- This video is brought to you
by "The Great Courses Plus". The money we earn from this sponsorship will go towards supporting the
Ashland Historical Society. (thunder rolling) It was a dark and stormy day when we arrived at Lake Superior. The lake, she was having a moment. (thunder rolling)
(ominous music) This was the beginning of my
education about Lake Superior, it's power, it's ferocity and the respect that the lake demands. As I learned over the next few days, you cannot underestimate the lake, that's what will get you in trouble. I grew up by the ocean so I've always had a healthy respect for the water but in my mind, a lake
is a calm, placid place, a chill vacation spot,
gentile, barbecue time. (upbeat salsa music) I was wrong. Lake Superior is one lake you
don't wanna turn your back on because if she gets you,
she's not giving you back. (waves crashing) The people who make their
home on Lake Superior call her the biggest
and baddest of the lakes and the people of Lake Superior
are an equally badass breed. It takes tough people to
survive on a tough lake. On the day I arrived, Lake
Superior was tumultuous but on other parts of the
lake, the storm was massive. While the surface of the lake
churned and swelled and spat, I was most interested in
what lay beneath the waves because underneath the intensity
of Lake Superior's surface lies an archive, the lake's history
literally frozen in time, a graveyard still and silent. Under the waves lies a moldering timeline of humanity's relationship with the lake. Ships, cars, an airplane, a whole house, sit in the vacuum of time
under the lake's surface and amidst those manmade
offerings to the lake lies man his and herself, the bodies entombed in Lake Superior. It's true what the Gordon
Lightfoot song says, "Lake Superior never gives up her dead." ♪ on down of the big lake
they call Gitche Gumee ♪ ♪ The lake, it is said,
never gives up her dead ♪ ♪ When the skies of November turn gloomy ♪ (dramatic music) I'm here with my friend, Jon, a resident of Lake Superior in Wisconsin and a kayak guide on the lake. Jon's family has lived on
Lake Superior for generations and one day, he casually revealed to me that he was related to a
man, his Great Uncle John, who went down with the SS
Edmund Fitzgerald, or the Fitz. The Fitz sank in 1975, her
entire crew going down with her and it's arguably the most famous and tragic shipwreck in Lake Superior. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that many family members
of the Fitz's crew are still alive today. These are people who
live with the memories of the day the Fitz sank. - The ship and its 29 man
crew vanished in the storm with 80 mile an hour winds and
wave heights up to 25 feet. - But my fascination with Lake Superior didn't initially begin with the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It started with the SS Kamloops, a small steel freighter
that sank off Isle Royale in December of 1927. But Caitlin, you're not
a maritime historian. Why are you fascinated by the Kamloops? Just wait. As the story goes, the Kamloops
was caught in a blizzard that ravaged Lake Superior with
20 to 30 mile per hour winds temperatures hovering
between freezing and subzero and navigation blinded by the elements. Mysteriously, five ships,
including the Kamloops were lost in that storm. The Kamloops was last
seen on December 6th, covered in ice and
fighting to stay afloat. By December 12th, a search
for the Kamloops began but it had to be called off
due to more bad weather. It wasn't until May of
1928 that the bodies of some of the Kamloops crew appeared. In total, the bodies of nine crew members that made it to shore were recovered. Though these crew members survived the sinking of the Kamloops, they likely succumbed to
the freezing temperatures or if they made it to shore, succumbed to wolf attacks on Isle Royale. (wolves howling) Five of the nine were identified and the remains were
entrusted to their families, whereas four remain unidentified and were buried in unmarked graves. All 22 members of the Kamloops crew died. Despite search attempts, the Kamloops was lost to
the depths of Lake Superior. The only trace was from a
literal message in a bottle allegedly from a 22-year-old assistant steward, Alice Bettridge. Found by a trapper shortly
after the ship went down, the nearly illegible note seemed to read, "I am the last one alive, "freezing and starving on Isle Royale. "I just want my mom and dad "to know my fate," Alice Bettridge. For 50 years, the Kamloops was a mystery, one of Lake Superior's great ghost ships, speculation and legend filling
in the blanks of its fate. But of course, what's a
ghost ship without a ghost. In 1977, diver Ken Engelbrecht
spotted the Kamloops during a search for the
ship at Twelve O'Clock Point near what is now known as
Kamloops Point in Michigan. As if floating in time,
the Kamloops and its cargo were in excellent
condition due to the cold and lack of bacteria in the
