Edmund Fitzgerald wreck

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American freighter that sank in a storm on Lake Superior on 10 November 1975, with all 29 crew lost. When she was launched on 7 June 1958 she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she is still the largest ever to have sunk there.

For 17 years she carried taconite, a kind of iron ore, from mines in Minnesota to steel mills in cities like Detroit and Toledo. Her story became world-famous through Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Her wreck lies in Canadian waters of Lake Superior.

The last voyage

On 9 November 1975 she left Superior, Wisconsin, with a full load of taconite pellets under Captain Ernest McSorley. The next day a severe storm hit with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 metres).

Her final radio message, just after 7:10 p.m., was "We are holding our own". Soon after, she suddenly sank in Canadian waters. A US Navy aircraft located the wreck on 14 November, and it was found to lie in two large pieces.

Changes after the loss

The sinking is one of the best-known disasters in Great Lakes history. It led to changes in shipping rules, including mandatory survival suits, depth finders and positioning systems, more freeboard (the height of the hull above water) and more frequent inspections.

Before that, the ship had been loved by boat watchers for her size, her many record hauls and a captain who played music over the loudspeaker for onlookers.

On the globe

Find it on the globe in Lake Superior and zoom in to open its card.