11/11/2025
Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald: 50 Years Since the Great Lakes’ Most Famous Shipwreck
WHITEFISH BAY, Mich. — Friends Community News Group, November 11, 2025, 3:30 am ET - Do you remember the night of November 10, 1975, and the morning of the 11th, when they knew for sure the boat had gone down in the storm? The regular TV programming was interrupted with reports on the storm, and at that time, people also tuned into the radio for the news. It was around this time 3:30 am that it was reported that they could not find the boat.
It was 50 years ago, on Monday, November 10, 1975, that the 729-foot-long boat went down in a violent storm near Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior at approximately 7:10pm.
The Fitzgerald, operated by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and chartered by Oglebay Norton, was one of the largest and most modern ore carriers on the Great Lakes at the time. It departed Superior, Wisconsin, on November 9, 1975, loaded with more than 26,000 tons of taconite pellets bound for a steel mill near Detroit.
As the ship traveled east across Lake Superior, it encountered a rapidly intensifying winter gale with winds over 50 knots and waves reportedly exceeding 25 feet. The nearby freighter Arthur M. Anderson maintained radio contact with the Fitzgerald throughout the storm. Around 7:10 p.m., Captain Ernest M. McSorley made his final transmission: “We are holding our own.” Moments later, the Fitzgerald disappeared from radar.
No distress signal was ever sent. Search efforts began that night but found no survivors. The wreck was later located on November 14, 1975, in 530 feet of water, about 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point. The ship had broken in two.
During the night there was hope the boat would be found with its radio not working. It was the morning of the 11th that we all heard on the radio that the boat had gone down with all 29 souls.
The exact cause of the sinking remains uncertain. The U.S. Coast Guard’s 1977 report concluded the vessel likely took on water through ineffective hatch covers before capsizing suddenly. However, other investigations — including those by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and independent maritime experts — have suggested alternative theories, such as structural failure or massive rogue waves.
The tragedy inspired Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to write “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” in 1976, which became a haunting musical tribute and brought national attention to Great Lakes shipping safety.
Each year, memorial services are held at Whitefish Point’s Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and at Mariner’s Church of Detroit, where the ship’s bell tolls 29 times, once for each crew member lost.
This year’s anniversary drew hundreds of visitors to both sites. “Even fifty years later, people still feel the loss,” said Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. “The Fitzgerald reminds us how powerful these waters can be — and how brave the people were who sailed them.”
The Edmund Fitzgerald’s legacy endures not only in song and memory but also in improved maritime safety regulations. Following the disaster, federal authorities strengthened weather forecasting, ship design standards, and emergency communication protocols across the Great Lakes fleet.
Though five decades have passed, the mystery and the memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald continue to echo over Lake Superior — “the lake,” as Lightfoot wrote, “that never gives up her dead.”