depths of Lake Superior. Found on its side at 260
feet below the surface, items like clothing, shoes, machinery, even food were perfectly preserved. But the crew's last supper
wasn't all that was preserved. So was, the crew. This is the part of Lake Superior lore that truly terrifies me and also how I first came to
know about the Kamloops. As some of you may remember, I have a little bit of a phobia
about underwater corpses. Do you have nightmares about the dead? If so, what are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? What are those nightmares? Nightmares? Nightmares? What nightmares? You're a nightmare, shut up. The idea of encountering a floating corpse in a dark claustrophobic
underwater environment is not great for me and you
know what the Kamloops has? A famous floating corpse in a dark, claustrophobic underwater environment. (breathing heavily) But how is a member of the Kamloops crew still floating around
there after dying in 1927? Well, as you've probably gathered, the waters of Lake Superior
are very, very cold. Do you know how cold it is
at the bottom of the lake? - I would-
- In the 30s, right? - It'd probably be about 32 degrees, like about almost exactly. Pretty close to freezing. Like maybe one degree above it
- Which was really the ideal temperature to store bodies long term. - Yeah. - When we do refrigeration of bodies, that's the temperature
that we keep them at. - 33 degrees? - Yeah, 30 to 40 degrees. - Oh wow.
- So. - Yeah.
- Interesting. - That's not a coincidence that
the bodies are still there. - Yeah, it's kind of like a giant freezer down there, you know? - Waters at the depths never
really go above freezing and decomposition is slowed to a crawl. Two things happen here with these bodies. First, they sink. In warmer water, bacteria grows internally and gasses build up in the body causing it to bloat and float up to the surface. But with cold water bodies,
like in Lake Superior, that doesn't happen and
the bodies stay sank. Sunk. Sunked? Second is the phenomenon of adipocere. We've talked about this before. I'll link to our Corpse Wax video. (whimsical music) Basically, when fats in the body breakdown and react with water,
hydrogenation occurs, which essentially turns liquid
fat into semi-solid fat. Adipocere is yellowish
white waxy substance that covers the body, hardens
and naturally preserves it and that happens here and because of this, the remains remain. The lack of bacteria, the lack of buoyancy and that layer of adipocere
causes bodies inside the wrecks of Lake Superior or
partially buried near them to not really go anywhere, at least not for a long, long time and they don't really float away either. When a person goes down with the ship in Lake Superior, they stay there. That ship becomes their
grave and that famous corpse in the wreck of the Kamloops? That's Old Whitey, which
would be a terrible name except for the fact that the corpse is in fact very old and very
white from the adipocere. Old Whitey still floats in
the Kamloops engine room. Some divers have told ghost stories of this unknown crew member
that seems to follow them as they explore the ship
as if guided by more than the currents their flippers create. Note, it is just flipper currents. Others claim that Grandpa,
Old Whitey's ghost, appears to them as they explore the ship. The truth of the matter is is that when divers
investigate the Kamloops they are investigating
this dead man's grave, as well as the grave of
12 other crew members entombed in and around the ship. And while to my knowledge
the families of the Kamloops haven't publicly objected
to the ship being explored or the bodies being photographed, the same is not true for
the families impacted by other Superior shipwrecks. - I would never wanna
desecrate a graveyard but a part of me, I have to
admit, would love to go down and see the ship itself with my own eyes, as it is deteriorating, obviously, and it's not gonna be the same forever. And a lot of people would
probably, including my family, would probably have a problem with that, you know, because it is
like digging up a grave in certain people's minds and
I completely understand that and I respect everyone's
view on what it is but I personally would love
to go see the wreck itself, if it was a possibility, which
probably will never happen. - Called the Titanic of the Great Lakes, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
was something of a celebrity among Lake Superior ships. Christened in 1958, crowds would form to watch her go through The
Locks at Sault Ste. Marie since, in her day, she
was the largest ship ever built to traverse the Great Lakes. Now, she's the largest ship to have ever sank in the Great Lakes, but what looms even larger than she sheer size is her legend. Why are the people in
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, so obsessed with the Edmund Fitzgerald? - I think it's because
