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Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years On: Memorials and Livestreams Honor 29 Lost

Lightfoot’s ballad keeps the loss in public memory.

When the SS Edmund Fitzgerald left port on November 10, 1975, there was no way for the crew to know what they were sailing into.
FILE - The Fitzgerald in a 1959 file photo, with a crew of 28 to 30 men, was carrying a load of 26,216 tons of taconite pellets. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - Two U.S. Coast Guardsmen move a life raft from the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald across the dock in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Nov. 11, 1975, after the raft was plucked from Whitefish Bay by the freighter Roger Blough, a ship assisting in the search for the missing Edmund Fitzgerald, which sunk on Nov. 10, 1975, in Lake Superior. (AP photo/JCH, file)
From left to right: Divers Mike Zlatopolsky and Terrence Tysall in the summer of 1995. They had just surfaced after diving to the bottom of Lake Superior to view the wreckage of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on Nov. 10, 1975.

Overview

  • Monday’s 50th‑anniversary tributes include services at Mariners’ Church of Detroit, a public remembrance at Whitefish Point at 2 p.m. with a private family ceremony at 7 p.m., and a sold‑out Split Rock Lighthouse beacon lighting, with livestreams available.
  • U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB inquiries could not determine a definitive cause, citing probable sudden cargo‑hold flooding through failed hatch covers.
  • The freighter sank on Nov. 10, 1975 near Whitefish Point during a severe Lake Superior storm, with all 29 aboard lost after the final radio message, “We are holding our own.”
  • The wreck lies about 500 feet down in Canadian waters and is legally protected as a gravesite under Ontario law, which enforces a 500‑meter exclusion zone and heavy fines for unauthorized diving.
  • The ship’s bell was recovered in 1995, restored, and now tolls in annual ceremonies, with a replica engraved with the crew’s names left on the wreck.