1931. Burke said he was sick with pneumonia and he took a train to the Sioux amidst the Brewing storm that was delaying loading of his ship 25 degree sleet froze the ore in the orecars and Captain Jimmy Owen was apparently angry at the delay and ordered his ship tied fast even when the winds threatened to damage his 500-foot freighter and the dock he eventually took on ten thousand tons of ore and ordered the line's tossed heading for the piers at 5 PM onlookers say he didn't have his hatches baton and the winds were still at 30 knots [Music] captains at the dock watched as the H.B Smith turned northward heading for shelter after the skipper realized a second storm had snuck in his haste in not battening his hatches gave him just a half hour in the Tempest and his ship Dove for the bottom off Big Bay Michigan about two weeks after the great storm the body of second cook Henry Haskins was found just west of here at Whitefish Point that next spring the chief engineer John Gallagher was discovered at Michigan Island and just 35 miles away from here a note was found in a bottle that said Dear Sir the steamer H.B Smith broken two at the number five hatch we are not able to save her had one hard time on Lake Superior please give this to owners the note was considered to be a hoax as it was dated three days after the HB Smith left Marquette the note's location of 12 miles east of the city also proved inaccurate as the vessel was located in 2013 30 miles north of the docks as shared in the know the deck was found to be broken but at hatch 7 rather than number five five hundred feet deep the Henry B Smith has yet to be completely investigated [Music] bottle that washed ashore on November 18th near Pentwater Michigan contradicted published reports from Captain Don McKinnon who had left the barge Plymouth off Gull Island in Northern Lake Michigan McKinnon was the owner and engineer of the tug James Martin which was sinking in the Gale so the Plymouth was signaled to drop anchor the Martin and its crew escaped to the Upper Peninsula for shelter while the Plymouth men took on the Storm of the Century [Music] 40 hours she was raked by Gale and towering way a once proud craft no longer says a legal dispute with the owners had forced a U.S Marshal to be aboard the Plymouth Chris Keenan knew he wouldn't survive the 60 mile per hour winds and he wrote A Farewell to his wife and kids we were left up here by McKinnon he went away and never said goodbye or anything to us lost one man yesterday we've been out in the storm 40 hours goodbye dear ones I might see you in heaven pray for me hubel owes me 35 so you can get it Keenan's body washed ashore near oneakama and his brother demanded an investigation into why they were abandoned In This Storm after the investigation Steamboat inspectors revoke McKinnon's license to sail the Shipwreck was reportedly found off poverty Island and a Rudder was salvaged for display in Wisconsin historians now believe the wreck is the erastus Corning and the Plymouth awaits shipwreck Hunters somewhere in Northern Lake Michigan three other messages were found in bottles after the great storm of 1913 all attributed to an upside down freighter that was floating bow up off Port Huron newspapers gassed at the mystery ship's identity fueled by reports of overdue ships as well as stories of bodies washing ashore in Goderich Ontario eight of the Regina's crew were found in a Lifeboat and other lifeboats were found from the hydrus and Argus diver William Baker was finally hired to go out to the derelict to get a first-hand look at the name Charles S price [Music] a freighter sails but the price greetings [Music] resting on Lake Erin's floor she cannot sail again and only divers visit her and all her misses the Charles price had been cited on its way North on Lake Huron by the wheelsman of the H.B hoggood who passed the price and sailed North past Michigan's thumb all right oh no and the Seas out of Saginaw Bay look like Mounds oh I'm serious song so you capture we gotta turn around so I report itself and the Regina first ever two points east of us and about three miles ahead but we didn't see her turn around the 1913 storm was raging as the hogood pushed on past Michigan's thumb but it didn't take long for Captain May to realize it was futile to push against 60 mile an hour winds by the time we got to Harbor Beach it was really a blown we went on further about hope and the captain called down he says get pretty strong got it turn around go back so how to porch turned around and hit itself on the way up look to the east there was another little boat there I don't know what it was but later somebody says that Resurrection forward the wheelsman search The Towering waves for the tiny package freighter he had witnessed in trouble near Lexington East and I didn't see that little voter anymore is massive tipped over and sank through the snowstorm the wheelsman could see the shoreline into his amazement another Captain had chosen to leave the safety of the river for the open Lake I looked up ahead here comes about oh yes crazy man trying out into a storm like this about our 90 mile game I was Stronger I don't know that person the charge is price hello this is goodbye and I looked up ahead again here comes another one that was the Isaac M Scott it is into this storm but it never came back when the Hagood neared Port Huron it was obvious they weren't going to be able to navigate the Sinclair River so Captain May ordered Ed to spin the ship around Dutch but I really got scared and I thought to myself oh no you don't not as long as I give her a party and that through the ship out of control a purpose [Music] Sirens of Lake Huron wish to taste another crew our plates are fed by gouging waves as we Face the Disturbed I'll meet her at Point at work that's all that I will do one of the most startling finds from the 1913 storm was a message allegedly from this man Captain Hugh Williams this is only a marker as the commander of light ship 82 was never recovered but three days after the Gale Buffalo resident Jerry Foley found a piece of paneling with a penciled goodbye written on it this is the actual note found on the shoreline which made no sense to Captain William's wife whose name was Mary she insisted the mistake was made because a new crewman had written a message for her husband she joined the lighthouse tender crocus for a week to search for him the wreck was finally located months later and two Salvage teams worked to release the light ship from the bottom of Lake Erie Tom Reed succeeded in dragging it under water to shore where it was pumped out and rebuilt there were at least three men who walked away from their Ships Before Their crewmates vanished into the great storm John Thompson left the James Carruthers to join the smaller steamer Canadian he heard his body was discovered and he returned home to find a coffin at his house the body was later identified as James Thompson engineer Milton Smith left the Charles S price and returned home to his wife and six kids in Port Huron he was called to Goderich after the storm to identify his lost crew James Burke also surprised several people when he walked into the office of the lake carriers Association after being listed as lost on the steamer Henry B Smith the H.B Smith's second mate finally got to his brother's house in Cleveland where he could Telegraph his wife and tell her he was alive he covered his face as he told reporters quote it's awful the way men struggle for life when death stares them in the face God help those poor fellows the horror and shipwreck is in the waiting Ted bullard's family knew all about the horror of waiting they had put their 11 year old boy on a train to Port Arthur to meet his best friend whose dad Captain the steamer turret cave Frozen wheat had delayed them so Captain Patrick McCarthy decided to leave before ice froze them in they sailed into the beginnings of the great storm on Lake Superior the night before we left the chef on board cooked the very delicious chicken dinner and the next day you can imagine what happened to the chicken dinner in the rough Seas the captain made several attempts to make it into Goderich Ontario but turned away when waves from 16 hours of 60 mile per hour winds pushed them off course they were so rough that we did not dare take a chance to get back into the harbor for fear that we crash unto the peers or whatever with no radio to report their survival the turret Cape just steamed up and down the Canadian Coast until the wind subsided when they finally made it home Ted's parents and the entire town showed up to greet them they had no idea what had happened to us so very obviously they were scared under their wits I can't recall as of the moment the day that we were able to pull into codridge Harbor but when we pulled in there the town band was down there I would say that most of the citizens of the Town were there cheering and waving us in [Music] Black Friday is most widely known for bargain shopping but it has a darker history from financial crisis to even Hangman's day but for those who ply the Great Lakes Black Friday denotes a single storm in 1916. this Gale sank four ships and left two captains as the sole survivors of their Crews on October 18th the nation's attention was on hurricane warnings from Florida to New Orleans and there was no doubt that affected the low front dropping from the Pacific Northwest into South Dakota within a day it moved into the Ohio Valley with small craft warnings being posted on the upper Great Lakes by Thursday that low was over Indianapolis and full Gale warnings were posted on the Lakes Captain Walter grashon knew about These Warnings coming