it's the largest ship that's ever gone down on Lake Superior, so that's one of the reasons why they call it the
Titanic of the Great Lakes and it's just- - But it wasn't that many people. I don't say that to demean it but its cultural impact
seems so much larger than the number of people
that actually went down. - I think one of the big reasons is because of the song by Gordon Lightfoot because when that became popular
after the ship went down, that's how a lot of people
know about the shipwreck and it did definitely, I don't wanna use the word glamorize it, but it did something to make the whole world more aware of it and Gordon Lightfoot was
pretty big at that time. ♪ When the skies of November turn gloomy ♪ ♪ With a load of iron
ore 26,000 tons more ♪ ♪ Than the Edmund
Fitzgerald weighed empty ♪ (thunder rolling) - At 2:30 p.m. on November 9th, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald
left on her final voyage from Superior, Wisconsin. Captain Ernest McSorley
commanded a crew of 28 people, including John's Great Uncle John, a senior wheelsman on the ship, who was most likely steering
as the ship went down. The crew was experienced, capable and no strangers to the
power of Lake Superior. And what did you hear about it growing up, or hear about him growing up? - The family would always talk about how he was really great guy. He was a pool shark. He would always pretend that he, you know, didn't know how to play and
then by the end of the game, he would win a bunch of money. They always said that he
was a really funny guy, a jokester and just, I
remember my cousin, Missy, talking about like him
taking her ice skating and things like that, so just,
he was beloved by the family. - Always, that sort of plays
into everyone's anxiety. Oh someone's just gonna do one last trip and it's all gonna go terribly wrong. - Yeah, it actually breaks
my heart thinking that my Aunt Florence was probably so excited that he's finally gonna be home, you know, after being, you know, on
these ships his whole life. He was on the Fitz most of
the Fitz's run, I think, and it was his, he was supposed to be done and that was the last trip 'cause the captain asked him
to come out for one last trip. - Well the captain was also retiring soon. - Yeah. - As well, right?
- I believe so, yeah. - So it was like these old grizzled men of Lake Superior Shipping
going out for their last run and then it goes down. And so they certainly weren't
green men by any stretch. - No they-
- They really knew the lake. - They knew what they were doing, yeah, and, I mean, the lake is crazy though. (waves crashing) - Tailed by the SS Arthur M. Anderson, another freighter commanded
by Captain J.B. Cooper, the Fitz led the way about
15 to 30 minutes ahead as the ships made their
way across Superior. As the ships crossed the
lake, the weather worsened, causing them to deviate
from their shipping lane. What started as gale-forced wind warnings, quickly was upgraded to an official storm. At around 3:30 p.m. on November 10th, the Fitz radioed the
Anderson informing them that they had a list or a tilt and that their pumps
were bailing out water. The storm continued to worsen with winds reaching 55 miles per hour and swells of up to 18 feet high. Both the Anderson and
the Fitz were pounded, but the Fitz seemed to
be losing the battle. Nonetheless, Captain McSorley stayed calm and communicative with Captain Cooper. He never indicated panic. At 4:10 p.m., the Fitz
reported to the Anderson that they had lost their radar and needed for them to navigate for her. By 5:30 p.m., the Fitz
informed the Anderson they were headed to Whitefish Point, though the lighthouse
there was not operational. By that time, in the dark of
the storm with a bad list, the pumps trying to stay
ahead of a tear in the hull and waves as high as 25
feet, sometimes even higher, the Fitz was fighting for her life. At 7:10 p.m., amidst 80
mile per hour gusts of wind, the first mate of the Anderson asked Captain McSorley over radio, "How are you making out
with your problems?" McSorley replied, "We
are holding our own." And that was the last anyone ever heard from the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Anderson and the Sault
Ste. Marie Coast Guard never received a distress
signal or a mayday call. The Edmund Fitzgerald and her crew of 29 were swallowed up by Lake Superior, 15 miles north of Whitefish Point. What you're hearing is the
sound of Captain Cooper talking with the Coast Guard. Against his better judgment,
he went back out in the storm to look for the Fitz. - It's very controversial, obviously, that over the years it's been discussed that some people wanna dive to the wreck but it's now officially a graveyard so I believe you can only go down if you are a scientific mission sanctioned by the Canadian government but I don't think anyone's been down there since 1994, maybe. I could be wrong about that. 'Cause one of the last
