Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald’: The Story.

Gordon Lightfoot: Remembering the Iconic Folk Singer

The world lost a legend on Monday as Gordon Lightfoot, the iconic folk singer who made waves in the 1970s, passed away at the age of 84. An internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter and incredible storyteller, Lightfoot won prestigious awards and was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

He captivated listeners with hits like “Sundown,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” But none tell a story quite like his hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Based on a real shipwreck in Lake Superior, this song caught the attention of millions and is the most well-known wreck in the history of Great Lake shipwrecks.

Shortly after the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank, Newsweek published an article titled “The Cruelest Month” that described the dangers of Lake Superior and the sinking of the ship. It explains that the Fitzgerald and the 29 men onboard “vanished without a trace in a nighttime torrent of slashing winds and waves” on the lake. The article was reportedly the inspiration Gordon Lightfoot needed to write the song that would reach the top of numerous charts in the United States and Canada.

There are many theories as to why the freighter sank, including poor structural integrity, being overloaded, rogue waves, and even UFOs. And there isn’t really a definitive answer to what happened to the ship because there were no survivors to tell the story.

The Fitzgerald’s first voyage was in 1958, and the ship weighed 13,632 tons and measured 729 feet long – the largest in the Great Lakes until 1971. Owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, it was named after the former president and chairman of the company’s board, Edmund Fitzgerald.

On November 9, 1975, the Fitzgerald was loaded with over 26,000 tons of iron pellets and departed Superior, Wisconsin, en route to Detroit, Michigan. At this point, the storm system that the Fitzgerald would find itself in was over Kansas. Hours after departing Wisconsin, a gale warning for Lake Superior was issued by the National Weather Service. That was updated to a storm warning early the next morning, with waves expected to approach up to 15 feet and winds of up to 50 knots, according to MLive. After leaving Wisconsin, the Fitzgerald was joined by the S.S. Arthur M. Anderson, which departed from Two Harbors, Minnesota. With the Fitzgerald in the lead by roughly 10 to 15 miles at any given time, the ships were in regular radio contact, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum notes.

The captain of the Fitzgerald, Ernest M. McSorley, was an experienced captain and had led ships through rough seas before. McSorley and Captain Bernie Cooper of the Anderson coordinated and talked about the safest course to take, agreeing on a northerly pass where highlands on the Canadian shore could protect them, the shipwreck museum reported. According to Cooper, based on radar from the Anderson, the Fitzgerald got too close for comfort to the Six Fathom Shoal, which is a shallow section near Caribou Island in the eastern part of the lake. Around this time, the Anderson, roughly 16 miles behind, lost sight of the Fitzgerald – the last time the Fitzgerald was seen afloat.

According to MLive, the Coast Guard warned ships to find a place to anchor because the Soo Locks had closed. “Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish [Point]?” Captain McSorley asked Captain Cooper as he planned to reduce speed to allow the Anderson to catch up. Both of the Fitzgerald’s radars had failed. McSorley then conveyed to Cooper that the Fitzgerald “sustained some topside damage,” with a “fence rail laid down” and “two vents lost or damaged.”

Later that evening, just before 7 p.m., the Anderson felt a “bump,” and a massive wave crashed over the ship, which drove the bow into the lake, according to the shipwreck museum. “Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water – barrooff – just like a big dog,” Cooper later recalled. “Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent her under.”

At 7:10 p.m., the last radio correspondence between the Anderson and the Fitzgerald took place as the Anderson relayed navigational instructions. The Anderson asked the Fitzgerald how the ship was doing with its issues, to which the Fitzgerald replied, “We are holding our own.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll be talking to you later,” the Anderson concluded.

At roughly 7:15 p.m., after sporadically disappearing and reappearing from the Anderson’s radar, the Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from the radar one final time. Shortly after this, the Anderson attempted radio contact but received no answer. According to the shipwreck museum, the weather began to improve, but the Anderson still could not see the lights of the Fitzgerald, worrying Cooper who requested the Coast Guard begin a search. During the search, in which the Anderson played a major role, only two lifeboats and other miscellaneous debris were found – but no survivors. The National Weather Service reports that the lifeboats were found “badly damaged,” which led to the determination that they were never deployed but “smashed while still secured to the ship.”

The massive storm the Fitzgerald found itself in had waves reported at 20 to 25 feet and winds averaging 60 to 65 miles per hour.

Four days after the ship sank, a U.S. Navy plane discovered wreckage of the Fitzgerald using an anomaly detector. The “Mighty Fitz” was 535 feet deep, roughly 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point. The tragic story of the Fitzgerald has caught the attention of many, and its mysterious sinking has left a void ripe for theories. According to the Coast Guard, the three most likely scenarios that led to the sinking include the way it sat in the water, allowing large quantities of water to flood the ship; loose hatch covers; or damage to the hull from shallow waters near Caribou Island. They concluded that the ship, already having lost buoyancy, likely plunged to the lakebed in seconds after it “nose dived” into a large wave.

Gordon Lightfoot’s recollection of the mysterious wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald earned him international acclaim. “If it wasn’t for him, and it wasn’t for his song, the awareness of the Fitzgerald wouldn’t be what it is now,” Bruce Lynn, the executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, told The Detroit Free Press. To this day, the Edmund Fitzgerald is the largest ship to have ever sunk in the Great Lakes.

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