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By Garret Ellison - Mlive

Nobody really knows what caused the Edmond Fitzgerald to sink, but that sure hasn't stopped people from trying to solve the mystery.

In the 40 years since the ship went down, a cottage industry of shipwreck theorists have tried in vain to solve the sinking of the Fitzgerald, which rests in two pieces in 530 feet of water on the lake bottom 17 miles north of Whitefish Bay.

Numerous authors have written books on the tragedy. The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board both issued official investigation reports that many dismiss in favor of a theory favored by the Lake Carriers Association.

Because all 29 men aboard the Fitzgerald went down with the ship — which was there one minute and gone the next — the best accounts that investigators could rely on were those of sailors in the vicinity of the ship during the storm, or who had contact with the Fitzgerald somehow in the weeks prior to her final voyage.

Some theories are nonsense relating to UFOs or a Great Lakes Bermuda Triangle in the area where the ship sank.

Others overlap in some ways. It's still not completely agreed upon whether the Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface or underwater.

The mystery is compounded by mud covering key parts of the wreck and a legal prohibition on further dives imposed by the Canadian government. What's obvious is that wind and waves played a big role in the sinking.

In 2006, a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration study recreated the storm in a computer and discovered that the Fitzgerald and its floating companion, the Arthur M. Anderson, inadvertently steamed into the heart of the storm by taking the northern route across Lake Superior to avoid what they thought would be treacherous waves along the established, more direct southern route.

In that sense, the Fitzgerald met her fate on the path she took to avoid it. But the Arthur M. Anderson survived and the Fitzgerald did not. So, what happened ?

Below is a breakdown of the main theories. Enjoy.

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By Jeff Hampton - The Virginian-Pilot

The oldest shipwreck ever found along the North Carolina coast could be a 28-gun British naval vessel.

While there is no way to prove it, evidence indicates the wreck discovered seven years ago in the Corolla surf could be the HMS John, which foundered off the coast in 1652.

The identity of the wreck has been a mystery since it washed up in 2008.

But now, after researching European shipbuilding techniques of the 1600s and wrecks near North Carolina for two years, maritime archaeologist Dan Brown thinks he's figured it out. Brown gave a report on his findings this week at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese.

The study is part of Brown's master's thesis from East Carolina University. "It was a pretty awesome sight," Brown, who works for the University of South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, said of the shipwreck.

"Somebody worked that piece of wood four centuries ago." Brown and a team of researchers studied the worn timbers and construction techniques, making note of every notch and hole. He studied centuries-old records kept by shipbuilding masters. He sought out beachcombers who collected artifacts from the wreck, such as coins and musket balls, questioning exactly where and how they were found.

When it first washed up, some experts thought the wreck might be the HMS Swift, a British ship about 70 feet long that ran aground off Point Comfort in the Chesapeake Bay in 1698. Currents might have carried the ship southward.

Its construction was similar to the Sea Venture, which wrecked off the Bahamas in 1609 on its way to Jamestown; they thought it could have been carrying supplies to the settlement.

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By Jim Schaefer - Detroit Free Press

The diver descended, slowly, the sun’s rays refracting as he dropped toward the floor of Lake Huron. The shimmering green-blue water turned navy as he swam down 50 feet, then 100. And finally, near 150, the diver saw a dark mass materializing in the murk.

A broad, flat expanse with two big black rectangles on it came into focus. He knew that expanse was a ship’s deck.

That those rectangles were cargo hatches. This was exactly what he had come to find, and there he was, swimming right down to it, the first person to see it, 102 years after it vanished. The Hydrus.

Since the Great Storm of 1913, the 436-foot steamship Hydrus had been lost. It sank, most likely on Nov. 9 of that year, during a storm so ferocious it has been called the “White Hurricane.”

The sky unleashed a blizzard over the Great Lakes, hitting Lake Huron hardest with wind gusts up to 90 m.p.h. and waves to 35 feet. The Great Storm, even today, is the worst recorded on the lakes. Not even the weather that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald, 40 years ago this week compares to the 1913 disaster.

There were a dozen major shipwrecks from Nov. 7 through 10, and eight of them were on Lake Huron. More than 250 people perished.

The Hydrus had been headed south toward the St. Clair River, iron ore in its belly. The ship lost everyone on board, a crew of 22, including five found frozen to death in a lifeboat that washed up in Canada.

Since that time, every ship believed to have gone down in U.S. waters in Lake Huron was discovered except the Hydrus.

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By Kate Hill - ABC.net.au

When a passenger ship foundered miles off the south-east coast of Kingston in 1840, the events that followed ensured the story of the Maria became one of the darkest and most controversial events in South Australian maritime history.