dives that went down there, got a body on tape and there
was footage of the body and that's when a big, you know, kind of uproar happened
with a lot of the families, probably including mine, saying, like, nobody should
be diving down to it. And so I can understand
why, especially my relatives that are much closer to my great uncle 'cause I never met him. He died before I was born, but they're definitely very
adamant, most of my family, about them not going down
to the ship itself anymore because it's a graveyard. ♪ Never gives up her dead ♪ - Gordon Lightfoot wasn't
just taking poetic license when he wrote Lake Superior
never gives up its dead. Almost 50 years later, the
crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald is still in the wreck and that's where their
families want them to stay. This raises some big
questions about what it means to have a graveyard in the
depths of Lake Superior. Typically when you have
a burial site on land, it's understood that it's off limits to certain activities and behaviors. Sure, you may go strolling
through a cemetery but you're not gonna go digging around in the tombs or graves, but when a place in nature tragically and unexpectedly
becomes a graveyard, people can start to question who has claim to this land or water, especially if it's a body of water that divers regularly explore. After the wreck of the Fitz was finally located in May of 1976, multiple groups and organizations
took it upon themselves to dive to the wreck in order
to search and excavate it, or plunder it but who
does the wreck belong to? Spending time with Jon's family, it's clear they're very
protective of the Fitz. They believe it's their
job to protect the memory of their family members and they take that job very seriously but not everybody feels the same way. A major player in the controversy surrounding the Fitzgerald wreckage is Tom Farnquist, the director of The Great Lakes Shipwreck
Historical Society. He identifies as a historian and explorer but some view Farnquist
as more of an opportunist, leading multiple dives to the Fitz that resulted in artifacts
being removed from the wreck, without the necessary paperwork and placed in the Great Lakes
Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish, which he helped open. Farnquist found a partner in crime, take that however you will, in the Canadian physician
and underwater explorer, Dr. Joseph MacInnis. MacInnis was helming a project about the effect of chemical
pollution on the Great Lakes. Using a mini-submarine
would allow MacInnis to obtain the best, clearest
footage of the Fitz to date. Tom Farnquist attached
himself to the project, contributing $10,000 from the Shipwreck Society Museum's funds and also made himself a
spokesperson for the project. The mini-sub made six dives, the first taking place in July of 1994 and the dives did reveal new clues into why the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. Evidence from the dive seemed to show that the bow of the Fitz
hit bottom at a high speed, taking a violent nosedive while the stern was still above water. According to this theory,
a huge wave likely came over the bow of the
already foundering ship, dunking it under water, then a second wave came
immediately over the bow, again forcing it down to the
shallow bottom of the lake. 26 tons of iron ore was
thrown toward the bow when the first wave hit it, weighting it into a nosedive. The ship then broke into two
and was swallowed by the lake. The sub recorded craters
like that on the moon surrounding the Fitz's wreck, indicating a hard hit to
the bottom of the lake. This goes against previous
theories that the Fitz passed over the Caribou
Shoal and broke her hull and that she broke apart, sinking slowly, eventually being overcome
by the towering waves. However, MacInnis' dive
points to a quicker end, an end that the crew barely
had time to react to. But to this day, there's
no conclusive reason given as to why the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. To the relief of the families, no bodies were found during MacInnis' dive and no bodies were recorded on film, but then, along came Frederick Shannon. Before we dive into all that, I think we could use a kayak break. (relaxing music) In a culture where the
shipwrecks are the celebrities, this is maybe the third picture
of all of the shipwrecks in Lake Superior that
we've seen in this town. People on Lake Superior love all the shipwrecks in their lake. How could you not go on a
neighborhood tour of the stars. The plan was to go on our
second day on Superior but Mother Nature had other plans. (wind howling) If the ferry goes down, what's the plan? - Well, we are looking
at an East wind right now and the waves are about three feet, I would say two to three feet, so the best case scenario is that we would swim our heart out for about 15 minutes
before hypothermia sets in and then we would have
to just let the waves carry our bodies in once
