Was the Edmund Fitzgerald unlucky from the start?

[Dan Kappes]

She seems to have had a very bad launching.

First, the bottle of champagne took three times to break against her.

Second, she went down the ways too fast and knocked into the pier, creating a huge wave.

Third, because of the chaos caused by this, a spectator watching the launch suffered a fatal heart attack and died!

And I remember someone died during the launching of the Titanic also.

I'm surprised the ship stayed in operation for about two decades instead of sinking on her maiden voyage like the Titanic did!

I also think that the Edmund Fitzgerald was the first major shipwreck to be discovered to have broken in two while sinking, which was the state the Titanic was found to be in when she was found a decade after the Fitzgerald sank.

Do you believe in bad luck and premonitions of disaster?

But bad luck and disaster don't always happen; the Great Eastern despite a few accidents in her career had a long eventful life. But she got stuck on the ways during her launch at the beginning, so it probably didn't seem like good luck at the time.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Do you believe in bad luck and premonitions of disaster?

Simply put: No, I don't. In the first, a lot of ships can and do have a tough start after which they go on to have largely uneventful and thoroughly unremarkable careers. Such was the case with the Fitz.

Premonitions?

Everybody has them over everything in sight and something like 99.99999999999% of the time, nothing happens.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

That much said, I do believe in human capriciousness, as well as negligence, carelessness and stupidity, but then all of that can be shown.

 

[Ada]

I would not put much weight behind premonitions, but then again I'm not a sailor.

And slight correction: Nobody died during the Titanic's launch. There was a person who was killed earlier that day, but not during the actual launching.