ist. Im checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish? (www.shipwreckmusium.com)McSorley was checking down his speed to the Anderson to close the distance for safety.Captain Cooper asked McSorley if he had his pumps going, and McSorley responded,yes, both of them. As the afternoon wore on no extraordinary reports were radioed to the Anderson. At about 5:20pm the crest of a wave smashed the Andersons starboard lifeboat, making it unusable. Captain Cooper reported winds from the NW x W (305) at a steady 58 knots with gusts to 70 knots, and seas of 18 to 25 feet.According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55pm, he and the men in the Andersons pilothouse felt a bump, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. The wave worked its way along the deck, crashing on the back of the pilothouse, driving the bow of the Anderson down into the sea. then the Anderson just raised up and shook itself off of all that water, just like a big dog. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent him under. (www.shipwreckmusium.com/fateful.html)Luck was not with the ship or the crew. The radar system and its backup failed. The storm took out the power to Whitefish Points light and radio beacon. Though the light was brought back on line, the radio beacon was not. (www.nauticalworks.com/fitz/)Morgan Clark, first mate of the Anderson, kept watching the Fitzgerald on the radar set to calculate its distance from come other vessels near Whitefish Point. The seas were so high, he kept losing sight of the Fitzgerald on the radar due to sea return, the seas were interfering with the radar reflection. Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10pm: *Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Have you checked down? *Y...
