The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, killing all 29 people on board. It’s a modern maritime tragedy that has reverberated for decades.
Remembering the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald: 50 years later
Once the largest ship on North America’s Great Lakes, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald tragically sank during a severe storm on Lake Superior in November 1975. This video explores the ship’s impressive history, details of its fateful final voyage and legendary shipwreck, and how in 2025 the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of maritime’s most unforgettable disasters.
Nearly 50 years ago, on November 10, 1975, the cargo ship Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a fierce storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 people on board. This modern-day maritime tragedy has been passed down in song and mystery for decades.
Hurricane-like storms that hit the Great Lakes in November are partly to blame for the ship’s sinking. However, such storms are not uncommon, and investigations have not determined exactly what caused the ship to sink.
The shipwreck was quickly made famous by Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which was released a year after the shipwreck.
On the morning of November 9, 1975, the ship, carrying a crew of 29 Americans, set sail from Superior, Wisconsin, with a cargo of taconite pellets bound for Zag Island in Detroit.
Shortly after 7 p.m. on November 10, 1975, amid high winds, 35-foot waves, and a blinding snowstorm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, sinking more than 500 feet to the bottom of Lake Superior in Canadian waters near Whitefish Bay, according to the Detroit Historical Society.
The wreck was found in two parts, with the bow in U.S. waters and the stern in Canadian waters.
The Edmund Fitzgerald is the largest ship to have been wrecked or sunk by bad weather on the Great Lakes. (Incredibly, about 30,000 people have died in 10,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes over the past 300 years, the Rev. William Fleming told The Detroit News in 2015.)
According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, “The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck stories heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed only by that of the Titanic in books, movies, and media.”
When did the Edmund Fitzgerald sink?
SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975.
Why did the Edmund Fitzgerald sink?
The storm caused a disaster, but the exact circumstances of what happened remain unclear.
Theories range from the Fitzgerald sustaining damage to its bottom when it hit shallow water, to water seeping through the cargo ship’s hatch covers and filling the ship with water and sinking, to rough seas, to structural defects in the ship caused by a deadly 1975 storm.
After the Fitzgerald sank in 1975, two major federal investigations were conducted: the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Investigation Board and the National Transportation Safety Board. Each determined that the likely cause was a defective hatch cover. The NTSB report said, “The probable cause of this accident is sudden, extensive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers.”
What was Edmund Fitzgerald carrying?
According to the Associated Press, the Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with approximately 26,000 tons of taconite pellets in Superior, Wisconsin, on November 9, 1975, before heading to Detroit. Pellets are an intermediate product of iron mining.
Who was Edmund Fitzgerald?
Launched in 1958, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes, designed to transport iron ore.
Who was Edmund Fitzgerald named after?
The ship was named after the president of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which owned the ship.
What is “November Witch”?
In the song, the disaster is partly blamed on the “November Witch,” the colloquial name for the cause of the most memorable and severe storms on the Great Lakes.
According to a Weatherwise article by meteorologist Steve Horstmeyer and geographer Mace Bentley, “No boat, no matter how big, is safe on the Great Lakes when the witch stirs the cauldron in anger.”
As the season moves toward winter, the polar jet stream begins to move south, potentially producing storms that bring howling winds and huge waves to the Great Lakes in November.
Bentley, now a professor at James Madison University, says this is the most dangerous time of year for transportation. About 40% of all Great Lakes shipwrecks occur in November.
“The crop must reach market in late fall, and the industry must receive enough raw materials to operate through the winter,” Horstmeyer and Bentley wrote in a Weatherwise article. As a result, shipping activity increases during the period when the weather is at its most unstable, before the lake freezes for the winter.
“The recurrence interval for storms of this size is estimated to be approximately every six years, which is a testament to the strength of fall storms that can impact the lake,” Bentley told USA TODAY.
What you need to know about the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald
Great Lakes storms can rival hurricanes in strength. The ship that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald withstood winds of 107 miles per hour, with gusts up to 86 miles per hour, and waves of up to 35 feet were reported by another boat in the area that survived the storm.
Fitzgerald was in the worst possible location during the storm’s worst weather. Winds and waves from the west pounded the cargo ship’s sides as it attempted to flee south to the safety of Whitefish Bay.
The ship sank in 530 feet of water approximately 27 miles off Whitefish Bay near the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
What happened in the 50 years since the sinking?
In the 50 years since, no Great Lakes shipwreck has been as deadly as the Edmund Fitzgerald. A similar voyage probably would not take place if today’s weather forecast was much better.
Several expeditions have been made to visit the wreck, beginning with a May 1976 U.S. Coast Guard expedition that located the wreck. Other expeditions by groups such as the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and the National Geographic Society used technology such as remote-controlled vehicles and atmospheric diving suits to survey the site, document damage and even recover the ship’s bell.
Diving into Edmund Fitzgerald is currently illegal without government permission. The Canadian government declared the area a sanctuary in 2006 at the request of the victims’ families.
The wreck site is protected by the Ontario Heritage Act, as amended to specifically protect it as a marine archaeological site and designated cemetery. According to the Detroit Historical Society, in 2006, to further protect the wreck site, the Canadian government amended the Ontario Heritage Act, extending the perimeter of the Edmund Fitzgerald to 500 meters and allowing for a $1 million (Canadian) fine for anyone diving without a permit.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” tells the story in song.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was a huge hit for Lightfoot, reaching number one on the RPM chart in her native Canada and number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
Lightfoot, who passed away in 2023, called the song his best work.
Contributor: Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press
