SS Edmund Fitzgerald

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| Ship registry = Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Ship name = SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' | Ship owner = Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company | Ship operator = Columbia Transportation Division, Oglebay Norton Company of Cleveland, Ohio | Ship ordered = February 1, 1957 | Shipbuilder = Great Lakes Engineering Works of River Rouge, Michigan | Ship yard number = 301 | Ship laid down = August 7, 1957 | Ship launched = June 7, 1958 | Ship christened = | Ship maiden voyage = September 24, 1958 | Ship identification = Registry number US 277437 | Ship acquired = | Ship nickname = Fitz, Mighty Fitz, Big Fitz, Pride of the American Side, Toledo Express, Titanic of the Great Lakes | Ship in service = June 8, 1958 | Ship out of service = November 10, 1975 | Ship fate = Lost with all hands (29 crew) in a storm, November 10, 1975 | Ship status = Wreck | Ship notes = Location of wreck: | Ship namesake = Edmund Fitzgerald, president of Northwestern Mutual }}

* (from 1969: 8,686 NRT) * | Ship displacement = | Ship length = * overall * between perpendiculars | Ship beam = | Ship depth = (moulded) | Ship hold depth = | Ship draft = typical | Ship capacity = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = * ''As built:'' * Coal fired Westinghouse Electric Corporation steam turbine at * ''After refit:'' * Conversion to oil fuel and the fitting of automated boiler controls over the winter of 1971–72. * Carried fuel oil | Ship propulsion = Single fixed pitch propeller | Ship speed = | Ship crew = 29 | Ship notes = }} |}

'''SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald''''' was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there. She was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces.

For 17 years, ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' carried taconite from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit rivers (between Lake Huron and Lake Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' to boat watchers.

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, ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' joined a second taconite freighter, . 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 high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters deep, about from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed.

''Edmund Fitzgerald'' previously reported being in significant difficulty to the Swedish vessel ''Avafors'': "I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in." However, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last (7:10 p.m.) message to ''Arthur M. Anderson'' was, "We are holding our own". Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, grounded on a shoal, or suffered from a combination of these.

The disaster is one of the best known in the history of Great Lakes shipping, in part because Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 popular ballad "The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''". Lightfoot wrote the hit song after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of ''Newsweek''. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels. Provided by Wikipedia