51 years ago today

[voyager 663rd]

The Ship and Her Career

• • Launch: Launched on June 8, 1958, at River Rouge, Michigan, for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
  • Size: At 729 feet long and 13,632 gross tons, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes for 13 years and affectionately nicknamed "The Big Fitz" or "Queen of the Lakes".
  • Route: Typically hauled taconite ore pellets from Silver Bay or Superior, Wisconsin, to steel mills in Detroit and Toledo.

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The Fateful Journey (November 9–10, 1975)

• • Departure: Departed Superior, Wisconsin, on November 9, 1975, carrying 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, sailing alongside a companion vessel, the SS Arthur M. Anderson.
  • The Storm: A massive November gale developed over Lake Superior, bringing hurricane-force wind gusts up to 100 mph and towering waves reaching 35 to 60 feet.
  • Distress & Disappearance: The Fitzgerald suffered topside damage, reported a severe list (lean), and lost her radar. Around 7:10 p.m. on November 10, the ship vanished from radar screens about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan, without ever sending a distress call.
  • Wreck Discovery: Days later, searches located the ship sitting in two large pieces under more than 530 feet of water in Canadian waters near Whitefish Bay. No bodies of the 29 crew members were ever recovered.

 

[Compulsive Smoker]

I read about this in a book I have on Great Lakes shipwrecks...

 

[KonaRich]

The Ship and Her Career

• • Launch: Launched on June 8, 1958, at River Rouge, Michigan, for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
  • Size: At 729 feet long and 13,632 gross tons, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes for 13 years and affectionately nicknamed "The Big Fitz" or "Queen of the Lakes".
  • Route: Typically hauled taconite ore pellets from Silver Bay or Superior, Wisconsin, to steel mills in Detroit and Toledo.

---

The Fateful Journey (November 9–10, 1975)

• • Departure: Departed Superior, Wisconsin, on November 9, 1975, carrying 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, sailing alongside a companion vessel, the SS Arthur M. Anderson.
  • The Storm: A massive November gale developed over Lake Superior, bringing hurricane-force wind gusts up to 100 mph and towering waves reaching 35 to 60 feet.
  • Distress & Disappearance: The Fitzgerald suffered topside damage, reported a severe list (lean), and lost her radar. Around 7:10 p.m. on November 10, the ship vanished from radar screens about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan, without ever sending a distress call.
  • Wreck Discovery: Days later, searches located the ship sitting in two large pieces under more than 530 feet of water in Canadian waters near Whitefish Bay. No bodies of the 29 crew members were ever recovered.

That would be an epic wreck dive if it wasn't so deep. I've done wreck diving in all the Great Lakes before abandoning cold water (and air) for the tropics.

 

[WaterRat]

Rest in peace.

@KonaRich can you imagine the deco obligation? And the helium cost $$$? And so freakin cold Oh well, Canada doesn’t let anyone dive it anyway…

 

[Smoke-Chem BBQ]

Rest in peace.

@KonaRich can you imagine the deco obligation? And the helium cost $$$? And so freakin cold Oh well, Canada doesn’t let anyone dive it anyway…

"The Gales of November" is an excellent book on the topic. Lots and lots of details on Great Lakes Shipping, nearly all of which was new to me, and I've also done some Great Lakes shipwreck diving, plus a LOT of diving on wrecks in the Thousand Islands section of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Fitz is at a depth of about 530 feet, and I have no idea what the cost or deco obligation might be, even if diving it were legal. It's rebreather territory, and I never pursued that when I was doing mixed gas diving. I never went below 250 feet, and filling the big double tanks with 17/35 trimix (17% O2, 35% helium, balance nitrogen) cost about $100 a dive prior to 2010. Helium costs tripled soon after that, and I was kind of aging out of diving that deep anyway so I stopped diving trimix. It took about 90 minutes to decompress after a 20 minute dive to that depth, breathing high O2 mixtures to accelerate the deco. 500 feet would mean minutes on the bottom, many hours of decompression.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

My parents instilled this into me and my siblings,