Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitchigumi. Lake Superior claimed the Edmund Fitzgerald on the frigid evening of November 10, 1975. En route from Superior, WI to Detroit, MI with a full load of iron ore, she was caught in a storm with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet. Captain Ernest McSorley radioed the nearby freighter Arthur M. Anderson throughout the evening as conditions worsened. His last transmission, at 7:10 PM, was “We are holding our own.” Ten minutes later the Fitzgerald vanished from radar. She sank 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point with all 29 crew. No distress call was ever sent.

Gordon Lightfoot penned the famous Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1976 after reading an article about the Fitzgerald and other Great Lakes tragedies.