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Themes: Uncertain Future 27,(Pause) 28 (Pause) 29. The bell rang out across the waters on November 10, 1995. The crowd stood still. Families thought of men they loved. Tears flowed. The huge freighter ship S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald had crisscrossed the five Great Lakes for 17 years. The 729 foot long ship was longer than two football fields. On November 10, 1975, the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin carrying 26,000 tons of taconite (iron ore pellets). A week before, Chief Steward, Robert Rafferty, mailed a postcard to his wife in Toledo. He wrote, "I may be home by November 8. However, nothing is ever sure." The sun was shining when the Edmund Fitzgerald and 29 crew members left for Detroit, Michigan. Soon the winds grew and the waves started to swell in the cold waters of Lake Superior. Captain Ernest McSorely turned North toward the shores of Canada and Whitefish Bay. The winds howled at speeds of 60 miles per hour. Waves up to 30 feet rocked the ship. Water crashed over the deck and ran back into the lake. Captain McSorley clutched a rail for balance. He looked out on the dark raging waters. Suddenly, his radar screen went blank. He waited for the backup system to start. Nothing. He spun the dial of the radio to speak to the lighthouse in Whitefish Bay. Steady static. Fortunately, he was not alone. Cruising 10 miles behind him was another ship, the Arthur M. Anderson. Captain Jesse Cooper radioed that he still had radar and would try to guide the Fitzgerald..
At 7:10 PM, McSorley radioed Cooper to say the taconite on board had shifted. The Fitzgerald was listing (tilting) to one side. A wave had slammed into the ship knocking fence rails and two steam vents into the frigid, foaming waters. Calmly, Captain McSorley moved the microphone close to his mouth and spoke his last words, "We are holding our own." At 7:25 PM, Cooper on the Anderson suddenly saw the image of the Fitzgerald disappear from his radar screen. He grabbed the microphone and called for McSorley. He called again and again. Silence. Likely two huge waves lifted the Fitzgerald high in the sea. One lifted the front and one the back. Twenty-six thousand tons of metal pellets ran to the middle splitting open the center. Two halves of the ship and 29 men plummeted to the bottom. Five hundred and fifty feet down on the floor of Lake Superior lays the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Everything seemed perfect when they left port. Even in the storm, Captain McSorley thought everything was all right. However, "things changed." Chief Steward Robert Rafferty never saw his wife again because "things changed." God is not like the seas that change with every storm. God is always the same. The God who hated sin in the Garden of Eden, hates your sin today. He will never allow sin in His presence. However, God always loves us. He has made it possible so you can live with Him forever in Heaven. He can forgive your sins because "Christ also hath once suffered for sins; the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
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Shelly McKenna
