Editor's note: This story was produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you're able, WCMU encourages you to listen to the audio version of this story by clicking the LISTEN button above. This transcript was edited for clarity and length.
AJ Jones: After a half century, it would seem all the stories about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald... have been told. But one shipwreck author says there are still many questions that need answering.
John U. Bacon is the author of the new book "The Gales of November: The Untold Stories of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
WCMU's Tina Sawyer recently spoke with Bacon to talk about some of the newly released details he believes led to the ship's sinking.
He begins the conversation by explaining how a series of unfortunate events may have led to the ship's final resting place at the bottom of Lake Superior.
John U. Bacon: The long and short radar went out, the lighthouse at Whitefish Point, the light went out, the radio beacon went out, so he's sailing blind at that point, Captain McSorley. And he made some decisions that were ostensibly smart, cautious decisions that might have backfired. It's rarely one thing that brings down a ship like this. It's a series of dominoes. Once they start falling, watch out.
Tina Sawyer: What will people take away from the book that they never knew before? And can you explain one thing in the book that might surprise someone?
JB: I'd say a few things. We've got new scientists on this at Michigan Tech, University of Michigan, the NOAA, that have done mathematical models. So we now know that they were not only facing 100 mile per hour winds, they're facing 30-foot waves regularly, ten 40-foot waves, about three or four 50-foot waves on average, and probably one or two 60-foot waves. And keep in mind, this ship is only 11 feet out of the water on a good day. This is not a good day. So 60 feet is dwarfing it. That's one thing we've learned.
Also, we made a much bigger deal out of the northern route that McSorty takes the cautious route, but it takes 14 hours longer, which allows two storms to set up shop right in front of Whitefish Bay. It's like a catcher guarding home plate. And he does not know the route nearly as well. And I found Doug Frericks, the son of Don Frericks, who's one of McSorty's best friends. They had lunch 2 weeks earlier. They always had lunch in Silver Bay, Minnesota, when the ship was loading. And that's when McSorty told Frericks' father that he's going to tack on one more week to the ship, to the ship's season, to get his bonus as a captain, or passed their quota for cargo to pay for his wife's medical care for probably cancer. So this trip was not going to happen. And after that, he was going to retire that week. So these stories add up.
TS: Yeah, that's amazing. And I know one thing that you mentioned in the book, which kind of ties in with the science, that the iron ore pellets may have absorbed the water and that may have led to the sinking.
JB: Absolutely. Taconite, I've got some in my desk right now. This ship in Fitzgerald had 500 million of them on the ship. That's 26,000 long tons, about the same weight as 4,200 adult elephants. That's the crazy part about these ships. Taconite is good in a lot of ways, but it does absorb 4-7% of its weight in water. So if that water gets in the cargo hold, which it probably did after the ship crossed Six Fathoms Shoal, so that's one problem you've got. And even more than that, water hides between the pellets, kind of the way milk hides in your cereal. So all that adds about ten or 15% to the weight of the ship, which already is overloaded.
TS: The scientists that you say are researching as we speak, are they also corroborating that theory?
JB: Pretty basic theory, but no one's ever talked about that before. It's kind of surprised me. And likewise, the northern route. So again, a good decision on paper, but it might have backfired.
TS: So you said you had spoken with some of the family members of the deceased crew members. Do you get any sense that they would like for you or someone to go down and research or leave it alone because it is considered a sacred ground and graveyard, basically. And I know that Canada is the one who actually would have to give the okay for that. What do they think about this?
JB: So I know exactly how the families think about this. In '94, one of the unsanctioned, if you will, searches was from a private citizen who took photos and videotapes of the deceased. When the families found out about that, they got pretty upset, naturally. And that's when they started working very hard with the Canadian and U.S. governments, Ontario, Michigan, Ottawa, D.C., to get it declared an international grave site, which it now is. So no one can dive down there any longer without the permission of the families.
TS: How long do you wait, though, when family members are deceased to be able to go and research and explore as historians?
JB: Sure. I think that the families themselves are not against scientific exploration. What they're very proud of is the fact that incredibly from 1875 to 1975, Tina, there were 6,000 commercial shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. And that is the conservative estimate. That's one per week every week for a century, an incredible number. Since November 10th, 1975, there's been zero. And the families know that it's because the Edmund Fitzgerald got so much attention that the industry finally woke up. So they don't want other families to suffer the way they have. And they, you know, Even if your dad's gone on 50 years, you still feel it, obviously. The Temptation of the Edmund Fitzgerald is unique to the Great Lakes. It's the one shipwreck everyone knows thanks to the song.
TS: What do the families think of Gordon Lightfoot writing and producing that song?
JB: At first, it was mixed. When the song first came out, they were not aware that it was going to come out. It's quite surprising that it did. They were not planning to put that song on the current album that came out in '76. They said it wasn't ready. They tried it anyway, and the song you hear on the radio, Tina, incredibly, is the first time the band ever played the song, not just the first take. When I asked the drummer, Barry Keane, who's still alive and still playing, how do you explain that? He said, this is not a song you think your way through. This is a song you have to feel. The family members weren't sure where Lightfoot was coming from at first. He was just trying to make a buck off their suffering.
