The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down The Headstones originally hailing from Kingston, Ont. Why the Edmund Fitzgerald remains a cultural touchstone, Follow the final journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 17 miles to safety: Edmund Fitzgerald by the numbers. Gale warnings had been issued at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9, upgraded to storm warnings early in the morning of Nov. 10. 2. Furthermore, she had few watertight compartments and was rumored to be overloaded beyondwhat her designers had meant for her to carry. The steel and iron plates still sat on the dock two years later. As Fred Stonehouse points out, nothing completely removes hazard from life at sea, for nature still enforces its whim and ships are still expected to brave adverse weather to deliver their cargoes. As the wise man once said, you can't outlaw stupidity nor legislate morality. Caribou is located on the North Fork Feather River, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south of Almanor. Seeing the violence of the wind, sky and water on the night of November 10, 1975 while in northern Michigan, I awoke the next morning, for the only time in my life with the certainty that something ominous had or was about to occur. By its last voyage, the freighter had made about 748 round trips. FREE BOXES. Captain McSorley told Woodard that the ship has a bad list, implying that it had gotten worse since his earlier report to Captain Cooper. Perhaps the most widely accepted of the several theories about the loss of the Fitzgerald is that the ship crossed Caribou Island's Six-Fathom Shoal, with water as shallow as 26 feet.. Clark called the Fitzgerald again at about 7:22 pm. Would like to offer any help I can. Todays captain, however, has much more accurate and immediate information than did those sailing in 1975, when the Fitzgerald was virtually blind and wallowing in huge seas and heavy winds on its way from Caribou Island to its final resting place. USS Indianapolis (CA-35) The Anderson changes course to avoid Six Fathom Shoal area north of Caribou Island. TheFitzgeraldoften held records for excellent safety and broke records for most tonnage hauled during a single shipping season. [1] You can also follow me on Twitter at:https://twitter.com/jwbarker22, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee never gives up her dead, Great American Dreams: A Portrait of the Way We Are, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LBkYjniTU, https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/the-fateful-journey/?fbclid=IwAR33M-6_G0X15ab73z4KkAIM3owr3GaVpRsHdaE5n_OIbSP3PzX7_FTMIGo, http://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/edmund-fitzgerald-40-years-later/. In 2009, retired naval architect Raymond Ramsey, who helped design the Fitzgerald hull wrote that the maintenance history, increased cargo loading allowances and construction of the Fitzgerald made her unseaworthy the night she went down. The first official report on the wreck sparked a flood of second-guessing. McSorley and Cooper agreed to take the northerly course across Lake Superior to avoid a storm that was developing to the southwest, so they would be protected by highlands on the Canadian shore, taking them between Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. Without direct witnesses or survivors, every explanation about the cause of the wreck is purely theoretical and, from the very beginning, a rash of theories concerning it were postulated. Meantime, northwest winds built massive seas from the starboard quarter (right rear), washing powerful waves completely over the deck as the ship left the eastern lee of Caribou Island. Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water barrooff just like a big dog. ZIP Code by City and State. ZIP Code by Address. Various cars scatter the bottom of the river covered in grass and zebra muscles. I hear they found the crewmen's bodies and than I heard they never did that this was a rumor. Don McIsaac observed last July that Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is from my hometown, Orillia. McIsaac, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Cirrus Aircraft, based at headquarters in Duluth, Minnesota, added, From where I sit now, I can see the port the ship last left.. 5. While EPIRB would not have aided the crew of the Fitzgerald, it would have identified the sunken ship and given searchers a location to start their effort to find survivors. Its as certain as anything can be that sooner or later there will be another ship lost on Lake Superior, says maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. Arthur B. Homerwas assigned to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation whileEdmund Fitzgeraldwas assigned to the Columbia Transportation Division of the Oglebay Norton Company and immediately became flagship. While Northwestern Mutual owned both ships (which woud later prove ironic in theFitzgerald'scase), the freighters were leased out to dedicated shipping companies. 