Last Radio Accounts of the Edmund Fitzgerald

uh [Music] [Music] five uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] just to make sure the questions we had were uh what time was the last time that you allowed any cows or did you notice you uh had to fix yellow he was apparently 15 miles from the high hump at crisp point that's when i was talking to him he was 15 miles from the land exactly 10 miles ahead of him i asked him at the time how everything was going i just wait once i asked him how he was making out with his problem uh he said he lost those vents and he had a lift and he said he was holding his own now the last time i talked with him he said he was holding his own and uh that's the last time i uh lost contact estimate that was approximately 1900 all right uh we only want a radar up to well we started getting a lot of signature and probably around between eight and nine miles and when he got in the sea return we turned the other radar on and we uh really uh wasn't sure of any definite about six or eight times on uh emergency fm and emergency fm and every day and we cannot wait uh this is [Music] [Music] or maybe a mile to the west of that ring [Music] [Music] all right we were picking up three up bombers up on the radar of course outside of the sea return ring uh down around whitefish point and uh look out here uh was keeping a lookout because at the time i said it was 10 miles that we should see these lights and the lookout was keeping a look out we've never seen any lights or flyers or anything to you if we needed to put um roger you know anderson uh can you give me the names of the three unbound vessels that were taken up for the midfielder [Music] do you have a name for the other two over oh well no control we'd like to know the names of the three vessels that were supposed to pass up bound uh we know one was the man free uh with the other two saltwater vessels also again he's right up in that area i could still pick him up on the radar and the other was the pen uh [Music] just a minute ah the wind is about west northwest 40 to 45 here in the bay here now the seas are not quite as bad but uh all beyond the point there we were taking water six feet high right across our deck all right uh when you talk about six feet high across your desk how much free board is that what that's uh we've got about 10 feet i estimated the weights were some of them some of the big ones between 18 are between 20 and 25 feet of visibility uh well it was occasional source walls but it has a rule good roger can we do the estimating distance uh [Applause] so we're picking up the salt water vessels coming down toward why we saw white face at 20 by [Music] lost dead contact with him they made us talk to him at about 10 minutes after 7 19 10 and he said he was going along fine and no problems except he didn't have a radar and that's when the mate gave him his position the 15 miles north point [Music] all right [Applause] the same as we are you might be able to check through lorraine and see if there are two your stations up there on grand mar so if you put in a winner report we've been in contact with station grand marais uh they report that uh they've heard nothing of the evidence so i was just wondering here's a weather ship you could have put it into the rain or any place i was just wondering whether you can check through on that exactly what's your present position on the weather conditions we're down here about two miles off of parisian island right now we were just going to call you and give us our time at paris and uh but the wind is west north west about 40 45 here in the bay but outside there uh i i took one seal like a ten and a half feet of free board and then i got the extra deck back there i took one up around the light boat so uh there was some very heavy seas occasionally uh [Applause] [Music] uh out there is tremendously large and if you want me to i can but i'm i'm not going to be making any time i'll be lucky to make two or three miles an hour going right back out that way [Music] water vessels and see if they can't possibly to the area but i would say things that things look pretty bad like uh she may have uh would have fired the scenes like the uh morale did a few years back this is just what i'm wondering because uh the may come up here we made it off in the last known position that we had almost 14 miles uh west of copper mine point and now we've been told we just talked to him uh you know about before then after seven and he said everything was fine could get a search if you could get a chopper over there they'd be blown over towards copper mine point i don't know how far in there i could get let me take a look at the chart again a little weight but there's also four boats on your right there again [Music] [Music] your vessel or not uh if you think you can uh safely uh go back into the area uh i would request that you do so but i have to leave that decision up to you but i'll go out and take a look i know when i was about 15 miles above white space uh we took a seat right over the top of the hatch crane up there and that's eight feet up in the water too so i don't know whether i can do it or not i'll give it a try but that's all i can do roger [Music] 15 miles new west copper mines point ontario and 15 miles north of chris point horn that was the last known position of the edmond fitzgerald [Music] captain of the fort speaking uh we have no other vessels in that city right now i guess i should say there are several other uh saltwater vessels there that we're also trying to have assist in the search but it looks for the information that we have that it's uh fairly certain that the uh that the uh fitzgerald went down and uh we're talking now about uh a matter of life and death and looking for survivors that might be in life rafts