10 November 1975 · Lake Superior

The Wreck of SS Edmund Fitzgerald

The largest ship on the Great Lakes vanished in a November storm — no distress call was ever sent

The Ship

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest vessel on the Great Lakes when she was launched in 1958. At 729 feet long and 13,632 gross tonnes, she was a bulk carrier built to haul iron ore (taconite pellets) from the mines of Minnesota to the steel mills of Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. She was the pride of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, who owned her and named her after their president.

For 17 years, the "Fitz" was a familiar sight on the Lakes, frequently breaking cargo records. She was beloved by ship-watchers — sometimes called the "Titanic of the Great Lakes" even before her loss, simply for her size and elegance.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald underway on the Great Lakes
SS Edmund Fitzgerald underway on the Great Lakes. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
729 ft Length
26,116 Tonnes of cargo
29 Crew lost
530 ft Depth of wreck

The Final Voyage

On 9 November 1975, Edmund Fitzgerald departed Superior, Wisconsin, loaded with 26,116 tonnes of taconite pellets bound for a steel mill near Detroit. She sailed in loose convoy with another freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson, captained by Jesse "Bernie" Cooper. A November gale was forecast, but Great Lakes captains routinely sailed through such weather.

Captain Ernest McSorley, aged 63, was making what many expected to be one of his final voyages before retirement. He was an experienced master with decades on the Lakes.

9 November, afternoon

Fitzgerald and Anderson depart Superior and head east across Lake Superior. The storm intensifies overnight, with winds shifting from south-west to north-west.

10 November, ~14:45

McSorley radios Anderson: "I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list." The ship has taken damage, possibly from waves or from shoaling on Six Fathom Shoal north of Caribou Island. She has developed a noticeable lean.

~15:30

McSorley reports both radar units are out and asks Anderson to track him and provide navigational guidance. The Fitzgerald is now blind in heavy snow squalls.

~16:10

McSorley reports that his ship's pumps are running — she is taking on water. Despite this, he does not request assistance or divert.

19:10

Anderson contacts Fitzgerald to warn of a vessel ahead. McSorley's final transmission: "We are holding our own."

~19:15

Edmund Fitzgerald disappears from Anderson's radar. No distress call. No Mayday. The ship and all 29 crew simply vanish.

"We are holding our own." Captain McSorley's last words, spoken to the Anderson at 19:10, have become one of the most haunting phrases in maritime history. Ten minutes later, the largest ship on the Great Lakes was gone.

The Search

The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search that night, hampered by the continuing storm. Wreckage — lifeboats, life rafts, and flotsam — was found the following day, but no survivors and no bodies. The wreck was located on 14 November by a Navy aircraft using sonar, resting in 530 feet of water roughly 17 miles north-west of Whitefish Point.

The ship had broken in two. The bow section lay upright on the bottom; the stern section lay inverted nearby, having apparently rolled over as it sank. The two halves overlapped slightly, with debris scattered between them.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1971
SS Edmund Fitzgerald photographed in 1971, four years before her loss. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Theories

The cause of the sinking has been debated for half a century. Three main theories persist:

Hatch failure and flooding. The U.S. Coast Guard's official report concluded that the cargo hatch covers were not properly secured, allowing massive amounts of water to flood the cargo hold. As the hold filled, the ship lost buoyancy and dove beneath the waves.

Shoaling on Six Fathom Shoal. The Lake Carriers' Association argued that the Fitzgerald struck bottom on Six Fathom Shoal north of Caribou Island, damaging her hull and causing progressive flooding. McSorley's report of a fence rail down and a list supports this theory.

Structural failure in heavy seas. Some investigators believe the ship simply broke apart in the massive waves — estimated at 25 to 35 feet — hogging and sagging until the hull fractured. Great Lakes freighters of her era were built with less structural redundancy than ocean-going vessels.

The most likely explanation may be a combination: damage from shoaling or heavy seas caused progressive flooding, which worsened until the ship dove bow-first into a wave and never came back up. It probably happened in under a minute.

The Song

In 1976, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot released "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," a six-and-a-half-minute ballad that became an unlikely hit, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The song kept the disaster in public memory far more effectively than any official report and is still played annually on 10 November at memorial services around the Great Lakes.

Lightfoot later acknowledged some factual inaccuracies in the song (the church bell rang 29 times, not "twenty-nine times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald" — there were actually no church bells rung at all) and revised the lyrics slightly over the years.

Further Reading