No Surfing For Jimmy in the Edmund Fitzgerald's Backyard

Every November, the weather in Wisconsin reminds me of a day in 1975, that is memorialized in a song by Gordon Lightfoot forever.  Cold gray skies and freezing rain bring back that day like a shoe-full of sand reminds me of a sunny day at the beach.

I am a huge Jimmy Buffett fan.  That becomes obvious if you see my tattoos.  Yes that’s a plural and no I wasn’t drunk when I got them and no I wasn’t in my 20’s.  I took a long time before deciding to get a tattoo and 9 years later I got another one.  A big one on my back.  Just my little way of showing that I may not be able to do the things I did in my past, but I can certainly make my back look any way I want it to. The tattoo on my back is  important to me.  It shows that I accept my back as it is right now, titanium cages and all. I wil not make excuses for my choices, I just put a lovely bit of ink over them.

Anyway, I was reading in a newspaper recently that a woman was shopping in a little store on Long Island and heard a voice that sounded very familiar to her.  It was Jimmy Buffett. He was talking to the store owner about surfing.  Jimmy tries to surf daily.

When the lady (I’ll just refer to her as “Lucky”) went to the counter, she didn’t want to sound like another gushing fan, so she said that Jimmy should try surfing in the Great Lakes, they get some big waves up there.  Jimmy responded that he didn’t want to surf in Edmund Fitzgerald’s backyard.

The Edmund Fitzgerald.  The ship that sank on November 10, 1975 in Lake Superior.  That’s not just a song by Gordon Lightfoot, it was a real ship and it really sank and there were 29 men on board who never made it home.

I grew up in a little town on Lake Superior.  Ashland was my home until I went away to college in Madison in 1978.  I’ve lived in Southern Wisconsin since then.  I returned for summers while in college, but I did not move home after I graduated.  I stayed in the Madison area, and in fact live only 30 miles north of Madison right now.  If my back were ok, I would be working in Madison right now.

A few years ago, I went back to school to earn a degree in computer programming.  I have a bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin, but after working for several years in the insurance industry, I decided that I wanted to learn how to be a programmer/analyst.  As part of my degree program, I had to take a speech class.

I hate public speaking, I can do it, I just hate it.  The first speech we had to do, was an informational speech.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to deal with a fear that I have.  I’m afraid of being on a ship that sinks. 

When the Fitzgerald sank in 1975, I remember they lowered a camera and located the wreckage.  I can still see the grainy black and white images of the bow of the ship, upside down in the frigid icy lake.  It has haunted my dreams for many years.

So I thought if I wrote a speech about what happened, I’ll be able to help myself overcome my fear of shipwrecks.  I’ll learn all about what happened and conquer my fear.  How can you be afraid of something after you have all the facts, right?  Well it sounded good anyway.

Read on.

November 10, 1975 was a gloomy November day.  Most of the time our November weather is cold and icy at the top of Wisconsin along the shore of Lake Superior and this day was no different.  It was the kind of day where you aren’t sure if the sun rose at all.  The gloomy skies were a dark gray, dark enough so that the street lights didn’t go off and stayed on all day, to light your way if you happened to be outside.  An icy north wind was blowing and howling.  Snapping small tree branches and causing the larger ones to creak and groan.

There was an icy rain that felt like razor blades slicing into your cheek as you hurried to get wherever you were going.  You didn’t want to be outside for very long.  The route from the high school to my home was straight down 11th avenue 1 1/ miles toward the lake.  Walking directly into the north wind was not my favorite thing to do, but it certainly made you walk directly home after school.  No time for goofing around or getting into trouble.

On this day the Edmund Fitzgerald was being loaded with iron ore in Superior, WI at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock #1.  At about 4:30PM the Fitzgerald set out on her final cargo run that was supposed to end in Detroit.  The Fitzgerald was carrying 29 crew members and 26,116 tons of iron ore.  Among the men was my cousin ( a distant one) Blaine Wilhelm.  He was 52 years old and was an oiler on the Fitzgerald.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was 711.2 feet long and 75.1 feet wide.  During her years in service the Fitzgerald set many records for carrying cargo in the great Lakes.  She was the first ship to carry over one million tons of cargo through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie earning her the nickname “The Pride of the American Flag”.  Her normal route was between Silver Bay, Minnesota and Detroit, Michigan.

