Trevor Collins

Was it human failure?

Was it hubris?

Was it other things?

Like there's a lot of other moving parts that the weather essentially might have exacerbated.

But to paint a very vivid and ominous picture of that evening, in his report about the incident, this is what Captain Cooper wrote.

Quote, at this time, I became very concerned about the Fitzgerald.

Couldn't see his lights when we should have.

I then called the William Clay Ford to ask him if my phone was putting out a good signal, and also perhaps if the Fitzgerald had rounded the point and was in shelter.

After a negative report, I called the Sioux Coast Guard because I was sure something had happened to the Fitzgerald.

The Coast Guard were at this time trying to locate a 16-foot boat that was overdue."

So essentially, he calls in the Coast Guard right away, which is a great move.

He's checking his signal to make sure he could be read by the Fitzgerald and not that it was a failure of the phone.

He also noted that the Coast Guard themselves was also scrambled because a 16-foot boat was due at a dock somewhere and never showed up.

And so whatever was going on in the storm that night, there were likely... Multiple casualties?

Yeah, other shipwrecks.

Making the right moves, though, all things considered.

Especially when you consider the weather, you know, they can't scramble a chopper to come look from the skies because the wind is just so brutal.

Those things would go down pretty quick.

Now, it's unclear ultimately when he might have called the Coast Guard, but he did call them again, we know, at 8 p.m.

So there wasn't like a 38-minute delay between his reaction and calling the Coast Guard, but it seems like his report was somewhat timely.