Spaw, There was nowhere he could have beached her with any safety on that shoreline. McSorley was on the radio several times to the Arthur M Anderson, and you could tell from his voice he knew more than he was saying. The second mate on the Arthur M Anderson was convinced he hit bottom at six fathom shoal. The Captain of the Arthur M Anderson hinted that she was close to that shoal during the night in an interview on television. (very few people would make such an allegation when it would be seen to criticize McSorley at the time of his death) When she broke up it happened so fast they would have lost power to all the radios (all up in the forward section) and gone down in seconds.

I doubt she was overloaded Kendall; but all those years of fast loading and ballasting has been known to weaken hull structures on other ships, so it could have been a factor in her demise.

Yours, Aye. Dave