The cargo ship Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1958, prompting Gordon Lightfoot's legendary song.
For ad-free listening, Subscribe at IntoHistory.com/shipwreckspod.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975. The ship's crew of 29 men were all lost. She was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes when it was launched on June 7, 1958. It remains the largest ship to have sunk in the Great Lakes.
The Fitzgerald's mysterious demise inspired Gordon Lightfoot's hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976), which helped make it the most famous shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
The Fitzgerald's wreckage is in two pieces at the bottom of Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point has a bell on display as a memorial to the lost crew.
For photos and sources please visit https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/2023/11/13/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/.
Original theme music by Sean Sigfried.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices