29 Missing

29 Missing: The True and Tragic Story of the Disappearance of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald

ANDREW KANTAR
Copyright Date: 1998
Published by: Michigan State University Press
Pages: 50
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt1b4cwmh
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  • Book Info
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    29 Missing
    Book Description:

    On November 10, 1975, SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a giant freighter, sank with its entire crew of 29 aboard, in one of the most violent storms ever witnessed on Lake Superior. In29 Missing, Kantar tells the "Fitz's" story from the christening in 1958 as the largest ship on the Great Lakes to the expedition in 1995 to recover the ship's bell in what proved to be a moving memorial to the lost crew. Using information from government investigative reports, the book provides a dramatic hour-by-hour account of what transpired during that terrible voyage, including dialogue from actual radio transmissions between the Fitzgerald and the Arthur Anderson, the freighter that followed behind the Fitz.In his passionate retelling of the story, designed primarily for young adults, Kantar provides the facts leading up to the disappearance, detailing the subsequent expeditions to the wreck site as well as the leading theories about the sinking that have been debated by maritime experts.

    eISBN: 978-1-60917-509-2
    Subjects: History

Table of Contents

Export Selected Citations
  1. Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. Acknowledgements (pp. ix-x)
  4. Preface (pp. xi-xii)
  5. 1 “Graveyard of the Great Lakes” (pp. 1-4)

    Few places in this world possess the rugged beauty and natural majesty of the Great Lakes. And few other lakes can stir such terror in the hearts of skilled and experienced sailors. Spanning the border of Canada and the United States, from east to west these are Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior.

    In all the time that shipping records have been kept, the Great Lakes have claimed more than 6,000 vessels! The largest, deepest, coldest, and, according to some, most frightening and foreboding of these lakes is Lake Superior. Stretching 350 miles, it is the largest body of...

  6. 2 The Fitz (pp. 5-8)

    On June 8, 1958, in front of over ten thousand spectators, a gigantic freighter was christened the S.S.Edmund Fitzgeraldby Mrs. Edmund Fitzgerald, wife of the president of a corporate giant—Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company of Milwaukee. The ship’s name seemed appropriate. Edmund was a banker, but he came from a seafaring family. Mr. Fitzgerald’s grandfather, John, had skippered several ships on the Great Lakes, as had John’s five brothers.

    The launching of this great ship was a special event. TheEdmund Fitzgerald, built by Great Lakes Engineering in River Rouge, Michigan, and owned by the Northwestern Mutual Insurance...

  7. 3 The Final Journey (pp. 9-12)

    In 1975 theFitzgerald, at 17 years of age, was still considered to be relatively young. After all, many ships on the Great Lakes were two or three times her age, and yet theFitzgeraldhad already made quite a name for herself as a record breaker. Six different times she set and broke the record for a season’s haul!

    On October 31, just ten days before her final departure of the season, theEdmund Fitzgeraldunderwent a routine upper deck inspection in Toledo, Ohio. The inspectors found some minor cracks to four hatches (openings on the deck that lead...

  8. 4 The Storm Worsens (pp. 13-16)

    Later that afternoon, as theFitzand theAndersonlumbered at a slow but determined pace across Lake Superior, the Oklahoma storm began to build, moving north through Kansas and east over Iowa and then Wisconsin. As the storm front made its way toward Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior, the National Weather Service (NWS) began to realize that this might not be just another storm. By 7:00 p.m., gale warnings were issued for all of Lake Superior. The new forecast for eastern Lake Superior warned of winds of nearly 45 miles per hour (38 knots) and waves up to...

  9. 5 “I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It In My Life” (pp. 17-20)

    At 3:20 p.m., theAndersonapproached Michipicoten Island. It was snowing, 50-mph winds whipped across the lake, and twelve- to sixteen-foot waves washed up over her deck. The crew in theAnderson’s pilothouse observed the path of theFitzon radar. TheFitz, with a 16-mile lead, was attempting to navigate a northeast course past Caribou Island’s dangerous Six-Fathom Shoal, a relatively shallow area just off the island. A fathom is six-feet deep, and a shoal is simply a shallow area. For most of us, six fathoms, or 36 feet, is deep water. But this is a shallow spot in...

  10. [Illustrations] (pp. None)
  11. 6 Vanished! (pp. 21-24)

    At 6:00 p.m. theAnderson, ten to fifteen miles behind theFitz, reported the same high seas that Captain McSorley had described to Captain Woodard about 45 minutes earlier. Captain Cooper attempted to steer theAndersonon a steady course despite 25-foot waves and 65- to 70-mph winds. Time and again the waves crashed down upon her slippery deck. Fortunately, she had successfully cleared the Six-Fathom Shoal and was now 15 miles past Caribou Island. Although they had all they could do to maintain their position, theAndersonknew that theFitzneeded her radar guidance. They tried to keep...

  12. 7 The Search Begins (pp. 25-30)

    Just after Captain Cooper’s second call to the Coast Guard station at about 8:30 p.m., the Coast Guard sent out a radio call to theFitzgerald. At this time, the Coast Guard even asked for help from a nearby commercial radio station in Rogers City, Michigan. Neither signal received a response from the lost giant.

    Soon after the radio attempts failed, between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m., the Coast Guard dispatched one plane (an HU-16) and two helicopters (HH-52). Braving high winds and poor visibility, the search plane made it to theFitz’s last-known location just before 11:00 p.m. By 1:00...

  13. 8 Why Did the Fitzgerald Sink? (pp. 31-34)

    Now that theFitzgeraldhad been located, an investigation was planned to determine why and how a ship of this size could sink so quickly. What went wrong? Could it have been prevented? Was anyone at fault? The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation set out to find the answers to these questions.

    Because there were no survivors or witnesses to the tragedy, the investigation team had to rely on many other sources of information. Several people testified to the committee. These included seamen who had at one time served on theFitzgerald, crew members of ships that were...

  14. 9 The Fitz Revisited: Exploring the Wreckage (pp. 35-42)

    Although the explanation of its sinking remains a mystery to this day, since theFitzwas lost, there have been some intriguing explorations of the wreckage site. On September 24, 1980, two divers from Jacques Cousteau’s famous ship,Calypso, took a submarine down for about thirty minutes, initiating the first manned dive to examine theFitzgerald’s remains. TheCalypsois well known for its worldwide undersea explorations. The findings of this team, led by Jacques’ son, Jean-Michel, supported the earlier Coast Guard report. However, based on theFitzgerald’s damage, they concluded that she broke up on the lake’s surface before...

  15. Epilogue (pp. 43-44)

    Called by some theTitanicof the Great Lakes, theFitzgeraldstill fascinates us. It is difficult to imagine how this mighty freighter could have vanished so dramatically from the radar screen without a call for help. For decades, the cause of the mysterious disappearance of the fallen giant has attracted much attention and debate. Although no one knows for sure what caused her to sink, books, maritime artifacts, and undersea expeditions have helped us to better understand what happened on that frightful night. Perhaps the most moving and famous tribute to the ship and her crew came in 1976,...

  16. Explorations Down to the Wreck Site of the Edmund Fitzgerald (pp. 45-46)
  17. The Crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald (pp. 47-48)
  18. Bibliography (pp. 49-50)

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