The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a Great Lakes freighter launched in 1958 and, at the time, the largest ship on North America’s inland waters. Operated by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and captained by Ernest M. McSorley, the Fitzgerald hauled iron ore pellets between Superior, Wisconsin, and steel mills around the Great Lakes. Known for her size, speed and record-breaking hauls, she was considered a proud symbol of modern Great Lakes shipping and often drew crowds at ports along her route.
On November 10, 1975, the Fitzgerald sank suddenly during a severe storm on Lake Superior while en route to Detroit with a cargo of taconite pellets. Battling near-hurricane-force winds and waves over 25 feet high, the ship lost radar contact with a nearby vessel, the Arthur M. Anderson, and disappeared from sight around 7:10 p.m. All 29 crew members perished; no bodies were ever recovered. The exact cause remains unknown, though theories include structural failure, topside damage or cargo shift. The tragedy became one of the most famous shipwrecks in Great Lakes history, memorialized in Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Read more about the mystery of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in The Gales of November.
Or if you're feeling inspired by the music of Gordon Lightfoot, check out his album Gordon Lightfoot at Royal Albert Hall.
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