Your DH must have read all the same stuff I have as that is very much the same story I told above. She may have "shoaled" or bottomed off Caribou and may well have made Whitefish Bay and safety as she almost did had it not been for the storm creating the strong following sea. Many have suspected that when McSorley reported the rails down it was a clue that the hull had been twisted and weakened off Caribou as the report came in about the amount of time it would have taken for the effect to be noticed. Whether or not she had been opened up might not even be relevant as the hatch clamps, although properly down upon leaving port, would have been loosened by this same twisting/hogging of the hull allowing water to come in that way as well.

There has never been any evidence at all that the Fitz was overloaded nor has it ever been estimated she was overloaded by the various investigating bodies. The greed as someone mentioned above was in making that late run but as I said above also, late runs were commonplace because the odds, even with all the late season storms and sinkings over the years, were still good. And although bad weather was not uncommon, the meeting of three weather systems as it happened was unusual but again not unknown.

Making the tragedy most alluring is the lack of any final "Mayday" transmission. Here again I think the sudden disappearance off the radar with no message from the Fitz would indicate the ship had probably been driven down bow first and the forward location of the Lakes freighter wheelhouse meant she was underwater before anyone in her could react.


Spaw