The Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975, during a storm on Lake Superior. The freighter was carrying taconite pellets from Superior, Wisconsin, to a steel mill near Detroit. After gale warnings were issued for southern Lake Superior, the vessel changed its route. However, a later shift in the winds put the Edmund Fitzgerald in the brunt of the storm: at its peak, winds reached 70–75 knots and waves swelled to heights of 25 feet (8 meters). The vessel began listing, though its pumps were running. Its radars then went down, and the nearby Arthur M. Anderson provided navigational assistance. The final transmission from the Edmund Fitzgerald took place at 7:10 pm on November 10, 1975. Speaking to the freighter Arthur M. Anderson, Captain Ernest M. McSorley stated, “We are holding our own.” Some 10 minutes later the freighter disappeared from the Anderson’s radar. Over the following week, sonar detected two large objects in the area where the Fitzgerald was lost. The mangled wreckage was definitively located in May 1976. It was lying some 530 feet (162 meters) below the lake’s surface, 17 statute miles (27 km) from Whitefish Bay, in Canadian waters.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style