into Buffalo with a load of wheat which was delivered to Mutual elevator it was his first season as master moving up after a year as first made on the James B Colgate it was at the Lehigh Valley dock where Captain grashaw took on coal for Fort William This breeze doesn't bother me a particle he told an assistant of the lake carriers Association this boat has a good belly full of coal in her now and is fit to face any sort of blow it would take a mighty Fierce scale to stop her with this load in her Captain grashaw would later say they made Long Point Ontario around six or seven that night and by 10 the crew reported water in the bow and the winds were ripping at 70 miles per hour the pumps did little to keep the bow from plowing beneath the building waves and grashaw ordered the ship abandoned off erio Ontario soon the skipper found himself clinging to the life raft with two other sailors building southeasterly winds buffeted the 360-foot steamer Merida as it pushed easterly towards Captain Harry Jones hometown of Buffalo loaded on Lake Superior with Pyrite ore the steamer was cited at 10 A.M about 25 miles from Southeast Shoal by the steamer Britain Vanishing Mid Lake about six hours later [Music] the Marshall F Butters was about three hours behind Merida in about half her size the small steam barge was loaded with Lumber and shingles in Georgian Bay and it made it to Lake Erie to cross to Cleveland Black Friday overtook Captain Charles McClure just before lunch listing to starboard with its heavy wooden cargo on Deck the skipper ordered the pumps and siphons on and he fought a gale that he said exceeded 70 miles per hour McClure was running out of options in the hurricane force winds they spotted the steamer Frank buildings nearby and they blew a distressing but the sound was lost and the screaming winds luckily a lookout saw extra steam coming out of the Butter's whistle and notified Captain Fabian Cody of the trouble McClure knew he needed to dump his cargo but even with the chief engineer mate wheelsman cook and firemen tossing Lumber overboard it wasn't keeping the lake from creeping up to the deck the captain ordered the wheel spun into the trough of the sea and they rolled for 10 minutes nearly flipping over with the lake now dangerously filled with debris Captain McClure ordered Abandoned Ship as the Frank Billings pulled near three men jumped overboard and swam to the steamer Billings While most of the rest of the crew got into the starboard Lifeboat and rode through 13-foot waves to the steamer Fred Hartwell trapped on Deck when some Lumber shifted Captain McClure was rescued by a fireman named George Paul who had stayed behind the duo took to the port Lifeboat and drifted to the Hartwell perhaps the most terrifying of all the Black Friday stories was from Captain John Madison of the barge DL filer that Schooner was being towed by the steamer Tempest which cut them loose about 10 miles from the Detroit River the filers anchors dragged for six miles under the push of the Waves the barge grounded about three miles east of bar Point Ontario and at 8 pm Captain Madison ordered the six crewmen into the rigging to escape the rising Waters Madison would later tell a Cleveland reporter that the crew were on the forward Mast which collapsed After the Storm ripped the filer to Pieces he watched as the first mate was consumed by Lake Erie made all that more tragic because Albert Logan was his nephew of six tossed into the frenzied Waters only crewman Oscar Johansen could grab the captain's outstretched hand the duo were on the remaining Mast until daylight when the passenger ship Western States made the turn right here into Lake Erie Captain Salem Robinson saw the two survivors but watched in horror as Johansson lost his grip and fell into the lake when the Lifeboat was launched Captain Madison finally let go of the wires and swam to the boat he had been in that precarious perch for 12 hours the other sole survivor of his crew floated for two nights and a day on a tiny raft which flipped twice in the storm tossed late the James B Colgate second engineer Harry Osman and a new coal passer that Captain grashaw didn't know were originally on the raft with him but eventually only the skipper remained picked up by the car fairy market in Bessemer two miles off Rondo Canada rashaw eventually went on to sail another whale back delivering automobiles for Nicholson Transportation aboard the steamer progress newspapers reported that Captain McClure never fully recovered from the sinking of the Marshall F Butters he died four years after the Black Friday storm at his home in Ludington Michigan and was buried here at Lakeview Cemetery the sole survivor from the crew of the Schooner D.L Fowler lived a full life after the Gale just 60 miles south of here Captain John Madison started his own dairy in his