Martin,
If you read David Browns book "White Hurricane" it shows several captains in a similar fate. It is a outstanding book about sea faring on the Great Lakes.
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What has captured me in the Fitz story is Captain Ernest McSorley. He rose from deck hand to master and commanded one of the largest ships on the lakes at the time, while breaking cargo loading records all through her career. The last I believe was in 1969.
When he left Duluth/Superior he had no idea of the storm mounting, as his ship and the Arthur M. But did know that his ship was recently granted a extention by the Coast Guard to sail and that she needed a dry docking in the worst way.
As the Arthur M. Anderson and the Edmund Fitzgerald plowed there way east on Lake Superior and eventually south, McSorley was no longer master of a ship, he was master of a floating moving hulk of steel. I have read reports saying that he (McSorely) mentioned to Captain Bernie Cooper of the Anderson that he could see the ship sitting lower in the water, that his pumps where on, but where barely keeping up (if at all). He knew his ship was sinking, but if I recall rightly never says it. He pushes and pushes for Whitefish Bay. He stands on the bridge of a doomed ship, in command of a doomed ship and there isn't much he can do about it but hope for the possibilty that his ship will make it, and if it doesn't, that the Anderson will be able to pick up the survivors and that folks will have a chance to get off.
One of the other odd things about the Fitz is the suddenness of her disappearnce. No call for help, no bodies only wreckage, and a limited amount at that. 729 feet of ship gone in seconds without so much as a peep in a world that had two way radio, a radio that was at McSorley's side for the last three days. 729 feet gone in seconds. If you think on it, the Fitgeralf was longer then the depth of the water she rests in.
As she rests now her stern is upside down and the bow is still upright. If I recall they have never explored the interiors of the ship, but the bridge is empty of bodies.