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Lost at Sea Day
"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early."
~ The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot, 1976
Fifty years ago today, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald—a proud American Great Lakes freighter—was lost to a fierce November storm on Lake Superior, sinking on November 10, 1975, and taking all 29 crew members with her.
Since that tragic night, maritime historians and investigators have continued to study the mystery of her fate. The Fitzgerald lies in two great sections, 530 feet down on the lakebed, about 17 miles north of Whitefish Bay.
Though the lake has never revealed the full story, modern studies suggest the Fitzgerald likely succumbed to a perfect convergence of forces: hurricane-force winds, towering “three-sisters” rogue waves, and rapid flooding that stole her stability in moments. Some still consider the possibility of a shoal strike or structural failure under extreme stress, but today most experts believe the storm itself marked the fate of the ship.
Each year, Mariners' Church in Detroit holds a solemn service in remembrance. As the names of the crew are read, the chapel bell tolls—one ring for each life lost aboard the Fitzgerald. In recent years, a thirtieth ring has been added, honoring the thousands of other sailors who perished in the Great Lakes’ more than 6,000 wrecks.
This tribute tartan takes its name and colours from Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 haunting ballad, a song that has kept the memory of the ship and her crew alive for decades. “Fair winds and following seas.” 🤍 💙 🖤 💙 🚢 🚢 🚢 🔔 🔔 🔔
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet deep, about 17 miles from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Although Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered.
The sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald was memorialized in Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" which he composed after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of Newsweek. This tartan's name was taken from one of the verses of this song, which also inspired its design.
Many books, studies, and expeditions have examined the cause of the sinking with many different theories proposed, including the group of three rogue waves, often called "three sisters," which was reported in the vicinity of Fitzgerald at the time she sank. The "three sisters" phenomenon is said to occur on Lake Superior as a result of a sequence of three rogue waves forming that are one-third larger than normal waves. When the first wave hits a ship's deck, before its water drains away the second wave strikes. The third incoming wave adds to the two accumulated backwashes, suddenly overloading the deck with tons of water.
The day after the wreck, Mariners' Church in Detroit rang its bell 29 times; once for each life lost. The church continued to hold an annual memorial, reading the names of the crewmen and ringing the church bell, until 2006 when the church broadened its memorial ceremony to commemorate all lives lost on the Great Lakes.
For more spectacular photography of winter at the Great Lakes from photographer Viktor Posnov, click the cracked ice.