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Edmund Fitzgerald at 50: Great Lakes Mark the Loss With Bells, Beacons and Reflection

Investigations never identified a definitive cause, leaving the protected wreck a maritime gravesite under Canadian law.

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 on St. Marys River in 1975. Photo by Bob Campbell, courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society
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)

Overview

  • Memorials today include services at Mariners’ Church of Detroit, a public and private bell ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, and a beacon lighting and livestream from Split Rock Lighthouse.
  • The ore carrier sank on Nov. 10, 1975 in a Lake Superior storm, taking all 29 crew; the wreck lies about 500–535 feet down near Whitefish Point in Canadian waters.
  • U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB probes concluded no proximate cause could be determined, with sudden flooding of the cargo hold via failed hatch covers cited as the most probable scenario.
  • Competing theories remain in public debate, including grounding damage, rogue waves, or structural failure, and experts say a definitive answer is unlikely.
  • The site has a 500‑meter restricted perimeter under the Ontario Heritage Act, the original bell was recovered in 1995 for remembrance rites, and advances in forecasting and safety gear have lowered the risk of a similar disaster.