AH-WR-0008

SS Edmund Fitzgerald

Great Lakes Bulk Freighter · United States · Lost 1975 · Isle Royale & Lake Superior

Immortalised in song, the ore carrier vanished with all twenty-nine hands in a November gale on Lake Superior in 1975.

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Documented Likeness. Drawn from surviving builder's plans or clear photographs of this vessel. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

She was the largest ship on the lakes when she was launched and she was still one of the best known seventeen years later. On 10 November 1975 she was carrying twenty-six thousand tons of taconite east through a storm that would be measured in the record books, in radio contact with a vessel behind her, and then she was not there. No distress call was made. Twenty-nine people were lost, seventeen miles short of shelter. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded she lost buoyancy through flooding past ineffective hatch closures; naval architects still argue the point. Her bell was raised in 1995 and stands at Whitefish Point, and a replacement bell was left in its place on the lake floor.

Timeline

8 August 1957
Keel laid at Great Lakes Engineering Works
8 June 1958
Launched and christened
The largest vessel on the Great Lakes at the time.
24 September 1958
First voyage
9 November 1975
Departs Superior, Wisconsin, loaded with taconite
10 November 1975
Sank in eastern Lake Superior
All twenty-nine aboard were lost. No distress call was made.
November 1975
Wreck located by United States Navy sonar
1995
Ship's bell recovered
Displayed at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum; a replacement bell was left on the wreck.

Vessel

Built: 1958
Registry: US 277437; Hull 301
Builder: Great Lakes Engineering Works
Yard: River Rouge, Michigan
Material: Steel
Length: 729 ft
Beam: 75 ft
Tonnage: Empty weight 13,632 tons
Propulsion: Steam, coal-fired boilers as built
Owners: Owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company; operated by the Columbia Transportation Division of Oglebay Norton Company, Cleveland

Loss

Date: November 10, 1975
Cause: Storm
Location: Eastern Lake Superior, about seventeen miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay
Water: Lake Superior
Voyage: Superior, Wisconsin → Detroit, Michigan
Cargo: 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets
Aboard: 29
Lives lost: 29
Master: Ernest M. McSorley

The Wreck Today

Depth: 530 ft
Condition: Broken into two large sections on the lake bottom
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Days after the sinking, November 1975
Protection: Protected heritage site in Canadian waters of Lake Superior; treated as a gravesite

Position

Coordinates: 47.0° N 85.1° W
Accuracy: Surveyed position
Nearest: Whitefish Point, Michigan
Region: Isle Royale & Lake Superior

Position established by the National Transportation Safety Board investigation from sonar and survey confirmation. Atlas & Helm displays it at reduced precision out of respect for a gravesite.