Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes

[Music] i've been in all kinds of storms i've never been frightened except in lake superior towering waves and howling winds pulling terrified sailors to their watery graves just makes your blood run cold of the size of the waves that were sweeping down the decks all the while you know that there's no rescue at hand that the water will kill you with the cold and you will perish legendary vessels shipwrecked on the great lakes steel hulled ships all in their prime all succumbed to the weather into this one particular storm here you are at the site of the edmund fitzgerald the most famous of the 6 000 ships that have gone down on the great lakes you know there's 29 souls right here [Music] [Applause] [Music] they have a surface area of over 95 000 square miles and their icy depths hold one fifth of the earth's fresh water awesome and timeless they are the great lakes superior michigan huron erie and ontario together they are america's busiest inland waterway supporting commerce and life itself for the entire region [Music] the great lakes also have a dark side wicked storms of incredible fury that can threaten any vessel caught in their grip the lurking danger of great lake storms lies in the high frequency of their waves bone-chilling walls of water strike vessels in rapid succession a deadly force known as their chop more sinister than the great swells of the ocean a 30-foot sea in the ocean is not near as frightening as a 30-foot chop in lake superior the seas in the lakes just beat you to death it's a constant hammering hundreds of feet deep the cold silent bottoms of the great lakes are littered with the broken hulls of more than six thousand vessels the human cost is estimated at thirty thousand lives over the past two centuries most feared of all storms is the november witch punishing maelstroms that sweep across the lakes as winter makes its first approach one november which stands alone is the most violent and deadly storm ever to strike the lakes the great storm of 1913. [Music] november has traditionally been a busy time on the lakes iron ore and coal freighters make their last runs before winter weather brings the shipping season to a close in 1913 the largest of these vessels were more than 500 feet long steel hulled and powered by massive steam engines [Music] tucked among these giant boats was a small freighter called the regina named for the capital of saskatchewan canada at 250 feet in length the regina was perfectly suited to serve tighter harbors and accessible to the bigger boats you could think of her as being a floating ups truck because her job was to visit all of the small canadian ports an upper lake huron and on up through lake superior delivering the daily consumer goods she typically carried a cargo of whiskey perhaps some champagne perhaps some construction material for the hardware store captain edward mcconkey was the proud shipmaster of the regina mcconkey had a passion for working the lakes and at 34 he was one of the youngest captains in the industry his crew numbered about 20 men mostly able young canadians like himself my grandfather captain ed was a very happy happy sailor he loved his work he loved his crew he was very proud of his ship and the way he could navigate it he would love to have his wife a man that come and spend a week or two with him and also his young children would accompany their mother to visit papa on the ship while on the lakes captain mcconkey maintained a diary dutifully recording each day's activities as well as thoughts of his wife and children [Music] on friday november 7th the regina was in sombra ontario loading 140 tons of baled hay before heading north into lake euron in his diary the captain tersely noted the weather hazy cloudy and wind the weather was unseasonably mild that first week of november with temperatures in the 70s and the lakes as smooth as glass experienced captains were suspicious of this calm some of these sailors had an intuition a sixth sense if you will this this yearning in the in the pit of their stomach that something wasn't right something big was coming this intuition would serve them well two huge storm fronts were beating direct paths toward lake superior and northern lake michigan [Music] on the morning of the seventh storm warning flags were raised in ports all around the upper lakes captains and crews secured their hatches and prepared for rough weather but with end of the season schedules to be met remaining in port was not an option there was a real attitude too that we can tough it out that we can make it that this is 1913 i've got this great big brand new steel ship and there's nothing out there that i can't pull my way through around midday on november 7th the two storm fronts collided creating sudden fierce conditions more treacherous than expected the temperature dropped sharply and winds topped 50 miles per hour as the water convulsed in 20-foot waves captains and crew struggled against the towering seas it's a very eerie feeling when you get down in the bottom of one of them troughs and all you can see for as