Mystery of 14,000-ton ship that VANISHED in storm killing all 29 on board leaving only empty lifejackets washing ashore
A MYSTIFYING 14,000-ton ship that left 29 dead after vanishing in a brutal storm still remains a mystery to this day.
After the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank 48-years-ago today, people have been baffled by how it suddenly disappeared leaving only the untouched life jackets washing ashore.
The massive US ship was caught in awful weather so sailed off course to try and get to safety.
This perilous plan knocked the boat off of the radar and left the whole crew stranded and untraceable.
No bodies were ever recovered from the wreckage.
Officers on board the Fitzgerald radioed a panicked message to a nearby ship minutes before it perished underwater.
The boats’ captain said they were taking on heavy amounts of water and had lost two protective covers.
The radio message reportedly said: “I have a bad list, lost both radars and am taking heavy seas over the deck.
“One of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.”
Before a tragic follow up message saying: “We are holding our own.”
Officials believed the ship sank so fast that there was no time to send an emergency SOS to get help.
After the merky weather had passed a rescue mission started but all that was found was two empty, splintered lifeboats and a lonely life jacket bobbing around the water.
The 729ft ore carrier was lost in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, during one of the worst storms in the history of the lake.
According to news reports at the time, there were 25ft high waves and 80mph winds destroying everything for hours on the fateful day.
To this day, it remains the largest ship to have ever disappeared under North America’s Great Lakes.
It was travelling from Wisconsin to Detroit carrying over 26,000 tons of taconite ore pellets that were due to be turned into steel.
The battered wreckage was discovered four days later, 530ft below the surface before U.S. Coast Guard divers officially explored the remains that were split in two pieces.
The ship was originally built in 1958 and named Edmund Fitzgerald after the then president of Northwestern Mutual.
It was dubbed the “Queen of the Lakes” due to its behemoth size and impressive prowess on the water.
It gained notoriety a year after the disappearance as singer Gordon Lightfoot released, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” that became a popular hit song.
In the song, Lightfoot described the boat and crew as “a bone to be chewed” by the ferocious gale winds of November.
The sinking did lead to some very important changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices after the accident.
Mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels were all implemented in the months after the boat’s disappearance.
Another mysterious shipwreck is the Merchant Royal that sank off the coast of Cornwall, leaving behind an incredible amount of riches.
Experts have spent decades hunting for one of the world’s most valuable shipwrecks that could have £1billion in gold onboard.
Dubbed “the El Dorado of the Sea” the precious ship along with its cargo has never been seen since its untimely demise.
Across the world, hundreds of abandoned shipwrecks sit under the water full of riches.
One of these is a shipwreck with £16billion worth of treasure that’s about to be recovered from the sea 300 years after it was sunk during a battle with a British squadron.
Dubbed the “holy grail of shipwrecks” the legendary San Jose Galleon is finally due to be taken out of the Caribbean Sea by the Colombian governemnt.
The location of the ship is a complete secret with rumours suggesting only the very top members of Colombian parliament know the exact coordinates.
Shipwreck hunters also began scouring the bottom of the ocean recently for £4million worth of treasure that sank with a boat almost 150 years ago – south of Cape Flattery, Washington.
A devastating 325 people died as two boats collided and the precious loot was lost under the sea in the deadliest maritime disaster in the history of the western US.