The Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes bulk freighter that sank in eastern Lake Superior during a severe autumn gale on November 10, 1975, taking the lives of all 29 crew members aboard. When launched in June 1958, she was the largest vessel on the Great Lakes and held the title until 1971. Across 17 seasons, she hauled taconite iron ore pellets from Minnesota and Wisconsin ports to steel mills in Detroit and Toledo, logging more than one million miles—roughly 44 trips around the world.

Her sudden disappearance without a distress signal in 530 feet of water—just 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan—prompted sweeping reforms in Great Lakes navigation, survival suits, depth charting, and freeboard standards. Since the loss of the Fitzgerald, no major commercial freighter has sunk on the Great Lakes.