Nostalgia & History > Edmund Fitzgerald 40th

On November 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald departed from the Burlington Northern ore dock in Superior, WI with 26,000 tons of taconite pellets.  During the following day, it sank during a ferocious storm 17 miles from Whitefish Point on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  All 29 crew members perished in the tragedy.

Edmund Fitzgerald: Why this tragedy sticks with us after 40 years

Slide show of Edmund Fitzgerald facts

Edmund Fitzgerald website

Fortieth anniversary observances have been or will be held in various locations around the Great Lakes like Duluth, Toledo, Buffalo and Fairport Harbor, OH.  In Lewiston, NY there was a "Mighty Fitz 5K” race on Saturday.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/15 11:15 by RuleG.

Thanks for remembering.

JR

There is a very nice display & tribute to the Edmund Fitzgerald and the 29 crewmen who perished aboard her that day, at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, MI. We visited it this past  September 24th...very moving.  There is another nice display about the Fitzgerald at the Valley Camp Ship Museum in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. I recommend  both for a visit. The accompanying shot by my wife Betty, is of the bell off the Edmund Fitzgerald. It was retrieved by divers and brought to the surface and is displayed at the museum in Whitefish Point. A replica was made and inscribed with names of the crew members, who are still entombed below and replaced on the Fitzgerald's deck. 

KC - it is true what they say...Lake Superior never gives up her dead

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The first time I heard Gordon Lightfoots' ballad of this tragedy was southbound on I-57 between Ashkum and Gilman, Illinois on 89 WLS, Chicago. A very respectful Larry Lujack gave his listeners the serious side of life. Thank you for the memory.

IC1038west Wrote:
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> The first time I heard Gordon Lightfoots' ballad
> of this tragedy was southbound on I-57 between
> Ashkum and Gilman, Illinois on 89 WLS, Chicago. A
> very respectful Larry Lujack gave his listeners
> the serious side of life. Thank you for the
> memory.

Good ol'  890 WLS! When I was listening in, was before Larry's term there. More like Mort and Dick Biondi. I know...dating myself!

KC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/15 23:41 by GRNDMND.

Last night the wife and I were out enjoying dinner at a local pub here in North Jersey and on the drink menu was "Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter" so being a lover of dark beers I had to try it out very good.  My wife have never heard of the Emund Fitzgeral or the tragedy so I looked up to find out exactly when she went down 40yrs to the first sip. 

I happened to be on the dock at  Allouez that afternoon and saw the Fitzgerald being loaded.  Later that evening the storm struck with a fury I had not witnessed before -- winds over 100mph recorded at the Aerial Bridge in Duluth.  A day and a tragedy not to be forgotten.

Gordon

A nice map from the Chicago Weather Center website illustrating the path of the 1975 storm and other pertinent information:
http://static.chicagoweathercenter.com/media/2015/11/feature110815.jpg
 

Thanks for the discussion.
PBS had an interview with Gordon Lightfoot a month or two ago.  He explained that he felt an awful void because the media had simply reported the facts and moved on; he felt the tragedy for all concerned was too great to not be commemorated.  The tune is from an old Irish dirge he said.
The song is on my "all time favorites" playlist and several others.
Was there some discussion of the storm surge from the "hurricane west wind" drawing down the depth of the water such that the ship hit some rocks that would otherwise have been deep enough to pass over?

I was 24 and at work that evening.   We had one of the lowest barometer readings ever recorded here in SE Minnesota earlier
in the day (about 28.7) in my dad's office.  It had been a day of very high winds.  As I got in my truck to head home, the rain
was pelting down and the wind howling.   It almost looked like a blizzard due to the intensity of the rain which moved in
waves, like white-outs in a snow storm.  On my way home, I heard the breaking news that the "Edmund Fitzgerald" was
not responding to radio calls and was presumed to be in major trouble and could have sunk.  I drove to my dad's house
to tell him the news, as when I was very young we had witnessed one of the first voyages of the "Fitz" which we both
remembered.  My thoughts and prayers are with the members of the families and friends of the 29 crew lost in that
terrible disaster forty years ago.

GRNDMND Wrote:
>
> Good ol'  890 WLS! When I was listening in, was
> before Larry's term there. More like Mort and Dick
> Biondi. I know...dating myself!
>
> KC

Scott Childers has a great website, wlshistory.com, that covers the Biondi years, Prairie Farmer era, and of course all the New Year's Eve top 89 countdown lists from the station that rocked Chicago.

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the discussion.
> PBS had an interview with Gordon Lightfoot a month
> or two ago.  He explained that he felt an awful
> void because the media had simply reported the
> facts and moved on; he felt the tragedy for all
> concerned was too great to not be commemorated. 
> The tune is from an old Irish dirge he said.
> The song is on my "all time favorites" playlist
> and several others.
> Was there some discussion of the storm surge from
> the "hurricane west wind" drawing down the depth
> of the water such that the ship hit some rocks
> that would otherwise have been deep enough to pass
> over?

The theory that the Fitz accidentally passed over Six Fathom Shoal, where the boat would have only had about six feet of clearance on CALM day is one of many plausible (and a few implausible) theories that exist for the sinking. Captain Cooper of the Anderson was a big supporter of that theory. After hearing some unsavory stories in the last few years about the ACTUAL condition of the Fitz's hull, I have started leaning a little more towards a structural failure, either from the wave action alone, or in conjunction with the appearent fact that the boat was already taking on water from other issues, whether they be leaky or collapsed hatch covers, missing vent stacks, or other unseen damage.

Posted from Android

in the mid nineties I was in a meeting at the headquarters of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and there were all these photos of the Edmund Fitzgerald in the conference room, plus a pic of their former CEO from years gone by, none other than Mr. Edmund Fitzgerald.   Turns out the insurance company owned the ship, which was named for their CEO.

Steve Zahn
Glenview, IL



 

Thanks for bringing this up, Dave.  I have been reminiscing for the last two days about the tragedy.  Been playing Lightfoot's wonderful tribute to a terrible event.  The song is haunting.
Jim Fitzgerald

My stepdad was the last person on land to talk to the Fitzgerald. He worked at a ship-to-shore radio station (WMI was the call sign, I think) in Lorain, Ohio.

Thank you to everyone for posting your comments.

According to an article in today's Trains.com Newswire,  the destination was the Great Lakes Steel mill in Detroit.  After completing that trip the Edmund Fitzgerald was to return to the Burlington Northern docks in Superior, Wisconsin and load up with another load of taconite pellets destined for Toledo.

The Trains.com Newswire story also noted the Edmund Fitzgerald's railroad connections.  In addition to Burlington Northern (ex-Great Northern) Allouez docks in Superior, the Edmund Fitzgerald also loaded ore at the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway docks in Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota and at the Reserve Mining Company’s docks at Silver Bay (also in Minnesota).

Fifteen years ago, I toured the BNSF ore facilities in Superior.  Dock #1 from which the Edmund Fitzgerald departed was no longer in use.  A conveyor belt transferred ore from the yard to dock #5, thus eliminating the need to move move ore cars onto the dock.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/15 11:15 by RuleG.

RuleG Wrote:
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 Toledo (the Edmund Fitzgerald's
> destination),

Actually, "Big Fitz" was carrying taconite for Great Lakes Steel on Zug Island (Detroit).

JG

"The ship's bell rang 'til it rang twenty-nine times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald."