Colby Nelson @Colb45 - Twitter Profile

50 years ago today, Nov. 10, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank beneath the waves of Lake Superior during a massive storm. The sinking took the lives of all 29 men on the ship, and became immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's song. This is the story of this terrible tragedy. The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald began on June 7, 1958 when she was launched. The largest ship on the Great Lakes at the time, she was built by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. She was named for the president and chairman of the company's board. Her launch was filled with problems. First, it took three attempts for Elizabeth Fitzgerald to break a bottle of champagne across the bow. As the ship launched, she created a wave that swamped spectators and crashed into a pier. One man in the crowd had a heart attack. Despite a difficult start, the ship had few problems for the next decade. In 1969, she set a record for load size on a single trip with 27,402 long tons. By November 1975, the ship had logged 748 round trips of the Great Lakes, covering a distance equal to 44 times around the world. On Nov. 9, 1975, she left Superior, Wisconsin under the command of Captain Ernest M. McSorley. Born in Spencerville, Ontario in 1912, he had 40 years experience on the Great Lakes. He took command of the Fitz in 1972. He planned to retire at the end of 1975. Enroute to Zug Island near Detroit, she was loaded with 26,116 long tons of taconite ore pellets. As she left port, she was joined by the Arthur M. Anderson. It was predicted that a storm would pass south of Lake Superior the following day, with no cause for concern. At 7 p.m. on Nov. 9, the weather service altered its forecast, giving gale warnings for all of Lake Superior. The Fitzgerald and Anderson altered course to the north to take shelter along the Ontario shore. At 1 a.m. on Nov. 10, the storm hit the ships. Capt. McSorley reported waves of three metres and winds of 96 km/h. McSorley reduced speed because of the conditions. At 2 a.m. on Nov. 10, the warnings upgraded from gale to storm. At 1:50 p.m., winds of 93 km/h were logged as the storm grew worse. At this point, the Anderson and Fitzgerald were 26 km apart on the water. At 3:30 p.m., the Fitzgerald was taking on water, had lost two vent covers and a fence railing. It was also developing a list as all six bilge pumps ran constantly to discharge water. The Fitzgerald began to head to Whitefish Bay for safety. At 5 p.m., McSorley reported a bad list, no radars and heavy seas over the deck. Rogue waves were also developing, reaching as high as 11 metres, with winds gusts reaching 130 km/h. At 7:10 p.m., Capt. Cooper of the Anderson radioed McSorley on the Fitzgerald. McSorley reported: "We are holding our own." Ten minutes later, the ship couldn't be detected by radar. At 9:03 p.m. Cooper reported the Fitzgerald missing. A localized search began among commercial vessels near Whitefish Bay at 10:30 p.m. Over the next few days, debris, lifeboats and rafts were found but no crew. The sinking took the lives of all 29 men, ranging in age from 20 to 63. On Nov. 14, 1975, the wreck of the Fitzgerald was discovered 27 km from Whitefish Bay in Canadian waters. She was under 160 metres of water. Further surveys of the wreck found she was broken into half. It is still not known exactly what happened that led to her sinking. One theory is that the ship was hit by three rogue waves in quick succession. Called "the three sisters", Capt. Cooper on the Anderson reported two large waves, possibly a third, heading in the direction of the Fitzgerald at about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 10. Other theories include the cargo hold flooding due to ineffective hatch closures, the ship unknowingly shoaling or grounding on the Six Fathom Shoal, and a complete structural failure of the ship. The Fitzgerald remains the largest ship to sink on the Great Lakes. A few weeks after the sinking, Gordon Lightfoot read Newsweek's Nov. 24, 1975 article about the sinking. He saw the ship's name was misspelled and believed this dishonored those lost. So he wrote The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Released on his 1976 album Summertime Dream, it became one of Lightfoot's most popular songs. The song hit #1 in Canada and the United States. Learn more about the sinking by listen/reading my episode about it 👇 https://t.co/AD5kmVX7jy If you enjoy my Canadian history content, you can support my work with a donation at 👇 https://t.co/1bARpMfNGq Sources: Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum: https://t.co/F3M30AnrX9 National Weather Service: https://t.co/JMUxk1gbBR National Museum of the Great Lakes: https://t.co/JauGdlL4pX Detroit Historical Society: https://t.co/I6lvz5JNm1