Overview
- FOX 9 premieres Gales of November: Diving the Edmund Fitzgerald on Nov. 5, with FOX 2 Detroit airing The Gales of November: The Legacy of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Nov. 10.
- Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit cemented the tragedy in popular memory despite errors he later softened in live performances, including lines about the route and hatch failures.
- Official U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB investigations cited probable cargo-hold flooding from failed hatch covers, yet researchers still dispute causes, from shoal strikes to rogue waves or structural failure.
- The freighter left Superior, Wisconsin on Nov. 9, 1975 with about 26,000 tons of taconite bound for Detroit, issued no distress call, and vanished after the captain radioed, “We’re holding our own.”
- The wreck lies in two sections near Whitefish Bay and has been a protected marine archaeological grave site since 2006 under Ontario law, which restricts diving within a 500-meter perimeter.