The Night the Fitz Went Down / Harsens Island, Michigan / October 8, 2011
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- The Harsens Island St. Clair Flats Historical Society is pleased to present a One Hour and Forty minute conversation between the late Captain Donald Erickson (March 26,2012) and Mac McAdam regarding 'The Night the Fitz Went Down'. This conversation took place October 8, 2011 on Harsens Island. Mac and Captain Erickson explain the major roll the Captian and his crew played that night. The full DVD is available at: www.hiscfhs.org
Godspeed, Certain. Thank you for everything you did - not just that hard night but for years. Rest in peace.
God Bless you all. And especially RIP those 29 on board the Fitz.
#4 Thank you Capt. Erickson, for searching for the Fritz. As a former Lake Sailor, I can appreciate and respect the "Sweet Water Seas". I have wheeled ships in gales on the Great Lakes and watched the green water flow over the decks.
fitz
I work on the lakes ..hope your retirement going well... Rockcut is a bad cellnphone area😁 im on my vacation
I LOVE Capt Don Erickson.
I met him and got to know him personally. This man helped change my life.
Wow that's very cool. May I ask in what way?
@@troybingham6426 i was going go college at Henry Ford Community in 1987. One of my classmates was Eric. Erickson. We became friends and as he worked there too he turned me onto a job at the J W Westcott mailboat as a deckhand. I worked there 4 seasons in a row. Eric and i became better friends and i got to meet Capt. Don.
On one particular day i had to drive down quite a ways to pick Capt up in my delta 88 oldsmobile. He was so kind as he completed my car, yet seemed nervous. It was the last voyage of the Clay Ford for which i picked him up...and me and my young kids ways had no idea at the time
Please excuse my terrible writing skills...Eric was Capt Don's first born son.
I imagine there are other errors in my writing and will fix as i find them same errors.
@@troybingham6426my friend i could talk about this stuff all day long. Not sure this is the best venue for that but hit me up...id even talk on the phone with you about what i know about not just Capt Don but about all i learned on the Westcott back then and how im still humbled to this day to have had that opportunity
I want to add this much to put things into context...
Because i did get to know capt Don Erickson at least a little, and his son Eric had become good friends, it was years later i realized the truly important meaning of this man and his crew and flagship of the "Ford boats".
It took serious man skills to even make the declaration to pull anchor and leave safe harbor in a killer storm to go look for 29 men from the flagship of a competitor in the ore boat hauling community.
Lives first, steel second, Capt Don And Bernie did the right things that will forever be remembered as acts of compassion. In no way do i feel these men dangered their crew as at that point when they realized one of their own went down it was no longer about them...it was about finding men in the water in order of saving Lives.
I dont mean this lightly...when is the last time you set out to try and save the life or lives of another for real?
I need to pull this back and not put a negative connotation on the whole thing...
I just want to say there was way more to Capt Don Erickson than just captain of the William Clay Ford...
He was a husband and a Father and well loved by family and friends alike. He was humble...short in stature yet tough as nails and dont mess with the wrong...wait. Stop.x. brakes on...
Let me re-phrase this...
Hope that you never did wrong and get on the wrong side of this fair and just man.
I miss him. Im sure his family and my dear friend Eric misses him even more.
The world Needs More of people that are capable to fill the shoes of capable men like Captain Don Erickson.
Please forgive any spelling errors. Please don't hesitate to add to the story and narration and dont hesitate to "politely" point out where i am wrong on commentary.
Also thank you Both for reading and simply picking up my comments and making your own these many years later.
Many more stories here...both of you please dont hesitate and lets keep them old stories flowing and keep speaking them out loud!...!
Thanks for sharing. I'm a Fitz buff.....a relative from Florida was a hand on the ship.
So sorry for your loss of your relative
Thank you for the education! With all the technology we have now we must not forget our past! Our witnesses to this tragedy are dwindling with time, and need to have a voice to let us land lubbers appreciate their efforts! Mariners are a tough bunch!
I still believe Captain Cooper's theory that the Fitzgerald bottomed out. In order for a ship to lose vent covers, have its rail line snap, and take a starboard list all at once indicates a traumatic change in tension of the ship's hull. It would not have had to been a big hit to cause fatal damage. As the sinking Fitzgerald steamed onward, one giant wave sent the ship nose diving to the bottom we're at slammed into the mud. the stern was still under power and pushed as hard as it could until the midsection finally buckled and broke. The stern then inverted and sank to the bottom where at rest upside down near its head. The area where the ship impacted the show must have been destroyed when the ship broke in half.
yes the fitz was heavy where do you think fitz hit bottom that's the question no seems to have
The speculation is the Fitz hit bottom somewhere near Caribou Island, a shallow spot called Five Fathom Shoals, if I'm not mistaken.
6 fathom shoal is one theory but one documentary said Canada surveyed that area and found another shoal that was not on the American charts and not exactly where it was supposed to be on the Canadian charts so she may have hit there
@@dcoslet1 Yeah, I do remember hearing about the uncharted shoal. Thanks for reminding me.
Listen to Captain Cooper (RIP) and, he will tell you exactly what happened to the Fitz. God rest the crews' souls.
he was already in safe harbor Cooper was there he did go out to look for bless his heart.
I remember talking to the Guy that ran the General Store in Tofte MN. He was working that day and said the waves/spray were coming over HWY 61 and flooding his parking lot. He said he had a feeling an Ore Boat would go down that night.
I was ten years old. Roseville. Minnesota. I remember the wind that day. Was cold and Gusty.
They just don't make men like him or Captain Cooper anymore. Nerves of steel and brave beyond anything.
Rest in Paradise, Captain.
The link to get the full video is dead. (For me at least.)
I Totally believe the Fitz bottomed out too, it only makes sense, to blow vent covers and loose rail line, it’s the only plausible reasoning on why she went down.
why not show the whole discussion?
RIP. Gordon Lightfoot
The SS William Clay Ford is one of the SS Arthur M Anderson's 7 sister ships
Be nice if volume be turned up
Bad man, very bad.
Melvin just evil
Alabama snake
Ask his ass with in g in frame 1:56 where the stuff they took off the Fitzgerald went down, ask him what happened to the kids that were on it, ask him about the other stuff taken off.
@Mike England and are you here to correct my spelling or just to be an all around ass?
@Mike England th-cam.com/video/lY4eHaiVK9s/w-d-xo.html. Now go look at frame 41:58 and tell me who you see, don't listen to names, dates or places. I lived parts of both stories.
Wtf are you on about
You are acting very peculiar 🤨
You landlubber im a lake sailor have some respect