hometown of Muskegon sailing part-time aboard the three Master Oliver Perry in August of 1939 newspapers feared he had vanished on Lake Michigan with 49 Scouts but the skipper brought the ship safely into Chicago shortly afterwards the Perry became the first museum ship on the Great Lakes when it was buried as the JT wing on Belle Isle near Detroit Captain Madison passed in 1961. Madison Schooner was among the first to be discovered on the bottom of Lake Erie its coal cargo was salvaged just weeks after it was lost the Mast of the butters was found only days after it sank but the ship was too broken to be recovered the steamer Merida would be discovered in 1975 but the whaleback Colgate would take decades to find a friend of mine and I were involved in finding the Colgate in 91 um we also in 91 with Windsor SOS we found the Marshall Butters off of Point peely that same summer Dave Trotter came in so that summer we I dove all three of those wrecks of that storm which would have been the first for anybody because we found two of those from that storm that year which was an exciting we thought we'd found the filer too because we did go looking for it we spent a lot of weekends trying to find it again never did find it again [Music] Armistice Day remembers those fallen in World War one but for Sailors it marks the 11th day of the 11th month when Lake Michigan whipped into a frenzy when 126 mile an hour winds finally ceased three ships were destroyed and 60 Sailors were gone forever when we left Chicago dead cam we're heading from Montreal with a load of carbon Coke it was our last trip of the season a little did we know that we're going out into the second worst storm that ever happened on the Great Lakes it was blowing a bit but it wasn't too bad and so the captain thought well he'll he'll go up the uh the east side and then see the wind was from the south east so we were protected on the shore but but during the course of the day the wind shifted around to the West uh the south south west and then I've got bigger and bigger and it was too late to go over to the other Shore so we just had to follow up and just giving get getting worse and worse that boat was rolling like a carp on the sea it did everything but turn upside down and you can imagine what it was like in the fire hall with that boat rolling the way it did two Cooks were lost on novadak when the waves paved in the Skylight near the galley only a few miles north another Canadian freighter was ripped apart by the Gale we had met the mench earlier in the afternoon it wasn't making any Headway and we weren't either so that's why we're both ships went down the same place pretty well the car ferry city of Flint was grounded at Ludington and the Coast Guard turned their attention to that rescue leaving the Nova dock to fend for itself overnight the engine was out the lights were out see we didn't have any light that we found a pail after daylight guy came there was a pail up in the Captain's Room a steel pail so we start breaking up furniture and uh putting pieces of wood in the pail and opened a porthole on this on the starboard side and that would let the Smoke Out and we took turns and warming our hands you have no idea what that storm was like we went in that room at 10 o'clock Monday night and that's when we started taken abundant tons of water started dropping on us and I mean tons of it it just it shook us to pieces and don't think we weren't afraid because we didn't know what minute everything was just going to collapse around us that next morning a fish tug chugged out of pent water eager to check their Nets Clyde cross Corky Fisher and Joe Fountain pulled alongside the novadoc and rescued the 17 survivors that finally got ashore and they took us into the Coast Guard Station the coast guards they wouldn't come out to get us it was too rough for them they wouldn't come but that little fishing boat come out to get us bodies came ashore indicating a 420-foot steamer at capsized off little Point Sable it would take 34 years before the whereabouts of the William davik would be known resting upside down in 200 feet of water it doesn't matter how big a boat is she can go down the same as any other boat the Fitzgerald was a prime example of it it went down with all people aboard they never knew what happened the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba was being overhauled for war Duty when the Armistice Day storm ravaged the lake and there was an uproar when the rescue ship wasn't available when it was so desperately needed 18 years later another Southwest Gale slammed into the big lake and a deckhand remembers what it was like watching his freighter being ripped into two yeah the cargo Hall of we think it's filled with water became heavier here that it just tipped the ship right straight out but wheel right out of the water up