What is fact is that 26 passengers and crew boarded the Irish-built brigantine Maria under Captain William Smith and left Port Adelaide on June 26, 1840, bound for Hobart.

But neither they nor their ship would ever reach their destination.

The first inkling that events had gone awry was in newspaper reports in late July that "a massacre site" had been found along the Coorong coastline.

Reports began to circulate that Maria passengers and crew had been murdered by natives after abandoning their foundering ship.

A group of men set off from Adelaide to investigate, and brought back horrible stories of finding "legs, arms and parts of bodies partially covered with sand and strewn in all directions", and described a trail of native footprints leading from the scene.

The men brought back wedding rings, allegedly found on the slain bodies of two female passengers, and said they had found local natives in possession of blankets and tellingly, one wearing a sailor's jacket.

As wild rumours swirled and a horrified public demanded information and action, Governor George Gawler sent a team on horseback to investigate further, lead by Major Thomas O'Halloran.

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By Stephanie Webber - US Weekly

Buckle up…and never let go! A ride inspired by the famous 1912 Titanic shipwreck is set to launch at an amusement park in 2018.

Variety reports that Twentieth Century Fox is building the structure for a Dubai resort, and the studio is also developing attractions based on TV shows and films such as Sons of Anarchy, Planet of the Apes, and Aliens.

It will reportedly cost $850 million.

"This will build a tremendous amount of fan engagement with these brands," Jeffrey Godsick, president of Fox Consumer Products, said in a statement. "There are strong merchandising opportunities and it will allow us to connect with our audiences on an ongoing basis."

Some are already putting in their two cents. Critics specifically took to Twitter to talk about the new Titanic ride, and are still scratching their heads.

"How the hell will they make a 'Titanic' theme park ? What will be the rides ? A fluke ride of sliding down the tipped boat?" one commenter tweeted on Thursday, Nov. 5. A second added: "They do know lots of people died on the Titanic, don't they ?"

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From the Straits Times

Large boats from outside Malaysia carrying groups of divers are illegally scavenging for scrap metal from ships sunk during World War II near Pulau Tioman off Pahang, the New Straits Times (NST) daily reported yesterday.

The South China Sea area is a graveyard for more than 100 ships and submarines, including the historically important HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse that were sunk by the Japanese navy in 1941, the report said.

The two ships were deployed by the British to counter Japanese forces during World War II.

The salvage operators masqueraded as fishermen to avoid detection, NST quoted sources as saying, as they used GPS to locate these sunken ships.

Buoys are also used to mark working sites. The parts brought up included propellers, steel parts, high-grade aluminium and brass fixtures.

The boat operators are mostly from Vietnam and Thailand, the report said. They use thin rubber hoses connected to rusty air compressors on their boats to provide breathing air to their divers some 60m below the waters.

Explosives are first set to break up the ship's hull so that the parts can be brought up in smaller pieces.

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By Bess Browning - Kent Online

A man from Teynham has been arrested after historical artefacts were stolen from a sunken Royal Navy warship.

Police arrested two men following the reported theft of items from HMS Hermes which sits at the bottom of the English Channel.

On Monday, officers executed warrants at two addresses, one in Teynham and another in Rye in East Sussex, after an investigation in partnership with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Marine Management Organisations, the Receiver of the Wreck, Sussex Police, Historic England and the French authorities.

A 55-year-old man from Teynham was arrested on suspicion of theft and released on bail until February 22.

A 56-year-old man from East Sussex was arrested on suspicion of theft and fraud and was also released on bail until February 22.

Officers also seized a number of historical artefacts they believed to have been stolen from HMS Hermes and other underwater locations.

Full story...

By Garret Ellison - mlive

When it comes to Great Lakes shipwreck hunting, sometimes it's a matter of feast or famine.

In 2014, New York wreck sleuths Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski found four undiscovered shipwrecks in the waters of Lake Ontario.

This year, the duo found one — a propeller steamer named the Bay State, which foundered in a storm off Fair Haven, N.Y. in 1862.

Discovery of the ship, launched before the Civil War, was announced on Wednesday, Oct. 21. "We were getting pretty discouraged when something popped up on the depth finder," said Kennard. "About 15 seconds later, the side-scan sonar went over." "Finally, we found something."

The Bay State is the oldest propeller-driven steamship discovered in Lake Ontario. It sank en route to Ohio with a cargo of general merchandise after leaving Oswego, N.Y. late on Nov. 4, 1862.

There were no survivors. Kennard, who has been exploring shipwrecks since the 1970s, would only say the wreck is in several hundred feet of water about seve miles north of Fair Haven.

Vagueness helps guard the wreck from potential looting and inexperienced divers, he said.

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