far as you can see behind you is water and all you see for as far as you can see ahead of ya is water by its second day the storm had intensified claiming vessels all across the upper lakes the steamer leefield was dashed against rocks on a lake superior island with her hull ripped out she was dragged back into the raging seas where she sank into the icy water taking all 18 crewmen with her in upper lake michigan the barge plymouth and her seven-man crew were anchored off the coast of a tiny island the tugboat that was towing the plymouth had been unable to make headway in the tempest and was forced to abandon her to the elements the plymouth's crew had no alternative but to wait and hope that their wooden vessel would outlast the punishing storm in the pre-dawn hours of sunday november 9th the regina was loading cargo in sarnia ontario near the southern end of lake huron conditions there were breezy but calm by now the storm raging on the upper lakes was on its third day but captains across the region believed it would soon run its course and subside at 7 am the regina began its journey north fading into the huge expanse of lake huron unaware of what lay ahead by mid-morning that sunday the storm that had raked the upper lakes had not let up as predicted instead it spread eastward to include all of lake euron then it was joined by a menacing partner in the form of a huge tropical front speeding north from the gulf of mexico [Music] and it went wandering into this area of cold air places that tropical storms almost never go and it just went crazy and the storm exploded it grew exponentially winds of up to 100 miles per hour would blow for an unprecedented 16 hours with wave heights reaching 35 feet it just makes your blood run cold of the size of the waves that was sweeping down the decks of diving in the green water with your bow being out there when the wind exceeded 85 miles an hour and you're fighting for your life in that boat the regina and dozens of other vessels on lake huron that day were heading full steam into the fiercest storm in recorded great lakes history [Music] on sunday november 9 1913 dozens of vessels were locked in a death struggle against the most violent great lakes storm on record on lake huron the canadian freighter regina was northbound making little headway and taking a terrible beating against the storm blinding snow accompanied winds that reached 100 miles per hour the icy waves crested at over 30 feet in unrelenting chops below deck the regina's engineer and stokers ran her steam engine at full speed in a desperate effort to gain leverage against the maelstrom the regina's cargo shifted in her hold she began to list badly to her right side and started taking on water the regina's 34 year old captain ed mcconkey was faced with the two words that are every captain's nightmare abandoned ship this was his first command the first ship he had been entrusted with and he's going to lose it but he knows every member of his crew personally he knows their families he knows the towns they're from he knows he has to do the very best he can to save their lives one of regina's two lifeboats was successfully launched into the savage waters of lake huron but within minutes the terrified crew was doused with bone-chilling water in spite of their heavy clothing the men now faced a second deadly threat hypothermia what kills on the great lakes isn't always the water you don't always drown you just freeze to death it's the hypothermia the combination of the cold water the spray and the piercing wind going through your heart [Music] after helping his crew abandon ship captain mcconkey remained on board alone the captain secured his diary inside his uniform and prepared for his reckoning he sounded the regina's distress whistle in the distant hope of rousing a life-saving crew from shore a young man like that so alone out in those awful awful winds and high waves he loved his chips so much and to have to abandon ship i just feel just feel so sorry for him and proud that he stood there [Music] after five horrific days of punishing the lakes the storm finally subsided on wednesday november 12th the entire region held its breath waiting for boats to come in many never did instead the lakes offered up macabre vestiges of once mighty freighters sections of lifeboats oars cabin doors and bodies when these little communities along the canadian shore began to find the bodies on the beach the telegraph wires that were down began to be reestablished then and only then was the true horror of the storm becoming apparent in port franks ontario the regina's lifeboat drifted onto the beach with three crewmen still aboard dead from exposure near the town of goderich ontario the bodies of 25 mariners washed ashore they drifted in alone and in small groups some encased in ice this grisly homecoming continued for a week on michigan's west coast the current carried in a bottle inside was a message from a man named chris kenan one of seven men aboard the barge plymouth all swept away by the storm it read dear wife and children lost one man yesterday we have been out in the storm 