But then they got to know Gordon Lightfoot. He had their number, they had their number, and he would talk to them throughout and even change the lyrics a couple times as more evidence came out, which exonerated the deckhands. For example, the hatches did not give away. That was not why the ship went down. So he was very, very sensitive towards the families and started several scholarships at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City in their honor. They now play it at reunions for the grandchildren who never met their grandfathers, of course.
TS: So John, why does this tragedy matter today? What have we learned?
JB: It matters... For once we did learn. That's the beauty part of this tragedy, if you will. Forecasting improved, communication with the captains improved and frankly, Tina, common sense improved. It's been a great legacy, a positive one.
TS: Is there anything else, John, that I haven't asked a question about that you'd like to mention?
JB: Sure. Some stories that just have to grab you. There is Bruce Hudson. He's 22 years old. The only child of what we call Aunt Ruth, he knew her as Aunt Ruth, even though that's his mom. And he's left Ohio State for a couple of years to make some really good money, three or four times what a teacher made back then, as a deckhand. And he saved it very carefully, except his one indulgence was his 1972 Dodge Challenger muscle car, a real beauty, which is still around and still in great shape, by the way.
He and fellow deckhand Mark Thomas were going to get in the car. It was waiting for them three days later in Toledo to go on a cross-country road trip to get Coors beer in Colorado and Tina Back then, that was exotic, I swear to God. I know, it dates us all, but anyway. And then go to California, and of course, a month-long trip. In the meantime, he finds out from his girlfriend in Toledo, Cindy Reynolds, that guess what? She's pregnant. She's got to call him at one of the port bars in Minnesota and tell him this news. And he's, of course, shocked. But then he says, 'you know what? Don't worry about it. We're going to move in together. We'll raise the child ourselves.' And then she said, 'what? Go on that cross-country trip anyway. That'll be in November. The child's not due till June. You know, we have plenty of time.'
Well, when the ship goes down, Ruth Hudson does not know that her son's girlfriend is pregnant. All she knows is she's lost the one person in the world she loves the most, and he's gone. And she thinks she's kind of lost everything. And then... she learns six months later that she's going to be a grandmother quite unexpectedly. And she and Heather became very close. They shopped together. And Heather, of course, grew up. She had four children herself. One of them, the oldest is Austin, who looks just like Bruce Hudson, Aunt Ruth's lost son, of course. So guess what? Aunt Ruth played favorites and Austin was her favorite. So it's clearly a bittersweet story, but it's amazing the stories that we found by talking to these people. They were not just 29 a number. They had lives and they had futures they were looking forward to.
TS: Was there anybody that was supposed to be on board that didn't go that day?
JB: Yes, the chef. The main cook was supposed to be on board that day, but he had an ulcer. He was a pretty young guy in his late 20s.But he had an ulcer and he was off the ships. They brought back Bob Rafferty, who was 63 years old, a legendary cook on the Great Lakes and well known by this crew. So they were very happy to have Bob back on board. And of course, He sends a postcard to his family saying, I should be home out of Toledo by November. 9th or 10th, but things can always change. And that's his last postcard.
TS: Wow.
JB: I'll add one more quick story.
TS: Sure.
JB: Eddie Benden was 47 years old. He was the first assistant chief engineer, high-ranking, in the engine room. He and his wife, Helen, have been married for 25 years, no kids. And their anniversary is coming up. And he's about to retire at the end of this trip as well. She's waiting for him in three days in Toledo for the ship to land. On Saturday, November 8th, for reasons we don't know, he went to a jewelry store in Duluth right next to Superior, Wisconsin, to buy her a two-carat 25th anniversary wedding ring. And he, instead of tucking this away, Tina, in his duffel bag to take the trip home himself, in three days she's going to be there on the dock. They live near Toledo. He gives it to a friend of his and asks him to mail it to his wife, gives the address, for reasons only he knows
And sure enough, of course, the ship goes down. And about four days after that, she receives in the mail her 25th anniversary diamond ring. And she wears that for the rest of her life, and she never remarried. So these are the kind of stories we found in the process. And by all accounts, Eddie Benden was a great guy, according to his old crewman, Patrick Devine. So we got those stories.
TS: Were the families compensated by the shipping companies or anybody?
JB: Yeah, the families were compensated as little as the company could get away with. And although Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance owned the ship, it was operated by Ogilvy Norton out of Cleveland. They leased it, hired the crew, bought the food, all this. And basically the families got whatever their lawyer could get from the companies. There's no standard settlement. So it ended up being, in most cases, like a year's salary, which you've got four or five kids at home in their teens and you lost your main breadwinner. That's not nearly enough, of course. So that's pretty brutal. Insurance often did not have to pay because it's an act of God, but they got by in very little.
And as one of the women said, Heidi Wilhelm, she's a 12-year-old girl at the time, she said, 'We did what our dads and husbands and cousins and uncles would do. We stuck together and we got through it all together.' And they did.
TS: The book is "The Gales of November, The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald." John U. Bacon, thank you so much for joining us today.
JB: Tina, thank you.
