McSorley replied, We are holding our own. A few minutes later, the Fitzgerald disappeared from the radar screen for the last time, sinking without giving a distress signal. Quantity. Although no findings concluded that the Fitz suffered grounding damage, the addition of depth finders on lake boats now gives officers information not previously required on their vessels. As Fred Stonehouse points out, nothing completely removes hazard from life at sea, for nature still enforces its whim and ships are still expected to brave adverse weather to deliver their cargoes. Marine and other experts who examined Coast Guard photos and videotape of the wreckage for the board of inquiry dismissed fracture as a cause of the wreck, based on the fact that no photo evidence shows brittle fracture separation, which is described as having straight or flat edges. Ships were first equipped with the Long Range Aid to Navigation (Loran-C), an electronic aid for pilots that had previously been widely used by oceanic navigators, but had not extended to the Great Lakes. These tunnel valleys were excavated by subglacial meltwater at the base of the Laurentide Ice Sheet along pre-existing fractures and joints that exist within the bedrock floor of Lake Superior. Cooper radioed theFitzgerald at 7:10 PMuknown to him that it would be the final communication with McSorley. The spring after the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost, the U.S. Coast Guard sent remote cameras more than 500 feet down to it. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647 ha . By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar.. All the windows have been blown out and destroyed. What also can be stated with certainty is that sometime between 7:10 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Fitzgerald simply disappeared into Lake Superior about 15 miles from the shelter of Whitefish Bay just west of Sault Ste. Edmund Fitzgerald's doomed journey began this day in 1975 What's obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking. Caribou: Did You Know? - National Park Service That's what underwriters do. The Great Lakes Ore Carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald, Known to Lake Mariners as "The Mighty Fitz". After enough persuasion, Cooper agreed to take theAndersonback out to sea followed by the LakerWilliam Clay Ford.