40 hours goodbye dear ones i might see you in heaven pray for me chris k in the days after the storm captain ed mcconkey's wife and family waited for news of his fate at my grandmother's house she oh she hoped and prayed that oh perhaps ed will call on the phone any minute saying oh i'm fine i weathered this storm i'm in godrich i you know everybody's fine but of course they didn't get that call the following summer in august of 1914 captain ed mcconkey's body washed ashore on the michigan side of lake huron inside the captain's uniform were his gold watch and his diary his body was sent back to ontario for burial the captain's wife amanda carefully dried out the pages of her husband's journal his last entry was on november 7th just before the storm appeared over the lakes his thoughts from november 9th the day the regina foundered went unrecorded the final tally from the great storm of 1913 was staggering 12 vessels lost with all hands 25 others wrecked as many as 273 dead the storm's legacy would be indelible generations of great lakes mariners would compare all other november witches against its epic dimensions [Music] exactly 62 years later the lakes would once again be visited by a terrible november witch claiming the great lakes largest and most famous victim the edmund fitzgerald the storm of 1913 brought unparalleled destruction to the great lakes with 12 vessels lost and more than 270 fatalities succeeding decades saw other deadly storms on the lakes claiming their share of twisted wrecks and lost lives victim of one of the great lakes worst shipping disasters the freighter carl d bradley the ship had broken up under the pounding of one of the lake's vicious early november storms of 35 men aboard all but two perished seventeen bodies were recovered in the grim search but by the 1970s shipwrecks on the great lakes were generally thought of as tragedies of a bygone era newer vessels were over 700 feet long wider and sturdier than the old boats outfitted with radar and modern communication equipment yet with all that progress in the industry one constant remained the power of the lakes [Music] on sunday november 9 1975 exactly 62 years after the 1913 storm another infamous november witch would hit the great lakes its single victim would be the edmund fitzgerald she was launched in 1958 amid tremendous fanfare at detroit's river rouge shipyard [Music] with her gargantuan 729 foot hull the edmund fitzgerald was the largest boat ever to grace the great lakes she seemed the very embodiment of invincibility [Music] this huge remarkable vessel that commanded the respect of almost every other lake boat warranted a salute by other vessels that passed her there was something magical about the edmund fitzgerald by 1975 the fitz as she was known was in her prime no longer the biggest vessel on the lakes she was still one of the most important and respected her crew of 29 was experienced and sure led by captain ernest mcsorley a veteran of 44 years on the great lakes first mate jack mccarthy had 40 years experience and supervised the loading and unloading of the fitz's cargo watchman ransom cundy nicknamed handsome ransom was a former marine and another lifelong seaman at 2 p.m on sunday november 9th the edmund fitzgerald departed out of superior wisconsin she was carrying 26 000 tons of iron ore destined for the auto plants of detroit ahead was a routine 750-mile two-day trip the temperature was unseasonably mild 70 degrees with light breezes forecasts were predicting an ordinary autumn storm and it was supposed to pass out over the lake and bring a little bit of rain and then eventually behind it a little bit of snow just a traditional passage of a storm and it wasn't forecast to be anything too spectacular at about 3 30 the fitzgerald was joined by another large freighter the arthur m anderson the anderson's captain bernie cooper established radio contact with captain mcsorley of the fitzgerald the two shared the standard information including their knowledge of the coming storm [Music] by 5 pm the weather service had issued warnings for winds up to 45 miles per hour captains mcsorley and cooper agreed to change course staying closer to the shelter of lake superior's northern shore [Music] just after midnight the temperature on lake superior plummeted to 37 degrees winds reached 60 miles per hour and waves crested at 15 feet what had been forecast as a routine storm had turned into a nasty november witch [Applause] the men in fitzgerald's pilot house were concerned but confident the fitz had punched her way through many such gales her three-quarter inch thick steel plates were designed to flex and bend with churning seas she slogged on through the night [Music] the following day monday november 10th the storm was still raging early in the afternoon both the arthur anderson and the edmund fitzgerald had made the turn at the top of the lake and were approaching the channel between the canadian islands caribou and mishipocatan the shallows north of caribou island were a hazard well known to all lake captains less than 40 feet deep their treacherous rocks could easily rip