Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Edmund Fitzgerald

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Edmund Fitzgerald

    The best theory/presumption I've heard is the nautical equivalent of high-centering. If the huge swells in a big storm could be so spaced apart, that the bow of the ship was supported and the stern was supported, but the middle was hanging there between the swells....broken in half ship hull.

    The mind-blower to me is, it sank in 530 feet of water. That's plenty deep, but if it had somehow dived down nose first and stuck on the bottom without breaking up, another 500 feet of the ship would have been sticking straight up out of the water.




    <p>Forty years ago, on Nov. 10, 1975, the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a ferocious storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 men aboard.</p>
    Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

  • #2
    Navy ships have broken in half sailing in big swells - no doubt about it.

    Act your age, not your shoe size. - Prince

    Comment


    • #3
      It's a real tragedy, no doubt. But living in MI for so many years they drag out the Gordon Lightfoot song every year about this time and I'm so tired of that song I could scream!

      Dan

      Comment


      • #4
        Click image for larger version

Name:	b60cc03febc023faa9ce89437ecfd97f.jpg
Views:	56
Size:	18.8 KB
ID:	1069212 I know it's a Navy thing, but, all sailors sail the same waters... remembering my fellow shipmates always!
        Patrick & Tammy
        - Long Haulin' 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014...Addicting isn't it...??

        Comment


        • #5
          The Fitz went thru 2 or 3 retrofits/overhauls.. It was so fast, they had to make modifications to add more weight/tonnage.. They suspect that the last modifications are what doomed it.. Critical supports were removed and not really reinforced.. It was cracking and breaking anyway, but went ahead and did the mods to break it's own records before being retired.. Sank instead..

          Structural failure theory
          Another published theory contends that an already weakened structure, and modification of Fitzgerald‍ '​s winter load line (which allows heavier loading and travel lower in the water), made it possible for large waves to cause a stress fracture in the hull. This is based on the "regular" huge waves of the storm and does not necessarily involve rogue waves.[124]

          The USCG and NTSB investigated whether Fitzgerald broke apart due to structural failure of the hull and because the 1976 CURV III survey found the Fitzgerald sections were 170 feet (52 m) from each other, the USCG's formal casualty report of July 1977 concluded that she had separated upon hitting the lake floor.[106] The NTSB came to the same conclusion as USCG because:

          Rest of theory here .. Goooood read!



          Long but good!

          Comment

          Working...
          X