here and just started to to go under and then the Ice Water hit the hot boilers that's when it exploded into a red ball of flame and the lights were still on and then it just disappeared and everything was done the German freighter Christian Sartori saw the explosion and attempted to push against 60 mile an hour winds to reach the Bradley he told us that it took him two hours to get to the site where you saw the explosion and when he arrived there he saw nothing but a damaged tank that was the only thing he saw and I think what he saw was that capsized Lifeboat it was aluminum and then it's over capsized condition it looked like it might have been a tank but I think that's what he saw and that he said he saw nothing else Captain Muth mustered enough crew to head into the storm his 180-foot cutter rolling 53 degrees in the Gale that next morning the ship's cook spotted two men on a life raft near High Island first mate Elmer Fleming and Watchman Frank Mays were the only survivors her hair was full of ice and her clothing was covered with ice they were well attended the pharmacists made the bang-up job I thought I think about 10 minutes 10 15 minutes later he called me and said that they were awake and they were alert and they were willing to talk so I went down to interview them asking if they had any idea and why the Bradley sank they gave me their version and I asked him if they wanted to go back to Charlevoix at that time or if they wanted us to continue to look at the for more survivors or they're Shipmates they said no you stay out here cap and you look for our Shipmates [Music] U.S steel the owner of the Bradley sent an expedition to the wreck site in 1959 to find out what happened for the drill Stand Down with a TV camera on it with floodlights but the visibility was extremely poor I was astounded I had always thought that the great lakes in Lake Michigan lived on it most of my life that would be very very clear but it was very murky the images from the camera were shared with an admiralty court which would settle multi-million dollar lawsuits from the families of the Lost sailors U.S steel says the ship was in one piece and was an act of God the settlement was for one and a quarter million dollars but the argument was hardly put to rest for Frank Mays who returned to the shipwreck in a submersible in 1995. I saw the name I didn't see the complete name the pilot saw the Carly Bradley I saw the word Carl and then we were maneuvering away from it and apparently the currents moved it a little bit farther away and we lost sight of it poor visibility caused the expedition to be canceled before Frank Mays could see the ship's damage a 20-foot rip across the deck that sent the 630 foot freighter to the bottom the question as to whether the Carl D Bradley is torn completely in half is still being debated but a wreck in 1966 left no question as to the condition of the Daniel J Morrell it's bow sink off Michigan's thumb and the stern kept sailing for five miles four scared Sailors made it to the raft we watched the Daniel J Morrell split in half Dennis Hale was the sole survivor of the 28-member crew enduring two November 9th on a life round with only a small safety light as his guide they crashed through waves as tall as a three-story building the carbide light was still lit on the back of the raft and all I could see was swallow water and I can see the foam on the top being blown off and I said oh my God that's going to crash on us Dennis said a crash as the ship ripped apart woke him up at 2 am and in the darkness all he could find was a life jacket and his wool peacoat he joined three others on the life raft shocked from sleep middle of the sound of the alarm something was it right jump from my bunk with the life vest in my hand sparks flying grown men crying miles from the land going down [Music] my survival you know I I question it somehow sometimes I think that maybe the manner in which I was dressed you know watching the other guys their clothing froze first and kind of encapsulate them in ice you know and I'm sure that plummeted their body temperatures and with me not having any clothes on and then I think that was beneficial and then the when I put that life jacket on that was right next to my skin and it was the the plastic with K-pop inside of it and I think that that plastic and the K-pop kind of insulated my heart and lungs along with that Pico Dennis would lose several toes to frostbite but the worst injury was from the newspapers which reported he used his crewmate's bodies to Shield himself from the cold I really felt slammed about that you know I it wasn't true and I kind of went into a seclusion after that um never talked about it I it was 23 years before I could even talk about it and I just got to the point where you know by not saying anything I was more or less admitting it