The legend lives on: New Edmund Fitzgerald book reveals new information after 47 years
In his new book, author Ric Mixter claims to have uncovered new information about the sinking of the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank 47 years ago Thursday.
Titled “Tattletale Sounds,” Mixter reports new information about the wreck. Some believe the last chapter of the Fitzgerald was written when the bell was raised from the depths of Lake Superior in 1995, but Mixter has found 300 pages of new material to share on the story.
“Tattletale Sounds” borrows its name from Gordon Lightfoot’s famous ballad, which gave the freighter worldwide name recognition. The six-minute dirge is a staple of maritime museums on the Great Lakes, but as Mixter points out, many of Lightfoot’s lyrics are incorrect.
Mixter says his book is told from the perspective of over a dozen eyewitnesses he has interviewed since 1994.
“I’ve interviewed shipyard workers, sailors and over a dozen people directly involved in the history of the Fitzgerald. This is really their perspective, I just put it in a text that’s easy to understand,” he said.
Mixter himself dove the wreck site in the Delta submersible in July of 1994.
“Tattletale Sounds” is an exclusive look at not only the Fitzgerald, but the Detroit River’s role in shipbuilding that ended with two other ships after the Fitzgerald.
“This includes two people who lost their lives building the largest freighter on the Great Lakes, which has not been published in other books,” Mixter said. “The new book also shares highlights from hours of previously unreleased commentary by Coast Guard investigators in 1976.”
“Tattletale Sounds” is the first book to share Mixter’s exclusive interview with the cook from the Fitzgerald, who left the ship just a few weeks before the sinking. He provides insight into the structural problems of the ship that were investigated by the Coast Guard. It also has the only comments from Capt. Bernie Cooper, who was the last to see the Fitzgerald on Lake Superior.
“There are so many secrets that have yet to come to the surface,” Mixter said. “I’ve been lucky to find such amazing people who have shared their personal experience with the legendary ship.”
“Tattletale Sounds” is available online at many maritime museums or at Mixter’s website www.shipwreckpodcast.com.
The Sault News
USS The Sullivans no longer sinking, but set for more repairs
The naval warship named after five Iowa brothers killed together while serving in World War II no longer is sinking at a ship museum after more than $2 million in repairs and cleanup.
Iowans helped raise money for those repairs, wanting to make sure the USS The Sullivans can continue its mission of educating thousands of people each year about military service.
But what’s next for the retired destroyer-turned-museum ship?
“We have a lot to learn from the ships themselves and the veterans who served on them,” said Paul Marzello Sr., president of the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, the New York museum where the ship is docked. “The mission is very simple, but it’s difficult because it’s all about the amount of money you can bring in” to preserve the ships.
The USS The Sullivans is named after Waterloo’s five Sullivan brothers — Albert, George, Francis, Joseph and Madison — who died after their light cruiser, USS Juneau, was struck by a Japanese torpedo Nov. 13, 1942, and sank in the South Pacific during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Their deaths remain the largest combat-related loss of life by a single family at one time in American military history.
USS The Sullivans was commissioned Sept. 30, 1943, and christened by Alleta Sullivan, the men’s mother, from Waterloo.
After serving in both World War II and the Korean War, the Fletcher-class destroyer became a training ship with the 6th Fleet before being decommissioned Jan. 7, 1965. The Navy donated the USS The Sullivans to the military park in Buffalo, where it is one of the star attractions.
But in April, crews found 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of water had poured into the engineer’s room through tiny holes below the waterline. The warship listed, reaching a near 45-degree angle and coming close to sinking. Crews sprang into action, pumping out water and trying to save artifacts displayed on the ship. They applied epoxy coating to the hull and installed a cathodic protection system to prevent further erosion, Marzello told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Veterans from around the world, including in Iowa, donated to the effort to save the ship, Marzello said. Videos of some of the repair work are shown on the park’s YouTube channel, which has nearly 9,000 subscribers.
Now the military park is trying to figure out how to preserve the ship for future generations.
After securing a congressional commitment of $7.5 million, park staff are bringing in Joe Lombardi, a naval architect with Houston-based Ocean Technical Services, later this month or early December to examine the integrity of the hulls of the USS The Sullivans, USS Little Rock and USS Croaker — all docked at the same site.
“He has several things to respond to, mainly to analyze the integrity of the hull of all three ships we have in the water and to determine what, if any, remaining product is in any of the ships,” Marzello said.
When the military turns over ships to cities to become floating museums, there often are fluids, such as diesel fuel or oil from machinery, in the vessels, he said. If the ship springs a leak, those fluids can pollute the water.
Lombardi also will give his opinion whether it’s warranted to haul one or more ships to a dry dock for repairs, Marzello said. If that’s the recommendation, tug boats would have to move the Croaker and the Little Rock out of the way to free The Sullivans to be towed 18 hours across Lake Erie to a dry dock.
“He’ll give us at least three proposals of what could be done: Dry docking, building a coffer dam or making the repairs in situ, or where it is,” Marzello said.
Park staff hope to have those recommendations by February or March.
Historians with the Buffalo park visited Waterloo this past summer to see artifacts at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. Museum staff also took the visitors to the cemetery where the brothers’ parents and sister, Genevieve, are buried and visited a local Sullivan historian, Mike Magee, said Pat Kinney, oral historian for the Grout Museum District, which includes the veterans museum.
“The linchpin between the Buffalo military park and our museum is Kelly Sullivan, Albert Sullivan’s granddaughter, who is the official Navy sponsor of the current USS The Sullivans DDG-68, as her great-grandmother Alleta was of the ship in Buffalo, the USS The Sullivans DD-537,” Kinney said in an email.
That’s right, there are two USS The Sullivans. The second, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was commissioned in 1997.
Stars and Stripes
