Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Milwaukee Sentinel September 22, 1978 UP Sailor Says Edmund Fitzgerald Was Sunk by Trio of Killer Waves Washington, D.C. - AP - A Great Lakes sailor from the Upper Peninsula has rejected official accounts and told Con- gress the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was swallowed up by "the Three Sisters," a trio of killer waves, when it went down with all 28 men aboard. The sinking of the freighter, bearing iron ore from Superi- or, Wis., to Detroit, Mich., occurred suddenly during a violent storm Nov. 10, 1975, about 17 miles from Whitefish Bay. Capt. Ernest McSorley and all crewmen perished. In a renewal of hearings into the tragedy, a House subcom- mittee on the Coast Guard and navigation heard a rehash of several contradictory findings by government, industry and labor groups. But the most dramatic testimony came from Lyle A. Mc- Donald, 60, of Laurium, Mich., who said: "My license to ap- pear before you, gentlemen, stems from having lived a very rough life as a commercial fisherman on Lake Superior start- ing at age 7.... I have lived the day and night of the Edmund Fitzgerald many, many times, on lesser ships and during ear- lier days. "I respectfully submit ... that the Fitzgerald did sink to the bottom of Lake Superior as the result of her having been caught precisely by the Three Sisters, or three big waves. The Fitzgerald submarined!" The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board have indicated that the ship sank when water rushed through the hatch covers on deck. The board says the covers collapsed, while the Coast Guard believes they were not battened down properly. Some dissenters on the board, as well as some maritime organizations, believe the ship crashed into shoals, rip- ping the hull apart below the waterline. But McDonald argued that the ship was simply engulfed by the waves. "I am amazed that the phenomenon of the Three Sisters is not more widely known," he said. "Most certainly the older sailors ... are fully cognizant of the fact that the Three Sisters are a reality on Lake Superior." By his account, the winds on that day were greater than 60 m.p.h., the conditions ripe for the killer waves. "What we are talking about is that at irregular intervals, during a storm, three waves will occur, possibly one-third larger than the average seas of the moment." The average wave in the storm would have been about 18 to 20 feet, he said, while the Three Sisters would have been up to 30 feet. The Edmund Fitzgerald had less than 14 feet of freeboard, or height from the waterline to the deck. "The Three Sisters swept up the full length of her decks and piled up against the after side of the pilot house" Mc- Donald said. "The backwash of the first wave was met by the advance of the second, and both backwashes joined with the third sea. These seas were traveling twice as fast as the ship, and this permitted a tremendous weight to remain on the forward sec- tion of the ship." The ship was laden with 52 million pounds of iron ore pel- lets, and the seas added another 10 million pounds of water for fully 20 seconds, McDonald said. ===========================================================================