a fatal tear in the hull of a passing vessel the fitzgerald was about 15 miles ahead of the anderson just before 3 p.m captain cooper peered into his radar screen and was surprised to see the fitzgerald sailing dangerously close to the shallows it started snow at that time of course we didn't see anything i'm gonna all all we had was just radar checks on them when the first mate myself we were eyeballing the the uh the radar it looked to us as if he was in closer than what we wanted to be just after passing the shallows mcsorley radioed the anderson he called me up that was 3 10 in the afternoon [Applause] and he said i've got a little problem i've taken a starboard list at 4 pm the anderson registered wind gusts of 100 miles per hour ten minutes later captain mcsorley reported that both the fitz's radar units had been disabled by the storm at whitefish point about 45 miles away a power failure took out both the lighthouse light and its radio beacon a vital navigational aid for boats on the lake mcsorley had lost both of his radar then suddenly the beacon that white fish point went out which meant he was blind and had to rely solely on the anderson to tell him where he was and whether or not he was free of any danger of collision mcsorley ordered the engine room to slow down allowing the anderson to close the distance between them sailing blind on a darkening afternoon in huge seas and blowing snow captain mcsorley was facing the test of his life he sounded tired on the telephone but i'm sure that he wasn't he wasn't about to you just can't panic the crew you got to keep your mouth shut you got to work around that somehow and uh i i like like every other captain i think you think your ship is infallible the anderson shadowed the fits from nine miles behind her guiding her through the treacherous seas the vessels plowed onward gradually making headway but the fitz was in grave danger unbeknownst to her crew slowly imperceptibly at first the fitzgerald was sinking [Music] late in the afternoon of monday november 10 1975 the wounded ore carrier edmund fitzgerald was struggling against a monstrous storm on lake superior wave heights had reached 30 feet and the wind was gusting to more than 90 miles per hour fitzgerald's veteran captain ernest mcsorley reported we are taking heavy seas over our decks it's the worst sea i've ever been in the freighter arthur m anderson still trailed the fits by nine miles maintaining radio contact and keeping track of her on radar both boats were heading for the safety of whitefish bay at the lower end of lake superior just 35 miles away captain mcsorley remained stoic over the radio waves but he knew that if things got worse his options were few the nearest coast guard boat that can survive the storm is in duluth minnesota fully a day away from his position he's got coast guard aircraft available out of traverse city michigan perhaps two two and a half three hours away and in the middle of a 75 mile or 80 mile an hour wind there's no way they could perform a rescue mission on his ship the huge seas made launching lifeboats impossible undoubtedly mcsorley felt that his only chance was to make whitefish bay and that he was praying that the boat would stay afloat long enough that he could do that and beach her on in the calm waters of the bay at 7 pm the anderson picked up whitefish point on radar about 25 miles away cooper radioed mcsorley we haven't got far to go we will soon have it made exhausted mcsorley replied yes we will just then a snow squall descended at 7 10 the anderson's first mate radioed mcsorley how are you making out with your problems mcsorley's reply we are holding our own [Music] by 7 25 pm the anderson's first mate had lost radar contact with the fitz he picked up other vessels further off in the distance but the area where the fits should have appeared about nine miles due south was blank [Music] the proudest boat on the great lakes had simply disappeared there had been no distress call no mayday nothing captain cooper and the others peered through binoculars across the waves looking for the fitz's running lights one crewman spotted a single light in the distance cooper saw nothing he tried to raise the fitzgerald on the radio no response he then radioed other vessels in the area asking if they had seen or heard from the fits they had not by 8 25 pm cooper feared the worst he notified the coast guard at sault ste marie i stand by one let me get the anderson on his frequency views there was a vessel that reported uh seeing the fixed jail disappear from his radar screen and he was the last one that was in radar contact with him uh this is the thing about it we come up there we called we called the fifth general to check on him and see how he was doing and uh the last contract we had with him he said well he was going along fine and holding his own no problem about 8 45 the arthur anderson made it safely to whitefish bay a pall hung over the pilot house the men were feeling a mix of relief and numbness the coast guard had no vessels in the area that could withstand the 30-foot seas it dispatched helicopters to the scene