they start shutting down. So if you have a life
jacket, the buoyancy of that would probably carry
us towards the island, but I gotta be honest, if we're about halfway from
Madeline Island to Bayfield and this happens, we're pretty much f-ed. ♪ And the lake never gives up her dead ♪ - Yup, yup. (humming) - [Man] Were you scared on the ferry? - I wasn't scared in theory on the ferry but then Jon, one, started to tell me about
this terrible story of a man and his three
children that all died I think last year right off
the Apostle Islands here and then told me about
how quickly hypothermia would take us all if we went down and yeah, then I got a little,
a little, a little worried. But the next day, Jon was
actually able to take us to the kayak-able sunken ships, ships that sank but harmed
nobody in their sinking. It's a nicer day today which
means that we can kayak to the wreck of the Finn McCool and actually see it below
the waves of Lake Superior and I'm excited to do it. I grew up kayaking but I
didn't grow up kayaking in 50 degree water, 40 degree water, so we'll see how this goes. I'm cold in this coat right
now so I'm a little skeptical. (intense music) Goddess. It's supposed to be like a
second skin, like a seal's skin. I'm like a silky of Lake Superior. (upbeat music) - [Man] You got this Caitlin. - Don't show your deep. You just step in the space here like this. - [Caitlin] Oh wow. - And you just pull it up
right below the chest here a few fingers above the belly button. Tie it tight like a gym bag and you just put the life jacket on over the top.
- It looks like a big diaper. I love it. (upbeat music) - The lake is mighty rough but it's nothing we can't handle. (upbeat music) - If you follow it straight out, you'll see all the gears and stuff. - [Man] Do you know the
exact date that it sank? - [Joe] 1964. - Built in 1926, sank in 1964. I'm so terrified by things
looming beneath me underwater but this is really cool. - It was made of white oak. It was a barge that transferred lumber from the islands to Pacific
ports like Shawanaga Bay. - On a bright calm day,
apparently you can see the entire ship clear as day beneath you. It's a little bit rocky today and I know the lake is about a foot higher this year than it was before but you can still see parts of the ship looming beneath the boat
which really freaks me out but is visually very, very creepy. And this, the Finn McCool
was sunk here in the 1960s but it's still, I mean it's eroding, but it's still remarkably intact for being so close to shore. (upbeat music) We did not go down with the ship. The water's about 40 degrees so my hands are a little, little popsicles. - Take your time. - Oh, I'm supposed to get out? Okay. (laughing) Woo! - Yeah, just a small tug. Perfect, thank you. - If at this point in the
video your brains ae buzzing with all sorts of questions
about how exactly great the Great Lakes actually are, you can visit "The Great Courses Plus" and learn more about the Great Lakes. That's a lot of greats. It's great, great, great, great for you. Good for you. I watched "Great Lakes: Back
from the Brink" for this video and did you know that the
dunes on Lake Michigan were formed during the last Ice Age? That's ancient dunes, people. Over thousands of years of dune creation. You can also still see ancient tree stumps standing in those dunes. Like I said, the Great Lakes are wild but they're so much more
than lakes and dunes that you can explore through
"The Great Courses Plus." You can jump from video to video with over 11,000 video lectures about anything that interests you from science to math to
history to literature to death. Oh yes, there's lots of videos about death and you have the ability
to learn at your own pace with no tests, no homework
and no schedules to keep 'cause I'm not doing that. It's learning at your leisure from a TV, tablet, laptop or phone using the web browser or
"The Great Courses Plus" app. "The Great Courses Plus" is
giving our viewers a free trial. Go learn about the Great
Lakes or the Black Death. Yes, you can do that too. Please visit
TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/AskaMortician or just click on the link
in the description below and start your free trial today. We'll talk about who this
sponsorship will be helping at the end of the video. Back to the wreck of the Fitz and new character, Frederick Shannon. Shannon was a former police
officer and private investigator who intended to write a book
and produce a documentary about the wreck of the Fitz. In the mid-90s, he assembled a team that would take a mini-sub to the wreck and solve the mystery
of why the ship sank, but his theories were
eclipsed by a discovery that was a first for
the Edmund Fitzgerald. The remains of her crew. In his defense, Shannon didn't go down to the Edmund Fitzgerald
looking for remains but in passing over the lake floor, a body was discovered by
