The Edmund Fitzgerald
One of the greatest ships to sail the Great Lakes was the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Edmund Fitzgerald had sailed for many years until it sank in 1975. The Edmund Fitzgerald was built in 1958; it was 729 feet long and weighed 13,632 tons (Stonehouse 13). This was the largest ship to sail the Great Lakes until 1971(Stonehouse 13). The Edmund Fitzgerald had a sister ship called the Arthur B. Homer, which was the second biggest ship on the great lakes (Stonehouse 13). The Edmund Fitzgerald had a 7,000 horsepower steam turbine engine that could push the ship at around 16 miles an hour (Stonehouse 13). Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee owned the ship. Aboard the ship there were 29 crew members, the captain, 3 licensed deck officers, a chief engineer, 4 licensed engineering officers, and 20 unlicensed personnel (U.S. Marine Reports). The ships captain was Ernest Mcsorley who was a master of the Great Lakes and had 44 years sailing them (Stonehouse 25). The ship had sailed the great lakes for many years until that day in 1975 when it was never seen again.The Edmund Fitzgerald had left a port in Superior, Wis. At around 2:15 pm on November 09, 1975 (Stonehouse 24). The ship was fully fueled and loade
Those words were the last words ever heard from the Fitzgerald, which soon disappeared off radar (Stonehouse 30). The search for the Fitzgerald went on for 5 days. Out of the 29 passengers aboard there are no known survivors to this day. There is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot about the sinking of the ship, Which is called "the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The ship lies in two pieces, a bow section and a stern section (Stonehouse 44). At 9:25 pm the call was made from the coast guard to start a search for the missing Fitzgerald (Stonehouse 32). There is also a play written by Shelley Russell named "Holdin' our own: the Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald. The Fitzgerald and the Anderson both changed course and started heading to the lakes more northern waters, which was called the "fall north route" (Stonehouse 25). The two ships were battling waves of 10-12 feet, winds of up to fifty knots, and even snow (Stonehouse 26). The Fitzgerald had lost both of its radars and had to maintain radio contact with the Anderson (Stonehouse 28). At the time of the ships sinking waves were recorded of up to 25 feet which exceeded the ships "zero freeboard" which means the hatch covers cannot handle the pressure of the water (U.
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Acceptance Essays
