Project Wreck Exploration: SS Edmund Fitzgerald
What is Project Wreck Exploration?
PWE is one of my "small" side projects I made when I felt burned out after building my bigger, primary projects. It aims to recreate some of history's most famous shipwrecks, packed with a nice decorative research vessel the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, and a Mir deep sea submersible for you to control.
The Wrecks are accurately recreated and are 1:1 size, some of them are even in a realistic depth (only the ones that lie in a depth of less than 300 meters)
In memory of the 29 souls who were lost aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald on the 10th of November, 1975. May they all rest in peace, and may never such event happen again.
WARNING!
To use this build, you have to create a custom water spawn, far from any of the vanilla islands:
This build has a massive 550 m x 650 m size base platform which would cause it to explode if you tried to spawn at the default water spawn.
History
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a 222 meters long ore freighter operating on the Great Lakes. She was built in 1957-58 and was operated by the Columbia Transportation Division. In November of 1975, while en route to Zug Island near Detroit, Michigan, she encountered a massive storm that ended up sinking her, taking the lives of all 29 crew members on board. The exact cause of her sinking is debated to this day. The tragedy of Edmund Fitzgerald is one of the most well known shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, partially because of Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Today the vessel lies in two pieces at a depth of about 160 meters.
Now about my build
Base Platform Size: 550 m x 650 m
Actual Part Count: 688
Depth: 160 meters
This builds features an accurate, 1:1 replica of the Edmund Fitzgerald's wreck and the debris field around it. It also features the replica of the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, a Russian research vessel that was used for multiple deep sea wreck explorations such as the explration of the Titanic and the Bismarck (yes, I know theoretically she probably shouldn't be sailing on the Great Lakes but I was lazy to build a whole new research ship). The third vehicle of the build is a Mir submersible. Two of these submerisbles exist, the Mir-1 and Mir-2, both of them operate from the Keldysh in real life.
You can control the Mir sub to move around while the rest of the build is all stationary.
The wreck is located roughly below the Keldysh and almost next to the starting point of the submersible.
Controls:
- Pitch - Sub ascend-descend
- Roll - Sub yaw
- Throttle - Sub forward propulsion
- Thorttle + AG6 - Sub reverse propulsion (reverts the propulsion of Throttle. If you had 70% propulsion before activating AG6, after activating it, the propeller will produce -70% propulsion)
- AG7 - Lights
Gallery:
As always, I hope you like this build!
Specifications
General Characteristics
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 1804.5ft (550.0m)
- Length 2132.5ft (650.0m)
- Height 653.4ft (199.2m)
- Empty Weight 6,443lbs (2,922kg)
- Loaded Weight 6,443lbs (2,922kg)
Performance
- Wing Loading 13.0lbs/ft2 (63.3kg/m2)
- Wing Area 496.8ft2 (46.2m2)
- Drag Points 0
Parts
- Number of Parts 116
- Control Surfaces 0
- Performance Cost 1,779
Fun fact, the singer who made this all the more of a well Known event; Gordon Lightfoot, passed away. When he died the Maritime cathedral played the bell an extra time to count to 30 and thus adding him as a crew to the ship.
@Default4 jeez sorry I did that from memory. No room for hate here! Long live the fitz
@Stargazerreadytofly6371 if youre gonna sing a song about people dying, at least get the lyrics right
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya"
At 7 PM, a main hatchway caved in, he said
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
I live extremely close to the wreck. I was so pissed at first, I thought you made it blue.
@BMilan I have not replied to you in a while if you could update it I tested one of your newer ships and it was fine
@BMilan okay then, still nice though 👌
@YarisSedan I'm not really interested in making that and I have a ton of other projects I want to work on anyways, sorry
@kaidenmcateer I just tested it on my computer and I didn't experience any such glitch (I don't have VR so I can't test it in VR but I asked someone to test it back when before it was uploaded and they didn't have any problem with it either) so sorry, I can't help
@BMilan I thought it would get your attention better when you turn the wheel it glitches and resets after a tiny bit of turning
@kaidenmcateer what is the problem with it? (and why are you making this comment here instead of making it on the Olympic's post?)
Can you fix the Olympic steering in VR
@BMilan hey, can you make a functional version of this?
@BMilan always happy to share an interesting fact :)
@spectre118 Interesting, I have never heard about that one before, thanks for the info!
@Zanedavid I'm glad you like it:)
@rondavison You need either the underwater camera mod or the ocean mod to be able to see underwater and use this build.
@BMilan the Russian monitor rusalka is also like that
Thorttle
I’m sorry, could you explain how to get this to spawn correctly? I can’t see anything as the camera is stuck on the surface.
Been on hiatus from simpleplanes for a minute, as someone who grew up on Lake Superior I HAD to log in to comment and upvote. Thank you for showing this community a important piece of nautical history.
@Boeing727200F Okay, I'll add her to my list, sounds like an interesting project:)
@BMilan oooo that will be fun
@Boeing727200F ah yes, that was the HMS Victoria (1887), an ironclad battleship. Would you like to see her as a wreck exploration build?
I recall there was a shipwreck that (most likely a battleship) was standing streight up on her bow.
don't remember the name of the ship though