Rating: 
Summary: A page-turner with good detail.
Review: Book's suggestion at end that official report of most probable cause of sinking ignores a very compelling alternative is the most disturbing part of this excellent book. Also, egregious mistakes detract: e.g., Egerton, Germershansen and Greer instead of Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier; Lorain C for Loran C.
Rating:
Summary: A page-turner with good detail.
Review: Gave you a good feel for what the last trip of the Fitzgerald was like. And for the people who sailed her. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of how storm systems affect the great lakes region. The author did work hard to include biography material on each crew member, but was careful not to over do these sections.I enjoyed the book immensely and intend to read other works by the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Good coverage of what is known and what might have happend.
Review: Gave you a good feel for what the last trip of the Fitzgerald was like. And for the people who sailed her. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of how storm systems affect the great lakes region. The author did work hard to include biography material on each crew member, but was careful not to over do these sections. I enjoyed the book immensely and intend to read other works by the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Very FASCINATING book!
Review: hARD TO PUT DOWN
Rating:
Summary: Facts, Figures and Creative License...?
Review: Hemming has written some excellent accounts of disasters on the Great Lakes (see "Ships Gone Missing"), and this book has some very good qualities.
The covering of the history of the Fitz, and that of her crew is well done, and the descriptions of the character bring them to life.
There are also interviews with surviving family members and those who came across the Fitz both before and during the final trip.
Hemming goes with what appears to be the main theory regarding the boat's sinking, that she took on more and more water and dove into a huge wave, unable to recover.
One of the problems I do have is the creative license Hemming takes in trying to recreate what happened on the Fitz, especially as the vessel sank. He did this as well in "Ships Gone Missing," but here I'm not sure if it was such a good idea.
To have people doing and saying certain things is impossible to know that they did anything like that. I can see where Hemming tried to place the men where he thought they'd be, but it's hard to say.
Some of it was a bit melodramatic, but for the most part this is a good book with many facts on the boat and what may have happened.
Frederick Stonehouse as also written a very good book on the Fitz, including testimony and reports from the Coast Guard and the Lake Carriers Association.
Rating:
Summary: You will re-live Nov 10, 1975
Review: I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the "Big Fitz." That ship or is it the song just simply has a way to draw your attention. To the 29 men on board. Rest in peace. You earned it.
Rating:
Summary: You will re-live Nov 10, 1975
Review: I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the "Big Fitz." That ship or is it the song just simply has a way to draw your attention. To the 29 men on board. Rest in peace. You earned it.
Rating:
Summary: Superior never gives up her dead...
Review: I've been fascinated with the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking for many years, partially because I've lived around the great lakes most of my life. This book answered many of the haunting questions about the ship and what happened to her. The examination of the incident by Hemming is excellent and his proposed explanation of the cause is far better than the Coast Guard's excuses. I highly recommend this book on several levels, especially for its writing and research. Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot for bringing this to our attention.
Rating:
Summary: Superior never gives up her dead...
Review: I've been fascinated with the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking for many years, partially because I've lived around the great lakes most of my life. This book answered many of the haunting questions about the ship and what happened to her. The examination of the incident by Hemming is excellent and his proposed explanation of the cause is far better than the Coast Guard's excuses. I highly recommend this book on several levels, especially for its writing and research. Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot for bringing this to our attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Please read the Author's Note
Review: The author started his book as a non-fictional work based on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. However, that isn't how it ended up. Although it seemed that he did an admirable job in describing where and what each crewman might have been doing at the time of the ship's loss, I don't believe it did any of their families a service. In my opinion, the families should be left in peace. It also wasn't a service to the reader of a non-fictional book. A reader new to Great Lakes shipping may have found some general information useful, however, beyond the fiction, there were factual inaccuracies. One of the most serious was the inclusion of the "larger than normal waves" theory, otherwise commonly referred to as "the Three Sisters". This theory assumed that several larger than average (if anything was average about the night of 10 November) struck the after section of the Fitz and pushed the bow beneath the waves, ultimately causing the ship to submarine. None of the other four ships in the Eastern section of Lake Superior that night noted this same wave action. Nor was the timing of the storm right for a type of wave action of this form - usually known in hurricane parlance as a "dome of water". Typically, such a "dome" comes ashore as the low pressure system associated with a hurricane makes landfall in the tropics. It was noted by several of the witnesses aboard the other vessels that the sky had cleared of the snow fall shortly after the RADAR return of the Fitz was lost, therefore, the low pressure system was already passing on it's way into Ontario at that time. I was on Whitefish Bay in July 1994, and it was hard to believe that the beautiful body of water I was on could do the damage as evidenced in the Coast Guard Marine Causalty Report.
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