The Edmund Fitzgerald Disaster
is a Dark and Mythical Mark on the
History of the Great Lakes
Story by Matthew St. Amand
Artwork by Ron Suchiu
Photography Courtesy of the Mariners’ Church of Detroit
The Edmund Fitzgerald disaster is a story that was launched into legend so quickly after the actual event that its place in time seems distorted. To some, the disaster occurred ages ago—in another century, in fact—and to others, the memory is still raw and recent, recalling the ship passing the Windsor waterfront along the Detroit River in its heyday.
This November marks the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in Lake Superior. Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the tragedy in his song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The event is still mourned by friends and family of the twenty-nine crew members, and remembered by the communities all around the lakes.
The ship was christened by Mrs. Edmund Fitzgerald on June 7, 1958, before 10,000 spectators. The legendary ship spanned 729 feet in length, making it the largest freighter on the Great Lakes at the time. It was owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and named after its chairman.
The christening ceremony was fraught with foreboding. It took Mrs. Fitzgerald three tries to break the ceremonial bottle of champagne on the hull. Shipyard workers then struggled for more than thirty minutes to release the keel blocks. When the Edmund Fitzgerald finally slid into the narrow launch harbour, it sent an enormous wave crashing over the pier on the opposite side. A moment later, the ship, itself, smashed into the pier with terrifying force. One observer was so startled by the commotion that he suffered a heart attack and died.
After the ship was put into service, it spends the next seventeen years carrying taconite from Minnesota’s Iron Range mines to iron works in Detroit, Toledo and elsewhere, its primary route taking it across the expanse of the greatest of the Great Lakes: Lake Superior.
November is a foreboding month on Lake Superior. On November 11, 1913, a ferocious storm sank twelve ships, killing two-hundred-fifty-four people. On the same date in 1930, another storm devastated five ships, taking the lives of sixty-seven.
On November 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald embarked on its final voyage, leaving Superior, Wisconsin, bound for an iron works in Detroit.
Sixty-two-year-old Ernest McSorley captained the Fitzgerald. He had forty-four years’ experience on the lakes. The ship was laden with 26,000 tons of iron ore; approximately fifteen percent beyond her original design specs.
Within twenty-four hours, the Fitzgerald and a second taconite freighter, the SS Arthur M. Anderson, encountered what mariners call “The Witch of November,” a treacherous storm that battered them with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to thirty-five feet in height.
One can only imagine the terror felt by even the most seasoned crew members during that storm. Captain McSorley’s last transmission to captain J.B. Cooper of the Arthur M. Anderson—which followed nine miles behind—occurred at 7:10 p.m., saying, “We are holding our own.” The Fitzgerald was twenty-seven kilometers away from Whitefish Bay, Michigan.
When disaster came, it struck so suddenly there was no time for a Mayday call. Captain Cooper recalled losing sight of the Fitzgerald’s running lights and later told investigators: “The next thing we knew they were off the radar screen.”
And sailed into legend.
When the wreck of the Fitzgerald was found later, on the lake bottom, her hull was shredded. The ship lay in two pieces.
The actual cause of the disaster remains a mystery to this day. An official US Coast Guard inquiry suggested that human error was to blame, that the crew had failed to properly secure the hatch covers, leading to the ship taking on water, sinking and then likely breaking in two when she hit the
bottom.
The November 1975 issue of Newsweek had a different perspective: “…experts believe the ship was probably riding two waves at once—one at the bow and one at the stern—and that the unsupported weight of its 26,000-ton cargo of taconite iron pellets cracked the ship in half, driving it to the bottom in a matter of seconds.”
Gordon Lightfoot used the first line of that article to begin his famous song: “According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumme ‘never gives up her dead.’”
It was only a few hours before news of the disaster reached the larger world.
In a YouTube video by TV17.org, the late Reverend Richard W. Ingalls—pastor of Mariners’ Church of Detroit in 1975—told how he learned of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
“I was wakened by Robert E. Lee, curator of the Dawson Marine Museum on Belle Isle, who said: ‘The Fitz was in trouble.’” Lee learned this from listening to his ship-to-shore radio.
“I immediately began to get dressed,” Reverend Ingalls continued. “In a few minutes, [Lee] called me again and said: ‘It doesn’t look good.’ Which was a way of saying the ship has gone down, but no official word has been made.”
In the early morning dark, Reverend Ingalls drove from the rectory in Grosse Pointe to the Mariners’ Church on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. He went down to the bell tower where he decided to ring the Brotherhood Bell twenty-nine times—for each person aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald. Then he went into the chapel to pray.
Windsor artist, Ron Suchiu, created the painting accompanying this article on the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
“‘The Pride of America’ is only one of two paintings of the Edmund Fitzgerald recognized by the Mariners’ Church,” Ron says. “The other was painted by an American. Until recently, they hung together in the church to symbolize the friendship between the two countries.”
The Mariners’ Church commemorates the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and has a special schedule of events this year, for the 50th anniversary. View details by visiting the church’s website at marinerschurchofdetroit.org. Artist Ron Suchiu has a book of his art coming out soon. Find out more about his work by visiting suchiu.com.
Published in the Anniversary 2025 Edition.
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