and asked nearby freighters including the anderson to search for any signs of the fitzgerald [Music] [Applause] um large and uh glad i'm afraid i'm gonna take a hell of a beating out there on it i was reluctant to go really i was but he said there's a chip on the bottom and i feel like saying that could be two if i go back you know but i finally decided i'd go out the anderson and the freighter william clay ford bravely turned back into the maelstrom to search for the fitz and her crew knowing full well that the chance of finding survivors was slim at best [Music] on land the families of fitzgerald's crew watched the storm and worried and the wind was howling terrible and the trees were just bending and it was so gray i had gotten the kids for bed and i was watching tv and they said that there was a ship missing in lake superior and naturally the first thing i thought was about my dad and i went to bed praying that he was safe by the following morning november 11th word of the disaster had made the news i turned on the tv and the first thing that i saw was the headline that the fitzgerald was missing to see that and know that your dad is gone it was horrible [Music] the anderson and the william clay ford found no sign of survivors and returned to port [Music] 400 miles to the south at detroit's mariners church father richard ingalls told the bell 29 times once for each man on the fitz i felt deeply for the family the empathy was at times almost crushing because they had lost their loved ones and they had a great burden of not being able to see them and i used the psalm out of the deep have i called unto thee oh lord lord hear my voice my soul fleeth unto the lord before the morning watch [Music] coast guard vessels continued to search for survivors but after three days lake superior surrendered only a few ominous remnants of the fitzgerald including her mutilated lifeboats where the fitz was believed to have gone down the coast guard found a single oil coated life ring and you start thinking of the families you know if it were your family or if it were you waiting for some word you want to find somebody or something that you can take back to and we found nothing not a thing the loss of the fitzgerald was an absolute shock to the great lakes maritime and for her to be lost under mysterious circumstances with all hands in the middle of a lake superior storm just with something that could not be comprehended in the aftermath of the stunning tragedy the coast guard turned its attention to the cause launching an extensive investigation that would only add to the mystery of the edmund fitzgerald [Music] on thursday november 13 1975 the coast guard suspended its search for the 29 men of the ore carrier edmund fitzgerald the next day a navy plane outfitted with magnetic detection equipment located the hulking vessel the fitz was broken in two lying in 530 feet of water she had gone down 17 miles from the safety of whitefish bay on november 18th the coast guard initiated an investigation that would last almost two years they conducted dozens of interviews and deployed an unmanned submersible to study the wreck taking over 800 photographs and recording hours of videotape [Music] in july 1977 the coast guard finally released its report but there would be no stunning revelation no telltale disclosure to explain the loss of the legendary edmund fitzgerald the report concluded that the officers and crew of the fits had performed properly in the crisis it also pointed out that the fitzgerald's hatches were overdue for maintenance and that they may have been improperly fastened leading to topside flooding of the vessel and the theory was that during the the height of the storm the sea's boarding fitzgerald spar deck and rolling along over top of the hatches were flooding through these ineffective hatch closures and entering the cargo hold and that in effect was forcing fitzgerald lower and lower and lower in the water until finally there was no buoyancy left and fitz simply dove into a wave and disappeared the coast guard theory was admittedly inconclusive it was also controversial especially considering fitzgerald's experienced crew men such as first mate jack mccarthy who supervised the hatch closings people who knew jack mccarthy who was first mate insist that jack mccarthy would never have allowed those hatches to be improperly secured the crew were competent seamen in every regard they certainly would have made certain that their ship was seaworthy before leaving superior a second theory that has gained wider acceptance is that the fitzgerald ripped her hull on the rocks near caribou island shortly after passing the shallows captain mcsorley reported that the fitzgerald had taken a starboard list touching on caribou shoal could have fractured a number of ballast tanks both side and bottom emitting into the ship this great deluge of water that the pumps were unable to handle fitzgerald doesn't realize that she's damaged because of the rocking and rolling of the ship in the storm the impact was not apparent she continues down bound and she simply staggers off and suddenly sinks