18335 N. Whitefish Point Road Captain Cooper asked McSorley if he had his pumps going, and McSorley said, Yes, both of them.. She never should have sailed, and could have turned back when "The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound, as a wave broke over the railing." Whatever prompted that command just a little over an hour before the sinking, Paquette analyzes that it would have been catastrophic and visible from the pilothouse in the darkness of an early November evening. By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar.. )As if the aforementioned problems weren't enough, Northwestern Mutual had theFtizgeraldpartially rebuilt in her later years to handle thousands of extra tons of iron ore, which substantially raised the waterline, increasing the maximum draft of the ship, maximum weight of the ship and height of the deck above water. The slow flooding supposedly went unnoticed by the captain and crew until it caused an imperceptible but fatal buoyancy loss and eventually sent the Fitzgerald plunging to the bottom. Perhaps the most widely accepted of the several theories about the loss of the Fitzgerald is that the ship crossed Caribou Islands Six-Fathom Shoal, which nestles off the north end of the island with water as shallow as 26 feet. But almost certainly the suits would have saved the lives of some crewmen in the wrecks of the Carl D. Bradley and the Daniel J. Morrell, the two previous Great Lakes wrecks where most of the crews were lost.. FAQs. This is futher indicated by the stern which lies completely upside down beside the bow; all superstructure buried deep into the mud. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. At the time of the foundering, there was no requirement for depth-finding instruments on commercial vessels. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. In fact, the Fitzgerald -- known as a workhorse ship that set numerous cargo hauling records -- was allowed by 1975 to sit a touch over 3 feet deeper in the water when laden with cargo than originally intended when the ship was launched in 1958. Officers from the Anderson observed that the Fitzgerald sailed through this exact area. Caribou definition, any of several large, North American deer of the genus Rangifer, related to the reindeer of the Old World. By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems? asked Clark. As with all of the other theories, it may well be that we will never know the total story of this wreck - leaving each theory, for now, as good as any other. Conditions reported by the late crewmember Ronald Roman, who was aboard theAndersonthat night. There had to have been something happening on the deck that a mate thought they had to get control of - even if it meant putting lives in danger.. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Between 1959 and 1975, the life of theEdmund Fitzgeraldwas routineand mostly uneventful, clocking nearly 750 succesful round trips, though was occasionally greeted by positive and negative events. Yes, she almost certainly hit the shoals. Heavy snow begins to fall and the Fitzgerald is lost from. Broke in two and sank in minutes. The LCA thinks the Fitzgerald grounded on the poorly-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island, causing fatal damage to the hull. Ten miles ahead, Captain McSorley learned from Captain Cedric Woodard, a U.S. pilot aboard the Swedish-flagged Avafors, that neither the light nor directional radio beacon at Whitefish Point were working. The following May, 1976, Woodrush was again on the scene to conduct a third sidescan sonar survey. Was a bad night. Adding to that puzzle is the fact that its captain never uttered a word of serious concern for his ship nor reported his problems to the Coast Guard. Within days, the location of the wreck on the bottom of the lake was pinpointed by U.S. Navy aircraft and the following spring the Coast Guard positively identified the wreckage using underwater photography. By that time the Anderson had reached the safety of Whitefish Bay to the relief of all aboard. Antlers of males weigh an average of 17 pounds and can reach 29 pounds! Despite having been built in Michigan and having operated mostly around Michigan,Edmund Fitzgeraldwas homeported in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Size wise, both theArthur B. HomerandEdmund Fitzgeraldwere impressive even compared to oceanic ships, with an outstanding length of 711 to 729 feet. Officially, the report of the U.S. Coast Guard marine board of inquiry states that the most probable cause of the sinking was loss of buoyancy due to massive flooding of the cargo hold through ineffective hatch closures. In that sense, the Fitzgerald met her fate on the path she took to avoid it. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish? McSorley was checking down his speed to allow the Anderson to close the distance for safety. (A video of the once proud ship transiting the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. The interior is low scrub and bog with small lakes, Little Italy, Hambone, and Deer Lake among many unnamed ones. The unedited video of the expedition did not show a complete body how it did show a clear shot of a leg along with the shoe of the unfortunate crewman. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The Anderson's captain also made statements in 1986 seemingly supportive of the rogue wave theory. For the island near Thunder Bay, see, Caribou Island (near Michipicoten Island), Caribou Island near the international border. According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee never gives up her dead.. Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) are now standard equipment on lakes vessels, allowing instantaneous identification of the area where a vessel founders. The CURV III unit took 43,000 feet of video tape and 900 photographs of the wreck. Capt. This island was considered an emergency landing airport (YCI) during World War II. Marie, Michigan. As of the 2010 Census, the town had a population of 0. The search turned up no results for the first hour. [1], The island was privately held by a group of hunters and stocked with caribou in the late 1800s. By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar. This theory was advanced by the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) after the U.S. Coast Guard report and seems to be the most popular among mariners and armchair wreck investigators. Instead they consist of bedrock ridges and interfluves that lie between northerly trending bedrock valleys, which are known as tunnel valleys. Proven by: Large holes, Anderson's captain's concern for how close the Fitzgerald was to the shoal, inaccurate charts. McSorely had also ordered the pumps to be turned on in order to keep the ingress of water out of the cargo hold.By 4:10 PM, the list had not gotten any better and theFitzgeraldwas still taking on water, effectively sinking. A body that was seen but not retrieved is not a recovered body. There is no conspiracy or disinformation campaign on that fact. Of course, the Lake Carriers Association (LCA) blamed grounding on the not-well-marked Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island. The grisliest discovery was of a giant oil slick floating atop the lake's surface. The ships were nearing Whitefish Bay. There's even a work of Fiction, SCP-1174, titled, and I quote, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Gordon Lightfoot liked this theory, posited by the National Transportation Safety Board a year after the Coast Guard issued its report. Every expedition to the freighter has reported that there is no evidence of scraping, gouging or damage to the rudder or propeller, which should show on the overturned bottom of the stern. Since then, there have been about a half dozen dives to the wreck using deep-diving equipment. After reviewing testimony that Fitzgerald had passed near shoals north of Caribou Island, the USCG Marine Board examined the relevant navigational charts. With the catastrophic damage to the ship and the way the ship is buried in the mud and the windows blown out and the collision with the bottom is there any possibility of a rogue wave catching the floundering ship and driving it to the bottom. These records are part of the Records of Bureau of the Census, Record Group (RG) 29. Because all 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald went down with the ship -- which was there one minute and gone the next -- the best accounts that investigators could rely on were those of sailors in the vicinity of the ship during the storm, or who had contact with the Fitzgerald somehow in the weeks prior to her final voyage. Upon reaching Whitefish Bay, theCoast Guard requested that any freighter waiting out the storm in Whitefish Bay go out to search for theFitzgeraldand her 29 man crew as the Coast Guard itself was unable to reach the scene immediately. But it also added time and nautical miles to her course in the middle of shifting, increasing winds and waves -- FROM THE WEST -- behind her. While the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains shrouded in mystery, it is no mystery that ships wreck. Later, in a videotaped conversation with GLSHS, Captain Cooper said that he always believed McSorley knew something serious had happened to Fitzgerald as the ship passed over Caribou Shoal. Although she had a good safety record, theFitzgerald'shull was, according to the anecdotes of mariners who set foot aboard her and sailed on her, a vessel with a loose keel. It lies entirely within the territorial waters of Canada although only about five kilometres from the international border between Canada and the United States. But an hour later, when Anderson First Mate Morgan Clark asked how he was making out with his problems, McSorley assured him, We are holding our own.. (TheEdmund Fitzgeraldseen in her final years riding far lower in the water than she should have ever been allowed to. Captains challenge high waves with he bow, not the stern. The Anderson changes course to avoid Six Fathom Shoal area north of Caribou Island. