Ah, yes...the Big Fitz. I was a freshman in high school when it went down with all hands, 26,000 tons of iron taconite pellets headed for the auto industry in Michigan. Can still remember Harry Reasoner reporting with the cheesie (by today's standards) graphic behind him. Some feel she was jinxed from the start since someone had a heart attack and died at the launching.
Ended up doing a lot of research on it over the years, still have a paper report from high school somewhere in a box of junk. IIRC, CG report said that operator error was responsible, hatch covers not secured properly (they weighed several tons so supposedly the crew didn't bother to tighten down the clamps) but many years later someone discovered an error in the charts showing an incorrect depth around the shoals where they passed near the Canadian side of the lake, trying to avoid the heavy seas. So, many now believe she scraped her bottom and was taking on water until she plowed into a wave and never came out, nose diving to the bottom with the engine driving her down.
Got to Gordon Lightfoot twice, the song always drew wild applause. Well, 'wild' for a Gordon Lightfoot crowd, that is.
Wish I had the 80m aerial up now. Wonder how much the solid state box would object to the 40m dipole?
