The Fateful Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Perhaps the most famous example of natural disasters at work is the mysterious sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of the wreck. Her ill-fated voyage of November 9, 1975 is still something of a mystery. Despite the passage of time, the story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald continues to fascinate the residents of the Great Lakes state and beyond. Without warning or a distress signal, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank some 17 miles from Whitefish Bay near Sault Ste. Marie. What happened on that fateful night to the ship and the entire 29-man crew?
Often nicknamed the "Titanic" of the Great Lakes, the ship not only captured headlines around the nation, but is still considered one of the greatest mysteries in Great Lake maritime history. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes at launch in 1958. With an $8.4 million price tag, it was also the most expensive freighter ever built. Named after the president and CEO of Northwestern Mutual, Edmund Fitzgerald's grandfather had been a captain on the Great Lakes alongside his five brothers. His father William had been president of a shipbuilding company, and Edmund himseld had helped establish the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. Christened by Mrs. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the steamer was launched at 729 ft—just one foot short of the maximum limit for shipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway—with a gross tonnage of 13,632. Her sister ship, SS Arthur B. Homer, was 13,390 in tonnage, and thus they became the two largest freighters on the Great Lakes. The Fitzgerald remained the largest vessel until 1971, when the SS Roger Blough emerged as the first 1000ft freighter. The "Fitz" set a number of Great Lakes shipping records, including being the first vessel to carry more than a million gross tons of ore through the Soo Locks (Stonehouse, 13). Like the Titanic, the Fitzgerald was supposedly unsinkable. The freighter was less than 20 years old, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, and had an experienced crew of 29 sailors. Before sinking, the Fitzgerald was one of the hardest-working vessels on the Great Lakes (Schumacher, 9).
On Saturday November 8, 1975 during the "November Gale," a storm began to brew over the Great Lakes region. The unpredictable weather patterns of the transition from fall to winter were well-known to sailers on the Great Lakes. The forecast was a typical November storm. On November 9, the freighter was loaded up for a typical voyage to Great Lakes Steel in Detroit. The Fitzgerald's usual route went from Superior, Wisconsin, to Toledo, Ohio. The freighter had made around 750 trips to this date. Loaded with approximately 26,000 tons of taconite pellets, Captain Ernest M. McSorley departed Superior, WI at about 2:30pm. Sailing with the SS Arthur M. Anderson under the command of Captain Bernie Cooper, the ships entered Lake Superior on November 10, with the Fitzgerald about 10-15 miles ahead. Aware of the deteriorating conditions, the captains agreed to take a northerly course where they would be protected by the Canadian shoreline. Conditions continued worsening, gale warnings were upgraded to strom warnings, and winds gusted up to 50mph. Both captains, having sailed through similar conditions, pushed on. As the ships navigated the Michipicoten and Caribou Islands, radio contact remained frequent between the vessels, with Captain McSorley seeking assistance after a brush with the shallow waters at Caribou Island. With seas so high that they interfered with radar reflection, the Anderson lost sight of the Fitzgerald at around 7:10pm.
Radio contact between the ships had confirmed the Fitzgerald was still afloat. The Anderson's first mate radioed the Fitz at 7:10pm to check in with them and make sure the crew were handling the storm. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum provides the full exchange between the freighters.
Clark asked about the ships problems from earlier: “Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?”
Captain McSorley responded: “We are holding our own.”
Clark signed off with promises to talk later. With the radar obscured and the pip disappearing, the radio communication had quelled fears. When the radar pip disappeared again at 7:15pm with no reappearance, the Anderson radioed again with no answer, and again at 7:22pm. Captain Cooper radioed other ships in the area asking about the whereabouts of the Fitzgerald, with no news. Eventually, Captain Cooper called the Soo Coast Guard twice. At 8:00pm, he firmly expressed concern, and the Coast Guard began its search.
The wreck of: SS Edmund Fitzgerald, November 10, 1975
The initial search for survivors was carried out by SS Arthur M. Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Toronto-registered SS Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. Several attempts were made to find the hull of the sunken freighter. After its disappearance, one lifeboat and one portion of another were recovered off of Coppermine Point. The No.1 lifeboat retained only its front 16 feet; the No.2 lifeboat was wholly recovered but very badly damaged. The shipwreck itself wasn’t found for a week. Over the following week, sonar detected two large objects in the area where the Fitzgerald was lost. A U.S. navy Lockheed P-3 Orion, equipped with magnetic anomalies, located the wreck on November 14, 1975. The mangled wreckage was located some 530 feet (162 meters) below the lake’s surface, 17 statute miles (27 km) from Whitefish Bay, in Canadian waters. The next year, the navy divers found the wreck of the freighter in two pieces; the bow stood upright in the mud while the stern lay capsized.
In May 1976, the wreck was definitively discovered when a submersible robot both videotaped and photographed the bow and stern, which bore the freighter’s name. The U.S. Coastguard released its official report on the Fitzgerald's sinking in April 1977. The report maintained that even though the exact cause for the sinking could not be conclusively determined, it was most likely due to a loss of buoyancy and flooding of the cargo hold. Many hotly disputed the Coast Guard's report, which has only added to the mystery of the wreckage. Without survivors, there is no definitive answer as to why the freighter sank the way it did. Its resting place prevents lengthy explorative dives. After one body was found by Great Lakes explorer Fred Shannon, family members of the 29 missing crew members campaigned to have the wreckage declared a gravesite and closed to diving. The sinking itself led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.
In 1995, Fitzgerald family members finally got their closure when the ship's bell was recovered—but not before a lengthy court battle with Fred Shannon, who believed disturbing the site was a desecration of a gravesite. Family members wished to cut the ship's bell out and replace it with a replica bell, inscribed with the names of the lost crewmen to bring closure to the story. Tom Farnquist—the co-founder of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society—had been approached by the family members to house the bell in the museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan. Shannon and Farnquist went head-to-head over the issue in Lansing, Michigan; eventually, Shannon lost out in not being able to convince the judge that removing the bell wasn't the best course of action.
The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed in books, film and media only by that of the Titanic. Gordon Lightfoot made the freighter the subject of his 1976 hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” You can watch the interview of Gordon Lightfoot here.
