The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald: Eyewitness Accounts from the U.S. Coast Guard Hearings

by Michael Schumacher (Editor)

Overview

A documentary drawn from testimony at the Coast Guard’s official inquiry looks anew at one of the most storied, and mysterious, shipwrecks in American history

 
The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one of the most famous shipwreck stories in Great Lakes history. It is also one of maritime lore’s great mysteries, the details of its disappearance as obscure now as on that fateful November day in 1975. The investigation into the wreck, resulting in a controversial final report, generated more than 3,000 pages of documentation, a mere fraction of which has been made available to the public. In The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Michael Schumacher mines this rich resource to produce the first-ever documentary account, a companion to his popular narrative Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

In the words of search and rescue personnel, ship designers and inspectors, scientists and naval engineers, former crewmen of the Fitz and the Arthur M. Anderson (the nearby ore carrier that captured the damaged vessel’s last communications), The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald recreates the doomed ore boat’s final minutes, the suspense of the search and rescue operations, and the drama of the subsequent Coast Guard inquiry. From the Anderson’s captain and first mate we hear reports of the Fitzgerald taking on water in the fierce storm near Michipicoten and Caribou Islands, losing its radar, and stating, finally, famously, “We are holding our own.” We follow the investigation, the speculation, and expert testimony to a problematic conclusion—countered by an alternate theory that the Anderson’s captain maintained to his dying day.

By declaring the Edmund Fitzgerald an official gravesite, Canada closed the wreck to further exploration. But here the exploration continues, providing a unique, and uniquely enlightening, perspective on this unforgettable episode in America’s maritime history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781517906443
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Edition description:	1
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	739,160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Schumacher has written four previous books on Great Lakes shipwrecks: Mighty Fitz, November’s Fury, Torn in Two (all from Minnesota), and Wreck of the Carl D. He has written narratives for twenty-five Great Lakes shipwreck and lighthouse documentary films. He lives in Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Map of Lake Superior xv

I The Loss 1

Loading the Boat 3

Weather Predictions 9

The Arthur M. Anderson 15

The Seas 18

Dangerous Shoals 26

Cooper's Close Call 34

The Whitefish Point Lighthouse 37

The Final Minutes 42

The Search 51

The Oil Slick 72

Finding the Wreckage 75

II The Investigation 83

The Edmund Fitzgerald 90

Captain Ernest McSorley Was Human Error a Contributing Factor? 96

Was the Fitzgerald Seaworthy? 99

Stress and Stability How Could Loading Have Affected the Fitzgerald's Ability to Handle the Storm? 112

The Hatches Did the Fitzgerald Take On Water through Her Hatches? 124

Storm Damage to the Fitzgerald Was It Enough to Sink the Vessel? 127

Lifesaving Equipment Was It Effective? 134

What Happened? The Experts Weigh In 147

Final Remarks 157

Postscript 159

III The Documents 167

United States Coast Guard

Marine Casualty Report 169

Commandant's Action 169

1 Findings of Fact 179

2 Vessel Data 180

3 Record of Missing Crewmen 186

4 Weather 188

5 The Last Voyage 190

6 Search Effort 198

7 Search Results 202

8 Pollution 207

9 Underwater Search and Survey 208

10 History and Maintenance 216

11 Lifesaving Equipment 218

12 Load Line and Stability 220

13 Cargo and Loading Procedure 224

14 Inspections 227

15 Outages to Aids to Navigation 230

16 Hydrographic Survey 231

Conclusions 233

Recommendations 244

Lake Carriers' Association Letter of Dissent 248

National Transportation Safety Board

Marine Accident Report 259

Introduction 260

Synopsis 260

Investigation 261

Analysis 282

Conclusions 292

Recommendations 294

The Witnesses 306

Glossary 309

Editorial Reviews

"This was a very eye-opening read. Among the many hundreds of Great Lakes maritime books, I am not aware of any writers using the words of witnesses and participants in such a significant way. Michael Schumacher did an amazing job culling through all the testimony and then organizing and presenting the words of others in an understandable fashion with enough of his own interjection to link the testimony together. And it is ingenious how he encourages and then provides the readers with just the right amount of key testimony to be able to serve as juror and make their own determination of what caused this massive ship to sink. Well done!"—Valerie van Heest, maritime historian and author

"Thanks to The Trial of the Edmund Fitzgerald, readers are privy to the thoughts of crew members of other ships, not to mention ship designers, inspectors, naval engineers and search rescue personnel, all of whom provided their perspective to investigators in the wake of the accident."—Failure Magazine

"If you think you have read everything there is that’s worth reading on the Fitzgerald, think again. Once you start reading, it will be hard to put down."—Detroit Marine Historian

"Schumacher has arranged the testimony so that it reads like a well organized and engrossing narrative and culminates with the report of the two boards and a Lake Carriers' Association Letter of Dissent."—Michigan in Books

"A definitive account of a tragic story that has made its way into Canadian folklore."—Literary Review of Canada

From the Publisher