From: collicot@brutus.aa.ab.com (Duane E. Collicott)
Subject: Re: Lyrics: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Originator: collicot@tethys
Organization: Allen-Bradley ASA, Ann Arbor, MI
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 15:38:29 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.043558.1194@gvl.unisys.com> wrp@pslsrv1.gvl.unisys.com (Bill Pringle) writes:
>I seem to recall that some time after Gordon Lightfoot recorded this
>song, the wreck was found.  (Or at least some remains)
>
>Anybody know more about this?

I thought I posted something, but I think it got lost.  If I did, then I'm 
sorry about the repeat.  I can't remember seeing it posted, though.

There have been a couple visits to the wreck, I think in the last few years.
Cousteau (sp?) made the most notable visit.  It's lying in 530 feet of water
in two pieces, one half is upside-down, I think.  They got some footage of 
it with a remote-control camera-sub.  Alot of this footage ended-up in an 
award-winning docuentary video about the ship and the wreck, which is 
available from  the Lake Superior Shipwreck Museum (Whifish Point, MI), and
other places, probably, but I don't know where.  I think Northern Michigan 
University (Marquette) or Michigan Tech (Houghton) produced it, but I'm not 
positive about that either.

These are the facts... they put out of Superior, WI, loaded with 26,116 tons 
of taconite bound down for Cleveland.  She was typical of the large Great 
Lakes freighters: 729 feet in length, a cabin at either end, cargo hatches 
along the deck between, and the familiar rust-colored hull.  They knew there
was one of those nasty northerly storm brewing, so they headed along the 
Canadian coast for shelter.  By the time they turned to the SE the next 
evening, which exposed them to the storm, it was kicking up 30 foot waves
and gusts up to 70mph.  There was another ship nearby, and they were staying 
close together to keep in contact with each other.  When they were 17 miles 
short of Whitefish Point, which would have given them calm waters, they 
disappeared without even adistress call.

The official theory from the NTSB and Coast Guard is that a cargo hatch was 
just overtaken by the force of the ice and waves and gave way, letting the
waves in, and she split in two upon hitting the bottom.  However, the theory
that sailors and many others agree with is that they were gradually taking on
water all along and spilt-up from the force of the seas, sending her to the
bottom quickly, and without time for a distress call.  The video footage
showed the crew at their stations, apparently not even having time to even
begin heading for lifeboats.  As for support for taking on water slowly, they
did report the seas getting gradually higher, but the other ship disagreed
with that and they were in the same area, so perhaps they were actually get gradually lower.  The other ship also warned them a few hours earlier that 
they were too close to a shoal that is usually too deep to hit but could 
easily be scraped in waves as big as they were that night.  In the motion
and noise of the storm you wouldn't hear or feel the scrape.

That's what I know.  The only other trinket of information is that somebody
found her anchor left on the bottom the Detroit River from some earlier visit,
and I think they just brought it up this summer.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Duane Collicott
collicot@brutus.aa.ab.com

"If you could see far enough you'd be looking at the back of your own head"
                                                                     - Unknown
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