Great Lakes freighter Michipicoten came very close to Edmund Fizgeralding (we can use that as a verb right?) after the crew heard a lould bang, and the ship started taking on water.
Maybe she was taking water at loading port and not noticed. Maybe she was loaded badly with excess hog or sag. No 4 ballast tank (crack location ) is the boom tank so it adds to stresses over long periods. Sometimes incidents that are small are not reported to USA ports and prefer to deal with them in Canada. Vessels with certain age are prone to cracks but noise ,a heavy loud noise coming from a crack , to be heard by the crew ( with engines running)are a reality as much as it was real the underwater object the vessel hit . Is there something else that we do not know and hopefully will be found.. There are log books (bridge and engine room) ballast log books and other documents which if kept as the incident was emerging will reveal the facts. Thank God the crew is safe.