was true and uh so you know I started talking about it the morel Stern section was found by military aircraft on December 2nd the bow wouldn't be found until 13 years later morel's second cook yalmer Edwards left the boat five days before it was lost admitting himself into a hospital for a bad cold this was eerily similar to the Cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald who left an early fall to get surgery on his foot his ship sailed into history in 1975. [Music] when I got better was on the 6th of November and a company got my release from the doctors and that's when Cratchit called me on the phone and he said red pack your bag he says the Fitzgerald's land at the Great Northern or dock Frozen orisha she'll be there for three or four days Ace has fly up to loose and get on her and I looked at my kids my wife and I said what do you think they says don't go the Fitzgerald left Wisconsin with a relief cook and sailed into full Gale warnings on the East End of Lake Superior former mate Mike capster remembers that long time wheelsman John Simmons had a special name for the Lighthouse at the end of Lake Superior he called it welcome point up in Lake Superior in a clear night you can see 100 miles you know it's clear you see everything and uh a lighthouse as high as a Whitefish Point and you're on on the Fitzgerald area you could probably pick up the loom of it 70 miles away and the closer you got then you'd see the flash you know and John would always tells you know there is a welcome point you know welcome point he always said that so when the boat sank you know it was 19 miles from welcome point and that's the thing that racks my brain all the time the captain of the ship just behind the Fitzgerald encountered a wave that destroyed his Lifeboat 30 feet above the lake level those two Seas were the biggest that we ever we ever had going down there and it happened about 6 30 in the evening and I just wonder if those two Seas didn't catch up with the Fitzgerald assist Ed the Coast Guard would learn Captain McSorley was a rough weather Skipper who rarely backed away from a storm Captain capster agrees remembered he was nearly sunk on the J.R sensibar in the early 1960s near Chicago's breakwall or two three o'clock in the morning and uh so we go out around the wall and she rolled and she just hang there and just shiver and Shake you know and it would come back you know the other side like you just share everything in the boat was slapped your dressers uh all the everything was rattling from one side to the other you know and uh Victoria he was scared and he was dead white he said you know he said the boat can't take any more of this we're gonna have to turn around and go back Captain capture was at the wheel during that deal with McSorley and McCarthy both in the Pilot House those two captains were lost when the Fitzgerald Dove to the bottom in 1976 the Coast Guard put a robot down 500 feet to the Shipwreck they only found eight of the 21 hatches were visible what we found on some of the hatches is you would have a clamp that's distorted and then you went to three or four there weren't now they could have been in place and not tight enough one of those problems if you you know you remember this was in the early fall of the year during the summer nobody puts all their clamps on because you don't have the bad weather and so when it gets to the fall of the year they need adjustment to what happened and uh so you know it could have been that they just weren't adjusted everyone put them on a snapping about a little bit you know they snap down very easily controversy is brewed for decades and after six expeditions to the wreck questions still remain about the loss of the ship and why 29 men never had a chance to escape I believe she bottomed out that it could have been stress fracture too but how high is stress factor uh I don't know we didn't have any problems with that under Anderson we were taking as much water she was probably more [Music] gone are deadly cold deep Superior it's no surprise storm last Clues [Music] the Edmund Fitzgerald is just 17 miles from this Lighthouse at Whitefish Point a tragic reminder that even modern Freighters can't handle the worst that mother nature can dish out in those Gales the four largest ships ever lost on Lake Superior Michigan Huron and Ontario were destroyed steel Giants lost on what was to be their final run I'm Rick Mixter [Music] I know wrong [Music] I know right [Music] no wrong [Music] I know God [Music] oh the storm is lashing Mountain waves ahead are crashing oh they're steady in that thrashing final Fury underway right I know right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Rescues

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Id: m77aXYBg2lk

Length: 51min 20sec (3080 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022