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647ha) in area. Some of the most famous lyrics in Canadian music history, anchored to what would soon become the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes, first appeared as the lede of the bylined story Great Lakes: The Cruelest Month by James R. (Jim) Gaines, national affairs writer, and Jon Lowell for a Nov. 24, 1975 Detroit-based story in Newsweek magazine. All the windows have been blown out and destroyed. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water, Ley wrote. By late afternoon, the Anderson's captain was noting wind gusts up to 70 knots and waves up to 8 metres. Some theories are nonsense relating to UFOs or a Great Lakes Bermuda Triangle in the area where the ship sank. The popular misconception is that non of the crewmembers bodies were never discovered. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest boat on the Great Lakes. Photo Credit: Greenmars (Wikimedia Commons: Link) I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.. All were lost to the depths of Lake Superior. Gale warnings had been issued at 7 pm on November 9, upgraded to storm warnings early in the morning of November 10. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Until 1959,Edmund Fitzgeraldheld the record for the longest ship on the Great Lakes. It was not long after thatFitzgeraldvanished from theAnderson'sradar. Of note, the NTSB report included a dissenting opinion that held to this theory. In the early afternoon of Nov. 10, the Fitzgerald had passed Michipicoten Island and was approaching Caribou Island, steaming toward Whitefish Bay at Superiors east end.. According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55 pm, he and the men in the Andersons pilothouse felt a bump, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. No sailors in life vests were found. Jesse B. Cooper told an audience in Wisconsin the Anderson was struck from astern that evening by a pair of huge waves, which rolled over his ship and continued on toward the Fitzgerald. Diving expeditions on the shoals also found no evidence of any recent groundings there by a ship. Add to Cart. Disproven by: Captain's experience in the area, ballast tank location Rogue waves. The Coast Guard conducted an extensive and thorough search. Also, a larger, more powerful tug, the Katmai Bay, is now stationed at Sault Ste. "She took on water all the time and her tunnels flooded out on her," Woodward said. Part of that fascination, despite the longspan since the foundering of the big ore freighter, results from Gordon Lightfoots monster best-selling recording about the wreck and part likely springs from the inconclusive nature of any facts surrounding the sinking. During that conversation, he stated that McSorley inadvertently left the microphone on when he said to someone in his pilothouse, Dont allow nobody on deck, also saying something about a vent that Woodard couldnt understand. The bow lies mostly buried in the mud upright pointing towards Whitefish Bay. This theory is the thought that the Fitzgerald hit the bottom near Caribou Island, ripping a hole in the ship. No. The shoaling hypothesis suggests that the most probable cause of the Edmund Fitzgerald's wreckage was her shoaling or grounding in the Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island when the crew was unable to use the Whitefish Point Light as a navigational aid. Art & Exhibitions Kids & Family, Search Events While conditions were bad, with winds gusting to 50 knots and seas 12 to 16 feet, both Captains had often piloted their vessels in similar conditions. That would likely mean that it was at the forward end of the weather deck. The Coast Guard launched a fixed-wing HU-16 aircraft at 10 pm and dispatched two cutters, the Naugatuck and the Woodrush. From what your reports are I can appreciate the conditions. They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.. Contacts were strong enough to bring in the U.S. Navys CURV III controlled underwater recovery vehicle, operating from Woodrush. Cooper asked McSorley how they were doing. Your comment will appear after being approved. Stationed at K.I. None. After enough persuasion, Cooper agreed to take theAndersonback out to sea followed by the LakerWilliam Clay Ford. Furthermore, any chance of using the wreck itself as