Despite the weather, both ships carried on their journey as normal and by early afternoon of November 10th, Fitzgerald had almost reached the Caribou Island, while Anderson being the slowest of the two was still approaching Machicote about four miles off the West End Light. Keep journalists asking the hard questions.
Several days later, a Coast Guard aircraft with a magnetic detector found what was presumed to be the wreck, and a submersible camera vehicle confirmed that it was the Edmund Fitzgerald. If you think you can safely go back up to the area, I would request that you do so. Cooper's freighter had been trailing the Fitzgerald for more than a day as they crossed the big lake together. No reply from the Coast Guard. Since Fitzgerald was the fastest of the two vessels, it was in the lead and was at … June 17. Cooper was in command of the Arthur Anderson as she followed and provided piloting assistance to the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald. Jesse Bernie Cooper. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.
If something goes wrong, all suspicious eyes start with the skipper. Then, a little after 3 in the afternoon on the next day, November 10, something unusual happened. We’re going to try to contact those saltwater vessels and see if they can’t possibly come about and possibly come back also…things look pretty bad right now; it looks like she may have split apart at the seams like the Morrell did a few years back.”, “Well, that’s what I been thinking. But the Coast Guard was already conducting a search for a smaller ship that had also been reported missing, and in the absence of any definite indication that the big bulk carrier was in danger, they gave the smaller ship priority. That conclusion, however, brought immediate objections from several sources, including Captain Cooper, who concluded instead that the Fitzgerald had already been damaged by hitting the rocks at Six-Fathom Shoals and was taking on water, and when the two large waves that had hit his own ship went on to strike the Fitzgerald, they pushed the bow under water—a condition from which, in her already-damaged state, she could not recover. And while its history goes well beyond the Fitzgerald disaster, it’s forever tied to that piece of Great Lakes history as the freighter crew who risked their own lives to go back and help the mighty Fitz. So settle in, get comfortable, and enjoy some unusual, odd, forgotten and weird history. June 2020. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Capt. It would be her last voyage. Then, fifteen minutes later, Cooper received a radio message from McSorley: “ …
This is the last interview of Capt. Jim Hettinger is a laker, a Western Michigan University trustee, an economic development professional and the chief executive of Urban(e) Development Services. The Williams fit the mold of the early traditional bulk freighters. The ship’s final resting place is 530 feet beneath the surface of Lake Superior, 17 miles off Whitefish Point on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We had planned for him to visit us in Michigan that summer. This put the two captains in a challenging situation as the weather conditions continued to deteriorate by the hour. The final voyage of Edmund Fitzgerald, that commenced on November 9th, 1975, and its subsequent disappearance, are extremely mysterious. No survivors were found. She had broken in half, with her fore section sitting upright on the lakebed and her aft section upside-down about 170 feet away. I played Hearts, talked politics, and soaked up significant quantities of information about Great Lakes weather.
RELATED: Photos of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes most famous ship. My spouse has been frequently amazed by my sure fire predictions that “it will rain in the next four minutes.”. Keep journalists asking the hard questions. Soon after departing Lake Superior at around 2:30 pm, Fitzgerald was joined by another ship, Arthur M. Anderson, which had left Two harbors, Minnesota, and was captained by Bernie Cooper. I’m Lenny Flank, Editor for Red and Black Publishers, and I'm your host. Marie station talking to Capt. Cooper was both, but I developed a great relationship with him, one that would enable me to find employment on any ship he skippered. Clark kept losing the sight of Fitzgerald on his radar as high waves significantly interfered with the radar reflection. Mark Thompson writes in “Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes”: “The crews are organized into three shipboard departments, all under the control of the captain whose formal title is Master.
It became a Top-40 hit. He died in 1993, just one year after the loss of his wife. Last radio communication between the Arthur M Anderson and the Edmund Fitzgerald was at 7:10pm ... “Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Great stuff. They knew a storm was coming, but they did not know how bad it would get. ( Log Out / the Edmund Fitzgerald during a violent Lake Superior storm in 1975 that sent the latter freighter to its doom, shared courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. “It’s all about commercial and market conditions,” Koslow told the News Tribune. As the afternoon progressed after McSorley’s message to Cooper about his damaged vents, Cooper asked his crew to keep the watch and keep Fitzgerald in sight until the situation got clearer. “We are holding our own,” McSorley replied. This last communication is shared courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point in Paradise, Mi. I have no idea if this is really true, but I believe it.
The year after the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost, Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, which told the story. That was very dangerous business. I lost contact after that," Cooper tells the Coast Guard. To this day, I can impress people by telling them how much time they have to get off the beach as a storm approaches. The SS Californian was in the vicinity of the Titanic when she sank, but chose not to help. Cooper's freighter had been trailing the Fitzgerald for more than a day as they crossed the big lake together.
Cooper retired to Tequestra, Florida.
Then, fifteen minutes later, Cooper received a radio message from McSorley: “ Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. The … What is your present position?”, “We’re down here, about two miles off Parisienne Island right now…the wind is northwest forty to forty-five miles here in the bay.”, “Is it calming down at all, do you think?”, “In the bay it is, but I heard a couple of the salties talking up there, and they wish they hadn’t gone out.”, “Do you think there is any possibility and you could…ah…come about and go back there and do any searching?”, “Ah…God, I don’t know…ah…that…that sea out there is tremendously large. Launched in 1952, the 767-foot vessel is considered a “classic laker." The freighter has been docked since the end of the 2016 shipping season. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (each updated 1/1/20). On his radar scope, Captain Cooper of the Arthur Anderson watched as the Edmund Fitzgerald passed dangerously close to Six Fathom Shoals, a hazardous shallow area of rocks and reefs. He found two lifeboats and some floating debris, but no sign of the ship or survivors. Captain Ernest Michael McSorley, Captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Captain Cooper chatted before they left Superior, Wisconsin. On board the Anderson, Captain Cooper watched as the Fitzgerald’s radar blip winked off again. The Anderson’s First Mate, Morgan Clark, called to Captain McSorley on the Fitzgerald: “Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls. The weather had cleared dramatically.
Capt. The two of them where asked several questions including one to Cooper about the actions that he and McSorely took that night. All rights reserved (About Us).
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