SHIPWRECK: The Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald-No depth sensors??? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: lordvader88
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 12:06:35 am
content: +6000 ships SANK in the last few hundred years on the Great Lakes (5 huge inland lakes between US/Canada, with insane weather)I bet 1 of the last thoughts of the 29 guys aboard was "it's quiet....why's it quiet, I can't hear the storm or the waves.....OMG we're under water, we've SUNK" I'm even thinking maybe the bridge crew them selves didn't look outside, and didn't realize they were flooded?? I've watched this many times, today that sounds foolish...in terms of type of sinking.No one really knows how fast they sank, so was it they hit rocks, or were taking on water for a while and just slipped under FOREVER, and those crazy waves, drove them down forever?Some sensor should have told them the draught ?(is that the sp?) I bet they were almost sunk and didn't even realize it without camera's, sensors, etc

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 12:55:58 am
content: Quote from: lordvader88 on October 23, 2017, 12:06:35 amIt was in 1975, so they would have had an echo sounder to indicate the depth of water, & also been able to determine their position from land echoes on the radar.Both devices had been standard equipment on ships since at least, the mid 1950s.A ship travelling close to shoals, etc, normally kept a constant check upon the echo sounder readings, so they shouldn't have got close enough to get into trouble.With all the high tech stuff on today's ships, they still get into trouble.

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 01:18:45 am
content: The Edmund Fitzgerald

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 02:24:36 am
content: while looking for stuff on the Edmund Fitzgerald, I found this.Lake levels have been much lower in the past.This is also true of bodies of water in the Sierra Nevada... but for different periods..

author: hermit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 01:35:31 pm
content: Pardon the pun, but depth is a 'fluid' issue in 30 foot seas. You are bobbing like a cork above the bottom. The two massive swells mentioned could have drastically changed that relationship in an instant.

author: Specmaster
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 04:29:56 pm
content: Chilling program, all those poor souls lost. I did a search for the wreck on Google Earth and found nothing, its as if she never existed and the same goes for many of the 6,000 wrecks in the lakes. So makes one shipwreck worthy of being recorded and not others?

author: TimInCanada
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 05:02:28 pm
content: Sensors wouldn't have helped. The boat broke up under them catastrophically.In the late 1970s I talked with a fellow who had been on a crew that sent a video camera down to the wreck. He said a small number of hatch cover clamps had been torn off but most of them were still there and undamaged. This meant the crew hadn't done up all, or even most of, the clamps on the hatch covers.These ships are great long beams. The hatch covers form a big part of the top of the beam. Without them being done up properly much of the strength of the top of the beam was lost. Big waves would cause the ship to bend up and down in the middle. Once cracks start and get to a certain point, a big wave would cause the hull plating to tear apart like opening a zipper.The fellow I talked to worked primarily as crew on the lake freighters. He said after that the sailors stopped thinking their ships were unsinkable and paid more attention to things like making sure the hatch covers were secured properly and seeking shelter in bad weather.Tim

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2017, 05:44:43 pm
content: "Rogue waves may also occur in lakes. A phenomenon known as the "Three Sisters" is said to occur in Lake Superior when a series of three large waves forms. The second wave hits the ship's deck before the first wave clears. The third incoming wave adds to the two accumulated backwashes and suddenly overloads the ship deck with tons of water. The phenomenon was implicated in the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in November 1975."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald#Rogue_wave_theory"In 2010, Lightfoot changed one line in the lyrics of the song as a result of recent findings that it was waves and not crew error that lead to the shipwreck. He always felt bad that the line might have implied that the crew was at fault, and he was very happy that new evidence absolved them."http://gordonlightfoot.com/wreckoftheedmundfitzgerald.shtml

author: meeko
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2017, 05:49:22 pm
content: There's a museum ship, the Valley Camp, in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. They've got an excellent exhibit on the Edmund Fitzgerald, including the battered remains of 2 of the lifeboats, one of which was torn in half.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2017, 06:17:50 pm
content: The last story I read on the discovery of the wreck claimed that it was in 2 pieces, but it had only broken apart when it hit the bottom. Maybe. It was something rather sudden, as their last radio report said they were having trouble but holding their own, next thing - silence. At the time of launching in 1958, the EF was the largest boat on the lakes, though no longer true by the time of the wreck. It's also the largest boat to have sunk in the lakes. A lot of safety and inspection procedures were changed in the aftermath. That in a large part is why this is the most well known. I know it made the tv news and the papers, but I don't remember hearing about it - I would have been 9 at the time, and that also being the year my Dad passed away, I was rather withdrawn and not paying much attention to the world at large that year.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2017, 01:45:39 am
content: Divers have taken video of the wreck, (see below) it was broken into two pieces. One is right side up the other is upside down.

author: Specmaster
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2017, 09:08:14 am
content: Well, this evidence would almost certainly suggest that she broke into two on the surface rather then on the bottom as has been suggested which also supports the theory that it happened very quickly indeed and that there was nothing the crew could have done about it.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2017, 09:30:00 am
content: History CHANNEL Most shocking ship disaster of all time Edmund Fitzgerald

author: Specmaster
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2017, 10:49:09 am
content: Hmm, so there's still no final conclusion, but my own thoughts favor the abnormal and sudden break up on the surface due to the ship bridging across 2 huge waves and the extra weight of iron ore being too much for the hull to contain and gravity took its toll and split her into 2 sections and hence why there was no mayday message, it must happened in seconds before anybody could react.