Shannon's mini-sub, the Delta. Clad in coveralls and
wearing a life jacket, the remains of the crewman lie in the debris on the lake floor. And though Shannon did
not disturb the remains, he did capture footage of them and said he would provide the footage to those who wished to
identify the remains. When Shannon announced
that he had not only discovered a body but
also intended to publish and release images and footage of the remains in his upcoming projects, the families of the Edmund
Fitzgerald crew were horrified. In the minds of the families, Fred Shannon had desecrated a grave. The families began petitioning
the Canadian government because the wreck is
technically in Canadian waters to make the Fitz off limits
to divers and explorations. In addition, they fought for a law that would make publishing
photos or footage of the dead bodies illegal. Farnquist comes back
into the picture here, attempting to play the good guy on the side of the Fitz's families. Side note, the two men,
Farnquist and Shannon, were colleagues and then became
bitter rivals in the press. It's like YouTube drama. Eventually the families were able to have the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald declared an official grave site. As next of kin, the families have control of that grave site. Additionally, the state
of Michigan passed, quote, "A law banning the
publication on public display "of human remains in Michigan waters "without the permission
of the next of kin." - Shannon's footage did
not fall under this law because one, it was
captured before the law and two, the Fitz is
not in Michigan waters it's in Canadian waters, but it other Great Lake
states adopt the law, other shipwrecks would be protected. According to Jon, there
are now alarm buoys surrounding the circumference
of where the Fitz rests. If boaters go past them an alarm goes off and the Coast Guard comes out
and fines whoever trespasses into forbidden graveyard territory. On July 17th, 1999, the families
of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald gathered on deck of a Coast Guard cutter to consecrate the grave site. A replica of the bell of the Fitz sat on the deck accompanied
by two large wreaths, one donated by Gordon Lightfoot. The names of all 29 men were read aloud with a representative of each family ringing the bell in the crewman's honor. This was to honor the dead, but also to send a message
to the Canadian government. We are consecrating this grave site and we want you to officially declare the Edmund Fitzgerald off
limits to, quote, adventurers. As it stands, to the
best of our knowledge, the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is not considered illegal to dive to, but a permit is required and
those who dive without a permit will incur a fine of over $800,000 U.S. How did your family talk about
it when you were younger? - Very respectfully. Just, I remember my Aunt Florence Simmons, who was also my godmother, she was John Simmons,
my great uncle's wife, she was just a really sweet lady. She never got remarried
after he died and I remember, we didn't really talk
about it much with her but I remember my mom
and dad bringing it up and just telling the story
about how she found out, I think, 'cause someone
called her and said, "Turn on the television." There was no courtesy call from, you know, the Coast Guard or anyone that, I'm not sure who would've
been the one to call, but it was just kinda sad the
way that everyone found out. (bell tolling) What are your thoughts on
this underwater cemetery? Can you police the vast,
still depths of a lake? I should note that no one we spoke to wanted the bodies brought up
to the surface and buried, due to the often-sighted sailor's
desire for a watery grave, to live on the lake and die on the lake. Thank you to "The Great Courses Plus" for sponsoring this video. Their sponsorship allows
us today to make a donation to the Ashland Historical
Society and Museum in Ashland, Wisconsin, a
non-profit volunteer organization. The Historical Society and
Museum has become a place where the families of
the shipwreck victims come to pay tribute and
we want to support that. This video was made
with generous donations from death enthusiasts just like you. (brooding music)
“Superior they said, never gives up her dead”
" The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee "
For some reason reminds me of this
Nope, they just transmogrify into zebra mussels like everything else in there.
I am married to the sea, but I am having an affair with two of the great lakes. I won't say which, but it is erie how superior they are...
If you haven't already, watch the rest of her videos. Caitlin Doughty is an inspiration.
If I ever die in an interesting way y'all are welcome to go explore the site as long as you say hello and try to creep your friends out.
God I hate that stupid YouTube face
Funny. Parts of this video are filmed in the small town I went to college in.