BY James Heinz
As I noted in a previous story about the death of Gordon Lightfoot, (https://wmhs.org/the-man-who-sang-the-song-that-made-the-ship-immortal-has-died/) “Perhaps the only bad effect of the song is that it inspired a cottage industry of speculation on why the ship sank that has turned the Big FITZ’s sinking into something like the Kennedy Assassination of the Great Lakes. (If you watch the Zapruder Film closely, you can see Captain McSorley on the grassy knoll in Dallas. He’s the guy standing between Elvis and the Roswell aliens.)”
One book even claimed that the reason no bodies were recovered was not because Superior it is said never gives up its dead, but because the crew had been abducted by aliens in a UFO. I swear to you that I am not making this up.
I don’t have to make up stuff about the FITZ because so many other people are busy making up stuff about the FITZ. There at 28 books, 17 videos, and several government reports speculating on the cause of the sinking. As of today, the suggested causes include, but are not limited to:
The weather was just too much for the ship to handle. Winds were up to 86 mph and waves up to 46 feet high, which were not predicted by the weather service.
Three consecutive rogue waves, known as the “Three Sisters,” overwhelmed the ship.
One or more hatch covers either leaked slowly or collapsed suddenly, leading to flooding in the cargo hold that also lubricated the spherical taconite pellets, enabling them to move in the hold.
The ship ran over an improperly charted shoal near Caribou Island, or she ran over the properly charted Superior Shoal, causing bottom damage.
The ship broke in half on the surface, like the DANIEL J. MORRELL or the CARL D. BRADLEY.
The ship was improperly constructed, being too long and thin and built with welded joints that did not flex like riveted joints. There were no watertight bulkheads in the cargo hold. There was no way to pump water out of the cargo hold and the crew had no way of knowing if there was water in the hold in the first place. The FITZ’s sister ship was taken out of service shortly after the FITZ sank.
The ship was overloaded and carrying 4,000 tons more cargo than she was designed to, which reduced her buoyancy and freeboard and also affected her handling.
The ship suffered topside damage that let water into the cargo hold.
Errors by the company, crew and captain for not repairing defects and an inadequate Coast Guard inspection that did not detect the defects. One witness claimed that prior grounding damage to the keel was never properly repaired.
Lack of instruments. The ship had no depth sounder, lost her radars during the storm and the Whitefish Point light and radio beacon were out of service.
A UFO abducted the crew (see above).
All of these explanations are wrong. Only I know the true cause of the sinking of the FITZGERALD, which I will reveal now for the first time:
A curse.
Yes, a curse. As any ancient mariner can tell you, and my knees tell me every day just how ancient a mariner I am, the FITZ was doomed from the start by a curse. What was this curse?
It took three tries to break the champagne bottle over her bow at the christening.
Ancient maritime lore has always held that failure of the champagne bottle to break the first time at a christening will bring doom upon that vessel. The ROGER BLOUGH, the LUSITANIA and the COSTA CONCORDIA were all said to have suffered from this ancient malediction, and we know what happened to them. I cannot explain why it took 17 years and 4 months for the curse to kick in, but great minds like mine do not worry about petty details like that.
The evidence of the curse is on display in the Milwaukee Central Public Library. On the second floor of the Library, in a glass case outside the Humanities Room, there it is:
The broken champagne christening bottle.
The Central Library has several other mementos of the FITGERALD. Next to the source of the curse, one of the ship’s life rings is displayed.
The presentation model given to Edmund Fitzgerald himself is on display in a glass case just inside the Humanities Room entrance.
A painting of the EDMUND FITZGERALD on display in the Humanities Room shows her being unloaded by the Hulett unloaders that inspired a previous story: https://wmhs.org/once-there-were-many-now-there-are-none-the-device-that-revolutionized-great-lakes-shipping/
The WMHS also has in its archives two six inch wide boxes of documentary evidence concerning the ship.
And the blog and Facebook page of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society also continue to commemorate the EDMUND FITZGERALD with stories like this one and others: https://wmhs.org/november-10-1975/, https://wmhs.org/first-keel-plate-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/ , https://wmhs.org/the-fitz-lives-on/ , https://wmhs.org/edmund-fitzgerald-a-man-who-left-his-hallmark-on-the-great-lakes/
Photos courtesy of James Heinz
——————————–
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