or in the water and uh we can only ask the master to do the best without hazarding their vessel if you think it would be unsafe and would have your vessel then you have to do whatever best you can but if could come about and head into the sea and try to stay in that area uh and maybe we could pick up some survivors if not at night then maybe that first flight oh roger uh we would appreciate that anything that you can do uh if the captain feels it would unduly hazardous vessel to cover him up then he should not do so far uh did you overhear what i was saying to uh captain o'brien and how does it feel about uh coming about and searching in that area of roger understand i'll request you to do the best you can and see if you could uh fight any sign of any lights in the water or any debris or any uh life rafts or anything that might uh indicate uh survivors on the vessel over control roger i understand we'll be staying by uh 16 give us a call if you uh what what progress you make and uh exciting um [Applause] [Music] well okay if you hear anything at all uh bernie give me a call yeah well that's uh that's about well let's hope we just got radio problems oh bernie when you lost the sight of them or lost contact with them you never did yeah well take it easy oh i see you okay yeah okay or whatever what was the last position that the uh fifth general had of his own that he got on his own what was his life but he had on his own could you possibly have had the wrong ship or a false target or anything [Applause] anything uh yeah to to check on his position possibility then that uh he was someplace else that you had the wrong ship or or were talking to the wrong ship okay okay that answers that again do you run approximately the same speed [Applause] [Applause] oh yeah well let's open some radio uh [Music] [Music] i'll have to notify the captain and call you back all right [Music] uh [Music] it seems to be moderating a little bit right now and at least i hope so that low is moving pretty fast and we're on the back side of it i i have my hopes that it will be that but there is a huge [Music] [Music] [Applause] i think it should be connected from the land side out first [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yet but i've got her [Music] well it would normally be around nine ten miles an hour but uh we'll be making a lot less than that roger uh appreciate your help but uh we're trying to get a couple other knuckles uh out there from uh point also uh yeah well i don't know it seems funny i mean we've been shattered all the time [Music] is [Music] [Music] and then now he's kind of relaxed a little bit you know and uh that he was in the sea return and then when we we couldn't see his lights we figured we should be kicking a little bit because he checked down and he just didn't wasn't there um [Music] uh position of the vessel with 15 miles due north point greatly appreciated without risking any lines for danger that's what i understand as i say i'm up in google here for me to get going and get out of here and uh with the gyro the particular thing i they came out of this new their stuff you know they're not 55 hour there and uh we got going around trying to make the ranges unfortunately we were able to get the ranges and i could work magnetically but as i say i'd get out there without a gyro and getting absolute course lines and that's uh i'd be in jeopardy with my crew [Music] absolutely absolutely we're modeling all the radio conversations there and uh it's one of those things that occurred i would be more than willing to go out there but with the situation with the gyro that i have here i have problems so constantly i don't want to jeopardize uh roger and uh are they commercial vessels over here to control the anderson motorcycle anderson is the vessel that's pleasantly coming around getting underway the other game is also getting underway also commercial vessel over there two three six oh that last vessel killed the marching one [Music] [Music] disappear from his radar screen and he was the last one that was in radar contact with him and i also believe he will be the closest vessel to the scene as he gets back on on scene there but never once and we will get him on this frequency roger uh yesterday this is the new control i have aircraft 7236 [Music] 16 [Music] uh well i'm the one that's heading out i'm almost out to white fish point can you see the point there roger can you flash your light sir i'll uh put my first light in the sky [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] north and west of uh copper mine point what about this year's position at the present time [Applause] it appears [Music] there whether we've been the only ship down here that's uh offered a point [Music] [Applause] anderson is further out along the track line uh heading towards uh pancake shows uh it was our recommendation that she pushed a line from pancake stalls to a point 15 miles north of chris point uh and that was the last uh reported position of the city joe was 15 miles for uh new north at this point and uh with the wind blowing from northwesterly [Music] [Music] on this frequency and maintain uh kyle with us and the aircraft we will use this as the common uh search frequency roger [Applause] all afternoon this time [Music] [Music] okay 140 degrees true for uh some light face points [Music] coming back down [Music] well it's november 10th and boy that election uh took over the news didn't it uh so but that's over at least uh all but the shouting and now we are looking at beautiful weather look at that it's sunny 78 degrees fahrenheit you

Channel: Matt Walsh

Views: 58,580

Keywords: Edmund Fitzgerald, Coast Guard, Lake Superior, Ship Wreck, Sink

Id: hvV5n448EMs

Length: 37min 21sec (2241 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 11 2021