Remembering the Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald

SILVER BAY, Minn. — “It’s been 48 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald underwent her final journey across Lake Superior, while the Edmund Fitzgerald is the best known shipwreck on Lake Superior, she was only the most recent to occur with the loss of life,” said Hayes Scriven, Split Rock Lighthouse Site Manager.

On November 9th, 1975 The Edmund Fitzgerald left its port in Superior, Wisconsin and began its journey towards Detroit, Michigan.

The following day, the ship would run into a storm, eventually sinking the vessel, and taking the lives of all 29 crew members aboard.

“The ships Master, Captain McSorely, with over 40 years of sea-time having captained nine different lakers, hailed over the radio shortly before losing communications, ‘I have bad list, lost both radars and I’m taking heavy seas over the deck, one of the worst seas I’ve ever been in,’ this was no typical storm,” said Commander Jarrod DeWitz, Duluth Marine Safety Unit.

Captain McSorelys last recorded communication was “We are holding our own.”

Now nearly 50 years later, hundreds of people gathered at Spilt Rock Lighthouse on the anniversary to remember the lives lost.

The names of each crew member were read off, and with each-a bell toll followed.

The bell was rung one more time to remember all sailors who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes.

“Lake Superior is the largest and most treacherous of the Great Lakes, it contains about 330 wrecks with about 50 of those in Minnesota waters. It’s estimated that as many as 10,000 shipwrecks lay at the bottom of all of the Great Lakes,” said Scriven.

After the remembrance ceremony people had the rare chance to see the lighthouse beacon lit up.

The lighting of the beacon has become an annual tradition on November 10th.

This year was the first year that Duluth Coast Guard Members attended the ceremony in recognition of the impact the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald had on modern shipping safety.

“The Arthur M. Andersons crew, heavily involved in the efforts to valiantly guide the Fitz, could not confirm her status, and this likely caused a delay in the response efforts,” said Commander DeWitz.