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The legend lives from the Chippewa passed on down of the big lake they call the devil. The great lakes can be some of the most dangerous waters in the world. Lake Superior, they say, never gives up her dead when the gales of November arrive early. On November 10,1975, One of the worst ever storms blindsided Michigan unexpectedly. Among that storm came” tragedy”. When the 729 foot straight deck ore freighter called the Edmund Fitzgerald, sunk to the sandy bottom of Lake Superior. Captains of the freighters that carry iron ore from the mines in western Lake Superior to the steel plants in Detroit, Cleveland, and points east and south, had become accustomed to the rubbery bending and twisting of the boats in heavy weather. These captains of ore carriers knew that the incredible flexibility was engineered into these ships to prevent them from snapping in two. They where made to be put through tremendous stress caused by the action of the waves, but never had the Edmund Fitzgerald’s captain experienced anything of this storms magnitude in his thirty one years on the lakes. The Fitzgerald carried a twenty nine man crew. Consisting of cooks, cleaners, Haulers, janitors, weathermen, Radar technicians, co captains and the captain. The Arthur M. Anderson, a U.S steel ore carrier, had joined the 729 foot iron boat the Edmund Fitzgerald the day before the storm. As the two ships were departing at the western end of the 379 mile wide Lake Superior, gale wind warnings’ were being posted. Capt. Jesse “Bernie” Cooper, master of the Anderson, and Capt. Ernest M. McSorley of the Fitzgerald, had talked by radiotelephone and agreed to take their vessels along the “northern track” of Lake Superior. They decided that they where going to hug the Canadian shoreline at the top of the lake. The Fitzgerald, the faster of the two ships, had drawn steadily ahead of the Anderson, and by mid afternoon, November 10, was about seventeen miles ahead. The storm which had swirled about them through the whole day, continued to intensify.
Approximate Word count = 1369
Approximate Pages = 5.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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