"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
Didn't they only recently discovered what acutally caused her to go
down? It guess they think that she had a couple hatches not secured and
gained water but that wouldn't have sunk her along. The documentry I
recently saw seemed to think it was bad luck of catching a wave on her
bow and stern at the same time while the middle of the ship was in a
"gully". In otherwords, the middle of the ship was out of water while
the front and back were lifted by giant waves. As a result, she snapped
in two from port to starboard right in the middle. Certainly the
increased weight in the middle due to the flooding hatches contributed
to the snap.

-Robert

They know she filled by the bow and ended up diving to the bottom. The
weight of the water in the bow (not amidships) and green water over the bow
combined to send her on a dive to the bottom. She hit bottom bow down with
enough speed on that she broke in half. She is only in 300 some feet of
water, the trip to the bottom took only seconds. What caused her to fill is
unknown. Two theories are lost hatches and hull failure. Both theories
have problems. Hitting a shoal has been disproved. Had she broken up on
the surface at least part would have stayed afloat for awhile, in actuality
it was all over in seconds.

Wasn't there another situation recently just outside Whitefish Bay?