At 7:10 PM Captain Cooper asked Captain McSorley how the ship was doing. The ship was essentially blind from the loss of radar. As the Anderson easily moved toward safety the Fitz stumbling along. Just an hour after they first reported taking on water, the Fitzgerald’s radar failed. Some of the biggest gusts ever reported on Lake Superior were recorded that night.Īs the storm grew, the Captains made the decision to seek shelter in Whitefish Bay in Michigan until they could continue on safely. It would come to have sustained winds of 58 MPH with gusts up to 86 MPH. He made the decision to slow the Fitzgerald down to allow the Anderson to close the gap between the two so the ships. Cooper of the Anderson that the Fitz had started to take on water. The Growing ThreatĪround 3:30 PM, Captain McSorley alerted Captain Jesse B. However, the two ships continued to have radio contact. The Fitz had pulled ahead of the Anderson by several miles. Instead of passing by, the storm grew.īy mid-afternoon on November 10th, the combination of the high winds and waves and heavy snowfall caused the Anderson to lose sight of the Fitz. But, Lake Superior decided to prove just how unpredictable she could be that day. It would have been a good plan if the storm that done had done as predicted. Doing so would help them avoid most of the storm, which was expected to hit further south. Anderson decided to be safe and altered their course to use the Ontario shoreline. Still, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and the SS Arthur M. She was built to handle the elements and the forecast had predicted the storm to pass by 7 AM. They knew Fitz could withstand the storm. McSorley at the helm and a knowledgeable crew on board, the ship sailed on. The Storm of the DecadeĮarly the next morning, Lake Superior was starting to show her fury. Anderson around 5PM that evening, just as the storm started passing by. It was to be her last voyage of the season. Despite the crew knowing of an impending storm system due to hit Lake Superior in the next couple of days, she sailed on. So, when the SS Edmund Fitzgerald left port on November 9th, 1975, she did so with little hesitation. So much so, there hadn’t been a shipwreck on Lake Superior since 1953 when two freighters collided in heavy fog near Thunder Bay, Ontario. However, by the time the SS Edmund Fitzgerald set sail, improved ship designs, modern radar navigation, reliable weather forecasting, and steady communication on the Great Lakes greatly reduced the number of shipwrecks. The gales are said to “test the hulls of ships and the souls of men”. Both storms happened in November during weather systems referred to as “ The Gales of November“. The Mataafa Storm of 1905 and The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 each sank 11 vessels in a single day. Especially, for the storms that could suddenly erupt around them. In the early years of the shipping industry, sailors learned a deep respect for the Great Lakes. Duluth was her home as she sailed between the Twin Ports and other port towns, primarily Detroit. They just wanted to catch a glimpse of the “giant” ship. The Fitz was a spectacle! Visitors would often flock to the Duluth Harbor to see her coming and going. To the people of the Great Lakes, she was a symbol that all was once again right with the industry. Her existence was a sign of post-Great Depression progress for the iron ore shipping industry. She became known as the “Pride of the American Side”. Measuring in at 729 feet long, “The Fitz” was the largest ship to sail the Great Lakes at that time. This was the day she made her inaugural trip on the Great Lakes. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald made history on June 7th, 1958. To understand the importance of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald to Great Lakes history, we need to go back another 17 years. The loss of the ship was tragic to Great Lake Shipping in more ways than one. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald is a doomed Great Lakes freighter that sank to the bottom of Lake Superior on November 10th, 1975 with all 29 men on board. The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead, when the skies of November turn gloomy.” These are the poignant opening lyrics to Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit song “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, of a big lake they call Gitche Gumee.
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