I actually wasnt going to write a companion piece to last night's piece regarding the 36th anniversary of the sinking of the EDMUND FITZGERALD but in the days and weeks that followed the tragedy, even as a young kid of 10 years old, there were so many questions that entered my mind. I've lived with those questions for almost a full lifetime now and tonight I feel compelled to validate them via the written word, as they say. It's not just because the FITZ was one of the largest Great Lakes freighters that ever existed that made the her sinking so famous but also the fact that even for as technologically advanced as the world was back in 1975 in terms of things such as sonar and radar, it was totally unimaginable that such an event could even happen in what was considered "these modern times." And it's because of such factors, that I myself have a ton of unanswered questions regarding what happened on the night of November 10th, 1975.
Perhaps it's the ways that her sinking affected me that raised so many questions in my mind. I remember that Thanksgiving of 1975 and how that morning I faithfully combed the newspaper headlines, just has I had done for the two weeks prior to the holiday, looking for further news, further explanations as to what happened to the EDMUND FITZGERALD and her crew. I remember thinking "Maybe they're still somehow alive, maybe they washed up on one of those many tiny uncharted islands that litter the shorelines of Lake Superior and her sister Great Lakes." By the time Christmas, 1975 rolled around, even as an overly hopeful child, I finally accepted the fact that those 29 men probaly werent ever gonna be found.
I use to lay awake at night before bedtime while saying my prayers and I always added an extra one or two just for the sake of the captain and crew of the EDMUND FITZGERALD. I kept thinking of how much their families must miss them and I also kept wondering, had they too finally given up hope as well? As a kid I already knew that they probaly had but my focus went from those emotions to all the unanswered questions I still own to this day.
What really really happened to the 29 men aboard the EDMUND FITZGERALD that night? Both right before the ship broke apart and even during that process, where were they all when it happened? Were they at their posts in all the vast areas of the ship doing their jobs, or were they huddled together in groups at her bow and stern cabin sections? I remember back in '75 I'd hear the adults say "Oh it probaly happened so fast they probaly didnt even know what hit them" but as a ship buff and a fairly intelligent kid I knew that was pure bullshit. It doesnt matter how fast or how slow a ship sinks, I shudder to think of what musta been going through their minds when their ship started to break apart and sink. I found (and find) myself wondering "What were they thinking? Did they know they might not make it or did they have complete faith that help would reach them in the nick of time?"
Back in 1975 and even recently, I always reviewed the crew members names, their ages, their backgrounds and I kept thinking of the 4 to 5 crew members who were only in their early 20's when the ship sank and I thought to myself "Oh my fucken gawd, they didnt even have the chance to really live their lives at that age" and I kept trying to imagine what was going through their minds and how they felt about what was happening to them. Most adults back then, and probaly still to this day, use to say "Well, those young men knew that being at sea could be dangerous so they probaly didnt think twice about it." Oh really? I disagree because like with any human beings, I cant imagine them not thinking "Damn, whatta cruel joke this is. My life is just starting out and now this happens." True, bad, horrible things happen to people of all ages and hey, that's just the way life is but it still doesnt change the fact that there is an unspoken, yet highly felt, remorse over those who lose their lives at sucha a young age as that.
Regardless of what those younger crew members as well as the other members of the EDMUND FITZGERALD were thinking when they knew their lives were in great danger, my only hope that I had as a child of 10 was this "Oh God, I just hope they werent scared, I hope they werent alone when they died. I hope their fellow crew members were nearby them." But naturally, as an adult, I realize that hell yes they musta been frigthened by what was happening, downright scared shitless even; but, still, I hope they were somehow together, that they didnt feel totally alone when their lives were ending. I suppose that sucha thing doesnt make one's impending death any easier to accept but I would like to think that it does indeed make a difference.
And I think about Captain McSorley. I think about him a lot. Back in '75 it was implied that when he knew exactly what kinda danger the EDMUND FITZGERALD was in, his immediate gameplan was to try to reach Whitefish Point where the ship might find safe refuge from the hurricane-like storm. Naturally, he had to be extra careful with sucha approach due to all the dangerous shoal areas in that part of Lake Superior but I truthfully believe that that man did his best in trying to get that ship to safety. He was an experienced captain, a good captain and I have no reason to believe otherwise that he did everything in his power to save his ship and thus her crew members.
I've even gone as far as to try to put myself in his shoes and have tried to imagine what I woulda done differently in his situation because it is true what they say - we can say what we woulda done and what we wouldnt have done in all kinds of such scenarioes and situations; but, in all actuality, we'll never know how we would have reacted because we werent there.
However, there is one thing I know for a fact I woulda ATTEMPTED to try to do, regardless of what it did to the ship itself. I dont care how big and heavy-laden the EDMUND FITZGERALD was that night, I woulda done my damnest to beach that huge whale of a freighter as quickly and as competently as woulda been humanly possible in sucha horriffic storm conditions. I'm serious. I woulda ignored all the danger signs of those shoals and I woulda rammed the FITZ into the nearest shoal-line as quickly as possible at the time. True, beaching a ship that size in a hurricane-like storm of such great magnitude woulda probaly broke her back and put her superstructure at terrible risks BUT at least she hopefully woulda been close enough to the shoreline to get every single man, including Captain McSorley himself, off of her and to safety on land. Granted, such an attempt woulda appeared nearly impossible to do, especially with the unimaginable storm and wave surges of that night BUT it woulda been worth the try. And, had McSorley been much closer to the shoreline than he actually was, I like to think that at the last minute, he woulda done the same exact thing.
What do I think really sank the EDMUND FITZGERALD? Quite frankly, a combination of that hurricane-like storm of November 10, 1975 as well as mankind's vanity towards something as powerful as Mother Nature Herself. No, not human error because her crew didnt batten down her hatches enough, for it's been proven they most certainly DID do so, or because she was an aging ship that needed certain repairs to her hull here-n-there; but, because back in those days, every freighter company was obsessed with making "one last final run" before the shipping lanes were closed due to the upcoming inclement winter weather which always took place on the Great Lakes. Their thinking was "Oh we can make it, just one more load of ore, just one more trip and then we'll be done for the season."
Even as terrible as the sinking of the EDMUND FITZGERALD was, the experts of today have stated that it's not an issue of IF such a tragedy could happen again but more of an issue of WHEN it will happen again. Whether for the financial profit that can be gained by that one last shipment before the shipping season ends or not, I pray that sucha event never ever happens again because no matter how much more technologically advanced we have become since the world of 1975, I still think that when it comes to the forces of Nature, we need to be just a bit more respectful and a whole helluva lot more cautious than we use to. Technology should never be a justification for complaceny, nor a subsitute for human safety. Thank you for allowing me to get all of these thoughts off my chest and as always, thank you for reading.
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