Particle.news
Download on the App Store
34 ARTICLES
·
2h ago

Edmund Fitzgerald at 50: Great Lakes Commemorate the Lost as Song and Mystery Endure

The wreck remains a protected gravesite in Canadian waters, its exact cause still unresolved.

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.
The Edmund Fitzgerald measured 729 feet long and weighed 13,632 tons.
A life ring and life vest hang in an exhibit along with a painting of the Edmund Fitzgerald in rough Lake Superior waters in a display at the Lake Superior Maritime Museum Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005, in Duluth, Minn. The Fitzgerald, an ore carrier, sank with its crew of 29 Nov. 10, 1975. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
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)

Overview

  • Memorials today include bell tolling and a private family livestream at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, services at Detroit’s Mariners’ Church, and a sold‑out Split Rock Lighthouse beacon lighting with a public livestream.
  • Canada’s Ontario Heritage Act designates the site a marine archaeological grave, barring unauthorized dives and limiting new expeditions, with the ship’s bell recovered in 1995 now central to anniversary ceremonies.
  • Official U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB probes could not determine a definitive cause, listing cargo‑hold flooding through hatch covers as most probable while alternative theories—rogue waves, structural failure, or grounding—remain under discussion.
  • Researchers are revisiting the storm with modern tools, with new analyses of historic satellite data reinforcing that the Nov. 10, 1975 system produced exceptionally intense winds and waves on Lake Superior.
  • Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 ballad has renewed attention this week, reentering Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales at No. 5 and Country Digital Song Sales at No. 7 as streams and sales rise on the anniversary.