diving into this wall of water the bowel plunging into the bottom of the lake [Music] the torque twisting the stern over cranking it off to land about 170 feet away from the bowel portion captain bernie cooper of the arthur anderson the vessel following the fits supported this theory cooper testified that his radar showed the fitzgerald passing right over the shallows near caribou island i don't care what anybody says at 3 10 in the afternoon she had either bottomed out or had a stress fracture of the hull it's the only two possibilities to have she was sinking from that time on my opinion is she bottomed out there are other theories for the disaster yet each of these explanations remains a theory we know it sunk the fitzgerald it filled up with water and did a nose dive but why it took on water is really the mystery we really can't determine what caused the ship to take on water before it did its nose dive to the bottom in the years after the tragedy the mystique surrounding the fitzgerald continued to grow yielding a hit song and turning the fits into a sort of freshwater titanic this has led to several high-profile expeditions to the wreck site we planned diving the fitzgerald for some time but nothing could prepare us for that moment when you finally came in on this huge mountain of steel out of the black and you move in closer and closer to the pilot house itself and peer in the windows you might see a blanket hanging out of a window a pair of coveralls draped here or a sweater there it's a very sobering moment because you realize here you are at the site of the edmund fitzgerald the most famous of the 6 000 ships that have gone down on the great lakes you know there's 29 souls right here [Music] when you don't have a casket or a body you kind of hope that eventually the body would wash ashore you know but then after a while you give up that hope you realize that it's not going to happen and he's down there entombed in the fitzgerald over the years the families of the men who died on the fits grew disturbed by the ongoing dives to the ship's wreckage to them the wreck is a hallowed place the gravesite of their husbands fathers and sons bruce hudson was just 22 when he lost his life on the fits his mother ruth hudson felt that the dives should stop in 1994 she and other fitzgerald family members began a campaign to have the wreck declared a grave site off limits to diving everything has been found out that that can be and there's no reason for anyone to be going to the fitzgerald anymore and we just feel that it's their gravesite and that should be respected [Music] in an effort to provide solace to the surviving family members there was a proposal for one final expedition to raise the ship's bell the soul of the vessel and replace it with a replica bearing the names of the crew this dive took place in july 1995. [Music] emotions ran high as the bell broke the surface of lake superior after 20 years on the bottom one feeling i had was it was like like a part of my dad coming up and when that bell came out the water and it told right away as soon it rang as soon as it came out it was like the fitzgerald was alive again and it's it's brought us all a sense of peace and unites us with our men the bell was restored to its original luster in honor of the men today it rests quietly in the great lakes shipwreck historical museum at the end of whitefish bay so close to where the edmund fitzgerald plunged to eternity on that haunting november night in 1975. [Music] in his epic novel of seafaring moby dick herman melville told of the peril faced by sailors on the great lakes he wrote these grand freshwater seas of ours possess an ocean-like expansiveness they know what shipwrecks are for out of sight of land they have drowned many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew these words still resonate a century and a half later with the men and women who sail the great lakes the tragic memory of the edmund fitzgerald and the loss of thirty thousand lives on the great lakes our cause to take heed from the witches of november it's eerie even today 20 some years afterwards that ship never leaves me alone i'm still tied to those people i look back on the storm of 13 and think how incredible this storm must have really been i mean when you think of steelhole ships all in their prime all succumb to this one particular storm it just opened up and swallowed all these ships it shows you what the power of mother nature really is all about

Channel: Titanic Films by Mark

Views: 1,056,324

Keywords: God, RMS Titanic, edmund fitzgerald, edmund fitzgerald wreck body, edmund fitzgerald wreck dive, edmund fitzgerald wreck site, edmund fitzgerald wreck song, edmund fitzgerald wreck video, edmund fitzgerald wreckage, great lakes freighter, great lakes shipwrecks, lake huron, lake michigan, lake superior, lake superior shipwreck locations, lake superior shipwrecks tour, shipwrecks along lake superior, shipwrecks in the great lakes, sunken ships in the great lakes, wreck diving

Id: 4Foaiwnld2I

Length: 44min 40sec (2680 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 30 2021