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ACOMMONSENSE POSTMORTEM: The Sinkingofthe Fitzgerald T 7:10 ON THE EVENING OF NOVEMBER 10, 1975, the steamer Edmund Fitzgerald could be seen on e radar screen in the pilothouse of'the ArthurM. Anderson. At 7:20 it was gone. It happened that fast. Bernie Cooper, captain of'theAnderson, refused to believe his eyes. The heavy snowfall that had been limiting visibility on the east end of Lake Superior let up a little at 7:20, and Cooper asked Morgan Clark, his first mate, to look for the Fitzgerald's silhouette on the horizon, thinking that the freighter might have had a power failure. Clark said he could see the lights of three ships about seventeen or eighteen miles ahead, but he was sure they were the saltwater ships Nanfri, Benfri, and Avafors that had just come out of Whitefish Bay. The Fitzgerald had been running along about nine miles ahead of'the Anderson, but the mate could see no lights or silhouettes in that area. Captain Cooper adjusted the Andersons radar and took another look. The saltwater freighters showed up clearly, but there was no target in the area where the Fitzgerald had been. Cooper then tried to call the Fitzgerald on the radio: "Edmund Fitzgerald, Edmund Fitzgerald, this is the Arthur M. Anderson!' There was no response. The Andersons first mate then tried to contact the Fitzgerald on the radio: "EdmundFitzgerald, Edmund Fitzgerald, Edmund Fitzgerald, this is the Arthur M. Anderson, the Arthur M. Anderson on Channel 16." Again, no reply. Morgan Clark then called the William Clay Ford, which he knew was anchored behind Whitefish Point because of the storm. The Clay Ford immediately answered the radio call, informing the mate that he was coming in loud and clear. JI8 A Commonsense Postmortem After trying unsuccessfully to contact the Coast Guard station at Sault Ste. Marie, Captain Cooper then called the Nanfri, one ofthe three salties thatwas leavingWhitefish Bay and heading across the lake. The U.S. pilot aboard the Nanfri answered Cooper's call and said that he couldn't see any targets on his ship's radarscope that could be the Fitzgerald. At 8:32 P.M., Cooper talked to a Coast Guard radio operator at the Soo. "I'm very concerned with the welfare of the steamer EdmundFitzgerald," said Cooper. "He was right in front of us experiencing a little difficulty. He was taking on a small amount ofwater, and none ofthe upbound ships have passed him. I can see no lights as before, and don't have him on radar. Ijust hope he didn't take a nose dive." Despite his understatement, Cooper later told Coast Guard investigators thatbythat time "itwas pretty evident that the Fitzgerald was gone," he just couldn't bring himself to say it that bluntly over the radio. It was hard for Bernie Cooper to admit, even to himself, that the Fitzgerald had sunk. The radio operator at the Soo couldn't believe it either. He tried to call the Fitzgerald on his radio, but with no success. He then called WLC, the marine radio station at Rogers City, Michigan, and asked the radio operator there to try to raise the Fitzgerald. The WLC operator called back several minutes later to report that he'd had no luck contacting the Fitzgerald. In the face of growing evidence that the Fitzgerald may have taken "a nose dive," as Captain Cooper had put it, the Coast Guard station at the Soo alerted the Coast Guard's rescue coordination center at Cleveland that "there was an uncertainty concerning the Fitzgerald" At 9:03 P.M., Cooper again called the Coast Guard station at the Soo. This time he was emphatic: the Edmund Fitzgerald is missing! By 9:15, the rescue coordination center in Cleveland had contacted the Coast Guard Air Station at Traverse City, Michigan, and directed them to dispatch a helicopter to the last known position ofthe Fitzgerald. As the helicopter crew at Traverse City's Cherry Capital Airport was scrambling to launch their chopper, the rescue coordinators in Cleveland also directed the cutter Naugatuck, at Sault Ste. Marie, and the Woodrush, at Duluth, to get under way. At 10 P.M., the commanding officer of the Coast Guard's group headquarters at the Soo personally called Captain Cooper on theAnderson and asked him to turn his ship around and assist in the search. Without hesitation, Cooper agreed. By then, the Anderson was safely within the sheltered waters of Whitefish Bay. Cooper...

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