The Wrecks of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Francisco Morazan & Michigan

UPDATE November 9, 2007: Well, that cool YouTube video I linked to below has been pulled. The good news is that I found an even cooler video of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald! (seriously, go watch this)

There’s a feature on Absolute Michigan today called The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald & more Michigan Shipwrecks that includes probably the coolest YouTube video I’ve seen. This Friday is the anniversary of the November 10, 1975 sinking of the Fitz. I can still remember the wind of that day tearing the roof off our barn.

There are also links to other shipwreck tales including the far more destructive Armistice Day Storm of November 11, 1940.

The Francisco Morazan (pictured right), is a freighter that ran aground during a December 1960 snowstorm. The wreck is a few hundred yards offshore from the south end of South Manitou Island and as it lies in just 15′ of water, it is the most accessible wreck in the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve. It’s a testament to just how hazardous the Manitou Passage was as a shipping lane that just a few hundred yards to the south of the Morazan is the wreck of the Walter L Frost, a wooden steamer that ran aground in 1905. The Frost is broken up because the Morazan literally ran over the wreck during the disaster of 1960. (Sleeping Bear Dunes NL scuba diving page). If you have Google Earth, you can go to this page and scroll down to fly to the wreck of the Morazan!

Photo credit: The Wreck of the Francisco Morazon off South Manitou Island by Paul Masck