FSX Great Lakes Freighter Edmund Fitzgerald

Great Lakes Freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. Very detailed exterior model, with VC, and a few extras. By Gary Shetter III.

[HISTORY]

On February 1, 1957, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, entered into a contract with Great Lakes Engineering works for the construction of the first "maximum sized" Laker ever built. The builder laid the keel of Hull 301 at its yard at Ecorse, Michigan, on August 7, 1957, and the vessel was launched on June 7, 1958. On September 22, 1958, EDMUND FITZGERALD was delivered to her owner. She was operated for her entire career under charter to the Columbia Transportation Division, Oglebay Norton Company, Cleveland. EDMUND FITZGERALD made a name for herself by setting a number of cargo records over the years. She was an extremely handsome boat and was well known to both casual and serious shipwatchers, notably as a result of the antics of her longtime master, Capt. Peter Pulcer, who did his best to entertain anyone who might be watching his vessel.

[DETAILS]

The details are not perfect. In my research I could not find any photos of the Fitzgerald’s bridge. I had to use other lake freighters as a reference. Also I had to stay within the constraints of FSX.I have put in approximately 150 hours into creating a very detailed model for all to enjoy. The exterior model contains 392 parts, 29,375 vertices, and 22,470 polygons. the interior model contains 152 parts, 17,194 vertices, and 2,125 polygons. I tested it in FSX with acceleration and it is a very smooth, very realistic operating model. Built with FSDZS 3.5, FStweak, Corel paintshop pro, and dtxbmp.

[EXTRAS]

I have also included two airports in lake superior. They place you dockside at a loading platform in the water. The first is at the west end of the lake. Airport name is DOC1. When you leave the dock sail straight ahead, past the airport, and turn by the lighthouse to head into the lake. The second is near the east end of the lake. Airport name is DOC2.When you leave this dock you can head north into the lake, or south through the great lakes. I have also included some static ships for extra scenery; sorry I do not know how to make them move at this time.

INSTALLATION]

Installation is very simple. Just extract all the files to your FSX director. If you want the airports extract them to your addon scenery folder. that’s all. Happy sailing.

[NOTES]

The steam horn is linked to the landing gear. To get the addon scenery to show up properly, after you install everything, go into the settings on the main screen of fsx. open the scenery library tab. Move your addon scenery from number six up to number two. This will allow the extras to show up with lower graphics settings.