Hearing about the mysterious sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one of my first memories of midwestern history. My Dad is a bit of a maritime history buff, and I remember him playing Gordon Lightfoot's song, and talking about the great ship that sank that fateful November day.
The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains one of the most mysterious and controversial shipwrecks of all time. The tragedy, mystery and many "what ifs" of the sinking, make it second only to the Titanic in the world of maritime disasters.
For those unacquainted with the great ship, The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was a business venture of Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company of Milwaukee Wisconsin. They contracted a "maximum sized" Great Lakes Bulk carrier. Her keel was laid on August 7, 1957 as Hull #301. After being launched in June of 1958, she would rule the Great Lakes as the largest vessel to sail them for 13 years. It was not until 1971 that her size of 729 feet and 13,632 gross tons, would be surpassed.
Her final voyage, and the one that would secure her place in maritime legend, began on November 9, 1975. For this fateful voyage, she was captained by Ernest McSorely and had a crew of 29 men. She was loaded with 26,116 tons of taconite pellets, and set out from Superior Wisconsin at 2:30 pm. She would be joined by another ship, The Arthur M
Anderson, which had departed Two Harbors Minnesota. The Fitzgerald was faster and therefore took the lead, but the two ships remained in radio contact. Both captains were aware of a November storm blowing onto the Great Lakes from the Great Plains to the west. With this information, the two captains decided to take the more northern route across Lake Superior, hoping that this route would offer protection from the highlands in Canada.
Weather conditions continued to deteriorate, and by the morning of November 10th, the gale warnings had been upgraded to storm warnings. Winds were gusting up to 50 miles an hour, with seas of 12 to 16 feet, yet both captains had sailed their ships in similar weather before, and felt confident of their abilities. Early in the afternoon of November 10th, Captain Cooper, of the Anderson, maintained that he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. On the radar, he and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. Shortly after, at approximately 3:30 pm, Captain McSorely (of the Fitzgerald) radioed Captain Cooper and said "Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I'm checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?" McSorely was checking down his speed to allow the Anderson to close the distance for safety. Captain Cooper asked McSorely if he had his pumps going, and McSorely said "Yes, both of them."
According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55 pm, he and the men in the Anderson’s pilothouse felt a “bump”, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. The wave worked its way along the deck, crashing on the back of the pilothouse, driving the bow of the Anderson down into the sea.
“Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water – barrooff – just like a big dog. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent him under.”
Morgan Clark, first mate of the Anderson, kept watching the Fitzgerald on the radar set to calculate her distance from some other vessels near Whitefish Point. He kept losing sight of the Fitzgerald on the radar from sea return, meaning that seas were so high they interfered with the radar reflection. First mate Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10 pm:
“Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Have you checked down?” “Yes, we have.” “Fitzgerald, we are about 10 miles behind you, and gaining about 1 1/2 miles per hour. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. So the target would be 9 miles on ahead of you.” “Well,” answered Captain McSorely, “Am I going to clear?” “Yes, he is going to pass to the west of you.” “Well, fine.” “By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?” asked Clark. “We are holding our own.” “Okay, fine, I’ll be talking to you later.” Clark signed off. The radar signal, or “pip” of the Fitzgerald kept getting obscured by sea return. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. Clark called the Fitzgerald again at about 7:22 pm. There was no answer.
In the days that followed, the Coast Guard conducted an extensive and thorough search. Although pieces of the wreckage would be found, there were no signs of the Fitzgerald's 29
man crew. It would not be until the following May, that photographs would be taken of the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. On May 20, 1976, the words “Edmund Fitzgerald” were clearly seen on the stern, upside down, 535 feet below the surface of the lake.
Official reports conflict with each other about what caused the great ship to go down. Captain Cooper maintained that McSorely knew that his ship was in grave danger after passing over the shoals. The official report said that the sinking was caused by improper closing of hatches. Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. GLSHS’ three expeditions to the wreck revealed that it is likely she “submarined” bow first into an enormous sea, as damage forward is indicative of a powerful, quick force to the superstructure. But what caused the ship to take on water, enough to lose buoyancy and dive to the bottom so quickly, without a single cry for help, cannot be determined.
Twenty-nine men were lost when the Fitzgerald went down. There is absolutely no conclusive evidence to determine the cause of the sinking. The bell of the ship is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew.
For more information on this great ship and her fateful demise, please visit the website for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at shipwreckmuseum.com/edmundfitzgerald. You can also use their website to plan your visit to the museum.
Each year, on November 11, they ring the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald 29 times, to remember her lost crew. I have never been there for the ringing of the bell, but I have been told by people who have that it is one of the most moving, and haunting experiences that they have ever had. Some day, I will be there on a cold November night, to remember the Edmund Fitzgerald.
For a truly haunting telling of this tale, listen to the song by Gordon Lightfoot that forever immortalized the great ship. Link below.
*Note: I took my information from the Edmund Fitzgerald History on the website of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, and full credit is given
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