a means of understanding what happened is next to impossible as the Canadian government has banned all diving operations period to the wreck since the recovery of theFitzgerald'sbell in 1993. it is likely that the world may never know the true ending of theEdmund Fitzgerald. It is approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) long and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, and 1,600 acres (647 ha . Water poured in through a sudden hatch failure. Cooper started to fear the worst and contacted the Coast Guard alerting them to theFtizgerald'sdisappearance. NARA microfilm publication M1931, Index to Selected City Streets and Enumeration Districts, 1930 Census (7 rolls) reproduces a 57-volume typescript index to selected city streets and enumeration districts of the Fifteenth Census of the United States taken in 1930. On April 15, 1977 the U.S. Coast Guard released its official report of Subject: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, official number 277437, sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with loss of life. While the Coast Guard said the cause of the sinking could not be conclusively determined, it maintained that the most probable cause of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the loss of buoyancy and stability resulting from massive flooding of the cargo hold. Six-Fathom Shoal Updates During a taped conversation with his office, which was made a part of the record, the ANDERSON's master stated that the FITZGERALD "passed right over that 6-fathom spot." The. Couseau had theorized a surface break up, which sounds similar to the Merril several years later. Perhaps the real cause of the sinking may never be known for certain. (Edmund Fitzgeraldin her early years as a coal firedsteel hulled steamship. Known for the best burgers in Fullerton, Islands also offers delicious tropical cocktails and fries that are fresh cut daily with the skins left on. I wouldnt be surprised if a hatch cover came off, because I loaded right beside him in Superior on November 9 and the deck crew was still putting on hatch covers when they left the Superior Entry into Lake Superior, Captain Paquette says. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. Already have an account? What also can be stated with certainty is that sometime between 7:10 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Fitzgerald simply disappeared into Lake Superior about 15 miles from the shelter of Whitefish Bay just west of Sault Ste. The shoal is a hump of Keweenawan basaltic lava flows with ophitic interiors and amygdaloidal tops in an otherwise deep part of the lake, and though fishermen had known of its existence for generations it was only officially charted in 1929 by the United States Lake Survey. Quantity. Captain Jessie B. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. What was eventually found only included destroyed remains of the ships two lifeboats, life preservers and items from the ship's galleys. Cooper later reported that he had seen the Fitzgerald get closer than she should have to Six Fathom Shoal, which is north of Caribou Island. The Coast Guard then initiated its search for the missing ship. For 17 years the Fitzgerald hauled taconite iron ore from the mines of Duluth, MN to Detroit and other Great Lakes ports setting . The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead A dynamic population. So, what happened? Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Michipicoten Island. In July 1979, he would go onto co-author the book Great American Dreams: A Portrait of the Way We Are with the Washington Posts Robert Kaiser. This would have left the crew no way to survive the Edmund Fitzgerald Wreck. By early the next morning, theAndersonandFitzgeraldencountered a powerful November gale with winds up to 50miles an hour. The Fitzgerald is about 16 miles ahead. 888-492-3747, Copyright 2023 | All Rights Reserved | Produced by Pro Web Marketing. In the more than 40 years since the ship went down, a cottage industry of shipwreck theorists have tried in vain to solve the sinking of the Fitzgerald, which rests in two pieces in 530 feet of water on the lake bottom 17 miles north of Whitefish Bay. Lowell, who died in 2016, started out as a journalist in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, and had already covered politics, and civil rights events and disturbances, for the Detroit News, then Newsweek; including events like the 1967 Detroit Riot, the May 1970 Kent State shootings in Ohio, and the September 1971 Attica Prison riot, as well as covering organized crime, labour, and the auto industry, by the time the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in November 1975. Were going to try to contact those saltwater vessels and see if they cant possibly come about and possibly come back alsothings look pretty bad right now; it looks like she may have split apart at the seams like the Morrell did a few years back., Well, thats what I been thinking. In 1977, the U.S Coast Guard pinned the sinking on massive flooding of the cargo hold caused by faulty or poorly fastened hatch covers. released a very fine and very different tempo cover of Lightfoots The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald last March 15. Further searches with sonar turned up what appeared to be a giant vessel on the bottom in two pieces the rough size of theFitzgerald. This took them between Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. The B-side on the single was The House You Live In.. 4:10 PM - Nov. 10th, 1975 - Eastern Lake Superior, southeast of Caribou Island. A small three room cabin was built on the east shore of Lake Superior adjacent to Deer Lake and the Amphibian base. Five years later in 1980, Jacques Cousteaus famous Calypso arrived for the first manned dive inside an underwater vessel to the site. Another sonar survey was conducted November 22-25. There is a lot of by Anonymous - The first holds that some kind of large, heavy object crashed into the ship while it was passing by Caribou Island in Lake Superior during the early hours of the terrible storm of 10 November, 1975. [9][10], This article is about the island in eastern Lake Superior. I have read recently that the shoal near the island doesn't exist but it was from a guy who favors the loose hold cover theory. In those seas, such a command goes without saying, so why did McSorley have to emphasize it? he asks. Caribou Island is an uninhabited island in the eastern end of Lake Superior, 40 kilometres (25mi) south of Michipicoten Island. Bernie Cooper. Not the same yard, but what if it was rebuilt, same cargo, same shape, same functionality, but a new keel? "They were killing the boat," he said. Also, the Fitzgeralds officers had started two pumps to evacuate water, but those pumps would only remove water from the ballast tanks, not the cargo hold. The suits are also equipped with flashing lights and radio position beacons. A real eye opening view from the man who was the last person to ever speak to theEdmund Fitzgerald's crew. The radar signal, or pip of the Fitzgerald kept getting obscured by sea return. 906-635-1742 | 800-635-1742, GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM What's obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking. Tom Farnquist is also notably the foremost expert on the wreck of the S.S. Edmunds Fitzgerald. Ed Peewee Charles Ringwald and the late Terry Clements, a Detroit native who had played guitar for Lightfoot since the early 1970s, came up with the haunting guitar and steel riffs. The protective visor over the wheelhouse windows has been completely flattened down and there is a lot of similar damage throughout the superstructure of the bow, indicating theEdmund Fitzgeraldmet a very violent and catastrophic end. Her track along the north shore was standard in inclement weather -- to shelter a bit from north winds. In addition, Coast Guard cited reports of damage to the Fitzgerald's hatches that were planned for winter repair. For the boating safety class Tom treated us to footage of some of the many shipwrecks that he has dove over his own career which included a full unedited version of the Jacques Cousteau expedition. From the time of its first voyage on Sept. 24, 1958, the ship set six records by carrying heavier and heavier loads. Keep up with the magazine, news and happenings around the Big Lake. There is absolutely no conclusive evidence to determine the cause of the sinking. Beyond that, Captain Bernie Cooper of the Anderson commented in testimony that his radar showed the Fitz to be closer to the shoal than he wanted his ship to be. Not long after the search ended, years of arguments and disagreements over what could have caused theEdmund Fitzgeraldto sink have clouded up any hope of truly understanding what occurred the night of November 10, 1975 as the shipping companies, government agencies and sea fairers of the Great Lakes all have different theories and opinions that do not match. 400 W. Portage Avenue "We always had to go down and pump them out.". When the skies of November turn gloomy.. There is a look out in Pancake Bay named after the Fitz. Having been a consultant and active member of the original Jacques Cousteau expedition in 1980 along with the raising of the bell 1994 expedition. Our Specialties. Instead, the LCA theorized that the lost freighter had stumbled over the Six-Fathom Shoal at the north end of Caribou Island, sustaining damage that would prove to be fatal to the ship. Aware of a building November storm entering the Great Lakes from the great plains, Captain McSorley and Captain Cooper agreed to take the northerly course across Lake Superior, where they would be protected by highlands on the Canadian shore.