
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994                   TAG: 9407060055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press NOTE: below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPLORERS CONCLUDE PROBE OF SUNKEN SHIP

ABOARD THE SUBMARINE CLELIA - The Edmund Fitzgerald's mangled carcass juts like a mountain from the flat, barren Lake Superior floor, rising as abruptly as the ship plunged to its death 19 years ago.

The stricken giant's two main sections lie 180 feet apart, tons of taconite ore pellets from the cargo hold strewn between them on the gray silt bottom. Jagged rips in the hull, twisted steel plates and the bow's crumpled nose bear witness to the catastrophic force of the shipwreck.

The windows of the pilot house are gone, blown away by the explosive rush of water. The crow's nest atop the bridge is surprisingly intact.

The boat's bell, engraved with the name of the legendary ship, dangles silently from its frame.

The scenes were visible from the miniature submarine Clelia on Tuesday as scientists and marine historians concluded a three-day mission to probe the mystery of the Fitzgerald's sinking Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 crew members died. No distress signal was sent.

The explorers, led by Canadian marine scientist Joe MacInnis, conducted the first extensive manned survey of the wreckage. Colleagues of Jacques Cousteau made brief dives in 1980, and unmanned robots have photographed the scene.

``We still can't say why the ship went down, but we've found things that have never been seen before,'' MacInnis said.

The explorers concluded that the Fitzgerald did not break up on the water's surface, as some have speculated.

Damage to the bow - more extensive than previously thought - shows the 729-foot long ship probably hurtled downward with missile-like speed. Propelled by its 7,500-horsepower engines and the weight of its 26,000-ton ore cargo, the vessel reached the bottom in seconds and was smashed to pieces, said Tom Farnquist, director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.

``The crew had no idea what happened, it was so sudden, so explosive,'' MacInnis said.

A team of marine engineers and ship architects will analyze the findings, Farnquist said.

The two most common theories are that the ship took on water as 30-foot waves crashed over its side and finally nose-dived under a monster wave; and that it hit a poorly charted shoal, tearing a gash in the hull hours before the sinking.

The search team conducted six dives over three days aboard Clelia, a 22-foot submarine supplied by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution of Fort Pierce, Fla.

by CNB