Edmund Fitzgerald sank 45 yrs ago - today

mattie

November storms in the Great Lakes are deadly.

Liberty44140

Very tragic incident, but for some reason I just love that song! 

LaRea

Annnnnnnnd thanks.  For the earworm.  Usually takes me a good eight hours to shake that one

Liberty44140

Best part of a ballad! Can’t shake it from your head. 

Black_Diamond

I remember that day well. My grandfather and uncles worked the iron ore mines in the UP of Michigan, one uncle sailed on the ore ships too back in the day. I still have the flag off one the Cleveland Cliffs flag ship from the early 70’s. Losing the ship and its crew hit a lot of communities involved in the iron ore world. 

TonyG13

I was doing some reading about the Fitzgerald and one of the things that jumped out at me regarding its history was the installation of a bow thruster in 1969.

Started researching the history of bow thrusters and found out their usage is basically a fairly modern (in nautical terms) invention -- mid to late 1960's.

Found an article quoting an old salt about the "new" technology in the New York Times from 1970:

"A ship can still be docked here in what Capt. Demetrio Conti of the Home Line's Homeric called “the old way” yesterday after bringing her into her berth on the north side of Pier 84 at the noon slack tide without benefit of either tugs or thrusters."

The SS Homeric was 641 LOA.

I can't even image navigating a 600+ foot ship with one screw - and nothing else.

I had a hard enough time with a 25' single engine I/O Alpha One drive. 

YYZRC

I wonder if prop walk is a thing at 600+ ft. 

Aqua_Aura

Not much need for maneuverability at that size since it's the tugboats that move you in and out of ports. Interesting process to see.