The Edmund Fitzgerald was a lake freighter that crossed Lake Superior carrying cargo. The captain of the ship in 1975 was Ernest McSorley, and at the end of that year's shipping season, McSorley and the ship were both going to retire.
On November 9, the Edmund Fitzgerald set out from the port of Superior, Wisconsin with a load of taconite pellets, a low-grade iron ore. As the ship crossed Lake Superior, headed for Detroit, the National Weather Service issued a gale warning. These strong November storms on the Great Lakes are known as witches, November Witches or the Witch of November. By 3:00 pm on November 10, the Edmund Fitzgerald had sustained damages, as was relayed by Captain McSorley to the SS Arthur M. Anderson, a cargo ship sailing behind the Fitzgerald.
McSorley and the captain of the Anderson remained in contact because as the day continued and the storm did not let up, the Fitzgerald lost both radars. In the final communication between the two ships, the Anderson asked how the Fitzgerald was making out with its problems. McSorley's response: "We are holding our own." But sometime between 7:20 pm and 7:30 pm., the ship went down in the cold waters of the big lake known by the Ojibwa as Gitche Gumee.
There is no clear understanding as to why the ship sank that night. "They might have split up or they might have capsized, they may have broke deep and took water." However it happened, today the ship rests, along with its crew of 29, 530 feet underwater at the bottom of Lake Superior, 17 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Point. The 29 men and the big freighter are remembered in Gordon Lightfoot's song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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