35 years ago the carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sank in one of the worst storms recorded on Lake Superior. Now, a device will be tested that would warn ships about rogue waves. Mike Simonson reports.

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank just 15 miles from the safety of Whitefish Bay in eastern Lake Superior. There were no distress calls, no witnesses and no survivors of the Fitzgerald’s 29 member crew. Dudley Paquette captained the laker Wilfred Sykes that same night and even spoke with the Edmund Fitzgerald just hours before she sank. From a 1995 interview, Paquette says that was the worst storm he’d even seen on the Great Lakes.

“We were really out in the middle of the lake, just huge seas, 30-35 foot seas. I was registering 70 knots steady with gusts up to 100, just huge seas. The water was flying right over the top of my bridge.”

Although the cause remains a mystery, some mariners blame rogue waves for its sudden sinking.

Now, Wisconsin Sea Grant scientists are working on a model in the Apostle Islands that can spot rogue waves. Coastal Engineering Specialist Gene Clark says these freak waves are exceptionally steep and three to four times the size of the other waves.

“They can often come at a different direction as the main swells so the ship’s captain may steer his vessel into the main train of waves and so this extra large rogue wave comes from the side and can easily capsize it.”

Clark says the wave information would be both online and used in the National Weather Service’s marine forecast for boaters.

“It certainly could help mariners and indeed would help ships maybe not as large as the Edmund Fitzgerald but certainly commercial fisherman or recreational fishermen going out amongst the islands.”

A wave detection system is already up and running around the Apostle Islands sea caves off Meyer’s Beach. That system is designed to let kayakers know the lake conditions at the sea caves, about a mile from the beach.

This new project covering the entire 22 island Apostle archipelago will begin next year and be complete in two years.

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