Iron (Fe) Ore, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald*, and the Periodic Table of Death.
Actually, it was taconite iron pellets—marbled-sized balls made from Iron (Fe), the most abundant metal in Earth, making up 35% of the Earth’s core (1). To make Taconite, powdered and processed Fe ore is blended with a binder clay, rolled, and fired into a pellet form (2). Taconite pellets were loaded onto the enormous ships that once sailed in abundance across the Great Lakes to the steel mills that made up the blue-collar beating heart of the U.S. in the 1970s. One of those ships was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Big Lake of the Ojibwe people, Otchipwe-kitchi-gami (3)
Christened in 1958, the Edmund Fitzgerald was huge. 729 feet long, she made 748 round trips before November 9, 1975. That day, the ore freighter started its last voyage across Lake Superior. She carried 26,116 tons of these pellets—4000 tons more than she was designed to carry, although the increase was sanctioned by the U.S. Coast Guard (4)—steaming for Zug Island in the Detroit River (5). Twenty-nine men crewed her, including a well-seasoned captain, Ernest McSorley (6), and Karl Peckol, a watchman with an uncanny likeness to John Lennon, only twenty years old (7).
A Bone to be Chewed.
A relative of Joseph Mazes, special maintenance man on the Fitz, remembers him saying, “McSorley never pulls out of a storm…He always put the ship in conditions that no one would ever think of” (8). Fateful words as the National Weather Service issued gale warnings for Lake Superior five hours after the Edmund Fitzgerald left safe harbor and sailed into icy waters. At 2:00 a.m. on November 10, NWS upgraded the gale warning to a storm with winds blowing at 40-58 mph. By 1:00 p.m., the winds picked up, with seas at 25 feet and 35-foot rogue waves (4).
Made a Tattletale Sound with Waves Breaking over the Railing.
At 3:30 p.m., Captain McSorley reported to the captain of the SS Arthur M. Anderson, an ore ship that trailed 16 miles behind the Fitzgerald, that he’d lost two vent covers and a railing, was taking on water, and the ship had a bad list in “one of the worst seas” he’d ever experienced. At 4:10 p.m., McSorley reported radar failure and asked the SS Anderson to kept track of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Winds were tracking at 80 mph gusts. At 7:10 p.m., the Anderson captain radioed McSorley. “We are holding our own,” McSorley replied (9). It was the last communication from the Fitz. Its radar pip blinked out at 7:15. No distress signal was ever sent.
A Load of Fe Ore Thousands of Tons and More.
There are at least a dozen theories on what sank the Edmund Fitzgerald, but how might the taconite Fe have contributed? The increased load of pellets would have dropped the deck of the ship closer to the water, decreasing its minimum freeboard and reserve buoyancy needed for rough winter seas (10). If the ship was taking on water, shifting weight and rogue waves might have caused a capsize. Or it might have split up, something that plagued ore ships on the Great Lakes. When the aft and stern rose on the crests of two waves, the middle of the ship hung high in the air. Without water cradling the over-loaded taconite-filled hull, it might buckle and break. Supporting this theory are expeditions to the Fitz wreck site that found the ship in two large pieces in 530 feet of water (11). Whatever happened, the captain of the SS Anderson believed the failure was “sudden and catastrophic” (4).
Wind and Waves Turned the Minutes to Hours.
Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the Edmund Fitzgerald’s tragic ending, releasing the sea chanty ballad, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in 1976 (12). Lightfoot’s mournful voice and brilliant lyrics evoke hauntingly deep emotion. It’s a heartfelt 457-word short story in song that transports listeners into Lake Superior’s rising seas and freezing rain, and leaves them aching for those men lost to its waves. I waited until the end of this article to link you to the actual song because the words have so much more meaning once you know the details. Click to listen now > (13).
On a lighter note… #1: Tonight’s the Night (Rod Stewart—I am not a fan); #3: Love So Right (Bee Gees—I love the Bee Gees, but for goodness sakes, button your shirts)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald made it to #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts in November of 1976, one year after the loss of the Fitz and crew (14). That week it ranked three songs higher than Rick Dees’ Disco Duck (which I vaguely remember as completely stupid), and two songs up from Captain & Tennille’s Muskrat Love (which I admit I could probably sing even now. Every whirl, something twirl, and a tango…).
As always, these are my own opinions based on my biases, knowledge, and understanding, and the websites I’ve linked are in no way an endorsement. Now I have Muskrat Love stuck in my head. Ringing and jinging a jango…
*Copyright limits the use of song lyrics without payment of royalties.
- https://www.britannica.com/science/iron-chemical-element
- https://www.mindat.org/glossary/taconite_pellets
- https://www.lakesuperior.com/the-lake/lake-superior/281almanac/
- https://www.awesomemitten.com/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/#timeline-of-the-edmund-fitzgeralds-final-voyage–shipwreck
- https://www.freep.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2014/11/07/rare-photos-edmund-fitzgerald/18642865/
- https://ssedmundfitzgerald.org/ernest-m-mcsorley
- https://ssedmundfitzgerald.org/karl-a-peckol
- https://ssedmundfitzgerald.org/joseph-w-mazes
- https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/the-fateful-journey/
- http://www.crawfordnautical.com/2019/06/16/minimum-freeboard/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
- https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/liner-notes-a-gordon-lightfoot-classic-as-a-news-narrative/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0K6ojmGZA
- https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1976-11-19/
Sulfur and the Periodic Table of DEATH
Leave a Reply