It's an event that's a part of Great Lakes lore. On November 10, 1975, The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the biggest, fastest, and most powerful iron ore carriers at the time, sank in a fierce storm on Lake Superior. All 29 crew members went down with the ship. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Captain Dudley Paquette, the last living captain who sailed on Lake Superior during the infamous storm.
Paquette says it was a nice morning, as he left the ore docks in Superior, Wisconsin about an hour after the Fitzgerald left from the same dock.
The severe winter storm on November 10-11, 1975, had 71 mph winds that created 12 to 15 ft waves on Lake Superior.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER 1: It was a gorgeous day. A few ripples in the water, and as we left, of course, I viewed him as he left and came down behind him. An hour and 45 minutes later, I read the weather a little different, being a weather ship. And I had my plans before I left.
And I hugged the shore all the way up behind Isle Royale into Thunder Bay, about 5 miles off, and I monitored the Fitzgerald in the two days, ninth, 10th, and, of course, the 11th, too. When we were searching for survivors, I read the National Weather forecast.
So I was suspicious they changed the forecast, and that reaffirmed my position, where I'm going to stay up on the North Shore. But I was a young captain in those days. The question was asked of me, you being a young captain, how come you disagreed with those two veterans, which was McSorley and Cooper? And--
SPEAKER 2: McSorley on the Pfutzenreuter, and just keep--
SPEAKER 1: Cooper.
SPEAKER 2: --on the Arthur M. Anderson?
SPEAKER 1: Of course, I came up with my classic answer that I was a leader, not a follower. But I was kidding, of course.
SPEAKER 2: But, Captain, you're saying that McSorley, Captain McSorley would, is it because she was beaten up so much in the weather that finally this big storm did her in?
SPEAKER 1: My personal opinion, the reason that she sank was she sank on the surface with the hull fracture. And I monitored all the conversations that night. He was making water in number 7 tank, and that his rail was down and his air vents were gone.
Well, that's what I always referred to as the hinge. When you hit these big waves, they work. And something's going to break if you take a piece of metal and bend it, and bend it, and bend it. And I was there to view it all. I left right behind him, and I was down there to search for survivors.
SPEAKER 2: I want to take you back to the storm. What did you see?
SPEAKER 1: It was the granddaddy of the century. When you're looking at 70 knot wind steady and gusts over 135 foot seas, that's quite a wall of water. And yeah, we experienced it.
SPEAKER 2: What does that look like?
SPEAKER 1: Terrifying, believe me, yeah.
SPEAKER 2: Did anyone know that the Fitzgerald was in trouble at the time, in terms of the radio back and forth, to chatter on the radio?
SPEAKER 1: I overheard his, probably, his last conversation was I'm holding my own. But I think they knew something then, because that stern section, as you visualize it now, on the undersea photos, she's flopped over and she's laying upside down. And you see those ragged edges, that's my opinion, that's where she broke.
And, of course, when she broke there and she left her buoyancy, she just flopped right over and she's laying down with all the engine room and the galley crew still in there. It's one of the questions asked to me here. What was the scene up on the bridge in the pilothouse when this started?
Well, in the first place, they were rolling and taking the heavy seas, and they were hanging on. And, of course, when she started to break, I think they never had time to move to the emergency radio and holler, Mayday.
SPEAKER 2: Do you think in this day and age-- now, the Fitz went down in 1975-- do you think nowadays, there's any chance this could happen again to another?
SPEAKER 1: Absolutely.
SPEAKER 2: Really?
SPEAKER 1: Absolutely, it's a human error. I'm claiming negligence, but I'm not all blaming it on the captain. It's the United States Coast Guard, the who's in charge of inspecting the ships, the American Bureau of Shipping, the steamship company. You can't out lay it onto the captain.