Fifty Years Since The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Fifty years ago today the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975.  Launched in 1958, the freighter was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and she remains the largest ship to have sunk on the Lakes.  For 17 years she transported taconite iron ore from Duluth to various ports on the Great Lakes.

The Fitzgerald left Superior on November 9, 1975 bound for a steel mill near Detroit.  She and a companion ship, SS Arthur Anderson, were caught the next day on Lake Superior in a very severe storm with near hurricane conditions.  The Fitzgerald suddenly sank in 530 feet of water at 7:10 PM, 15 miles from the safety of Whitefish Bay.  All 29 members of the crew perished, none of their bodies ever recovered.

The reason for the sinking remains unclear, although I lean towards the theory that some of the cargo hatches were not securely fastened, and that water leaking into the holds imperceptibly led to the sinking once the tipping point was reached.