During the trip, another ship, the Arthur M. Anderson joined the Fitzgerald.  Since the Fitzgerald was faster, she was about 15 miles ahead of the Anderson.

Captain McSorley of the Fitzgerald and Captain Cooper of the Anderson decided take a northern route through Lake Superior in order to avoid the worst part of the storm.

The weather got worse as the trip moved along.  The Fitzgerald and the Anderson were in radio contact.  Captain McSorley of the Fitzgerald radioed that he had a fence rail down and had lost two vents.  He indicated he was slowing down so the Anderson would be closer.  Captain McSorley requested that the Anderson stay close until they reached Whitefish Point.

At 6:55 PM Captain Cooper of the Anderson and his men reported that they felt a bump and turned to see a huge wave crash over the entire ship driving the bow of the Anderson into the lake.  This was followed by another wave which was even bigger.  Captain Cooper watched as the waves headed toward the Fitzgerald.

By this time the Anderson had lost visual sight of the Fitzgerald but was tracking her on radar.  At 7:10PM the first mate of the Anderson, Morgan Clark radioed the Fitzgerald.  After discussing the course Morgan asked the Captain  “By the way Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?”.  The reply from the Fitzgerald was “We are holding our own.”

At 7:15PM the Fitzgerald disappeared from the Anderson’s radar screen.  No radio contact could be established.

The Captain of the Anderson radioed the Coast Guard.  The storm was getting worse and they couldn’t locate the Fitzgerald.  The Coast Guard asked the captain of the Anderson if they could turn and go back to look for the Fitzgerald, Captain Cooper agreed.

The crew of the Anderson, recovered two life boats from the Fitzgerald and some debris.  There were no signs of survivors.

The search for the Edmund Fitzgerald began immediately.  The US Coast Guard cutter Woodrush located wreckage 17 miles north northwest of Whitefish Point on November 14, 1975.  On May 20, 1976 the Coast Guard’s underwater recovery unit filmed the wreckage and in reviewing the film the words “Edmund Fitzgerald” were clearly seen on the stern.  The ship was in two pieces, the stern was resting upside down.

The Edmund Fitzgerald, “The Pride of the American Flag” sank in 530 feet of water in Lake Superior.  All 29 men aboard were lost.

In reviewing the Coast Guard report of August 2, 1977 concluded that the Fitzgerald sank due to faulty hatch covers and cargo hold bulkheads.  However the Lake Carriers Association and the National Transportation Safety Board voted to unanimously reject the Coast Guard’s findings.

Captain Cooper of the Anderson believes that the Fitzgerald traveled into shallow water and was then hit with the enormous waves he saw.  He believes that’s what sank her.  Others believe the cargo shifted which caused the boat to roll.

The bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald was recovered at the request of the relatives of the crew and is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan as a memorial to the men who lost their lives that fateful day.  The shipwreck is now a “no diving” area because it serves as a graveyard to the crew.

There are regular reminders of this shipwreck, the Gordon Lightfoot song plays regularly on the radio stations up north and is often requested when Gordon Lightfoot makes an appearance in Duluth Minnesota.  The song eirily and accurately, tells the tale of that fateful day.

On the anniversary of the shipwreck every year, there are church services at the Mariners Church in Detroit and probably in the little towns that the crew called home.

So about that fear of mine;did I conquer it?????

No, I just made the images more vivid.

November is almost over folks.  I have no fears about reindeer.

Thanks for listening.

Anne

Comments

[deborahdeborah]

Anne, that is truly a beautiful tribute. by the way, I would love to see a pic of your tattoos. you can email them to me discretely if you wish, and I would respect your privacy.

[Sheila]

Thanks for the story, it makes me think of how much I loved my family and how much I miss them every day and can't be with them. I graduated from Ondossagon HS and a (Heidi) Wilhelm attended the school too. I believe it was her father on the Fitzgerald. The year before I lost my own father. We all have our memories (god bless us) and thanks for writing about Ashland.