Lake Superior is part of the Great Lakes and is best known for the disappearances of ships and shipwrecks. In an era long before modern ships, the Chippewa tribe passed down haunting stories about the legend of the lake and how it had an unforgiving nature on any sailor who dared to challenge its waters. Fifty years have passed since the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was last seen on Lake Superior and became the biggest mystery shipwreck of the Great Lakes.
Why are people still interested in this shipwreck?
Interest in this shipwreck has still not died out, as many unanswered questions remain. One of the main reasons for this flame of interest not being extinguished is due to a song that comes from Gordon Lightfoot’s folk song. So instead of the story disappearing into the depths of history, it still lives in the song and serves as a way to connect to the men who were taken by the lake.
Even though this incident took place fifty years ago, the curiosity of the public is what fuels this shipwreck’s mystery and the different types of theories people have had over the years in an attempt to get a clearer understanding of what could’ve happened on that unfortunate night.
The last voyage of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
On November 10th, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by Lake Superior with 29 crew members on board. On this night, the weather conditions became so violent that the lake surged with waves with a maximum height of 35 feet. The conditions on the lake were cold as is, but what made it worse for these sailors was the mix of freezing splashes of water from the ship crashing into waves and the hurricane winds, which battered the crew mercilessly.
The crew had spent hours trying to navigate through the horrible conditions and at 7:10 pm, a radio transmission from the captain, Ernest Mc Sorley, was sent to rescue teams: “We are holding our own”. At the time, no one could’ve ever imagined that these were going to be his last words, and soon after the transmission was received, the ship disappeared from the radar, somehow engulfed by the lake, leaving rescue teams with nothing but silence.
To this day, researchers still debate how the wreck happened
People all over the world who have heard about this incident have come up with different theories on how the ship sank, but there is hardly any evidence to support their ideas. One of the professional investigations was done by the National Transportation Safety Board, which pointed out that the ship could no longer support itself because the hatch closures to the cargo hold were faulty, which could have been a possible route of entry for water to rush in.
However, many other experts and sailors have strongly disagreed with this official report. Their rebuttal was that a skilled captain like McSorley would never have left the hatch doors open or unsecured; rather, they believe that the ship’s breach was caused by damage due to sailing over a shallow reef called the Six Fathom Shoal. A nearby ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, happened to spot the Fitzgerald sailing dangerously close to this area right before it sank.
In memory of the fallen sailors and to the Fitzgerald
An event was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the tragic incident that happened on Lake Superior, at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. Unfortunately, not one body was retrieved from the shipwreck, but the bell was recovered and engraved with the names of the 29 men who were taken by the lake. The bell was rung 29 times to honor the men who perished on the SS Edmund Fitzgerald ship, and the bell was rung one more time after that to make it a total of 30 rings in honor of the estimated 30,000 men who have also been taken by the Great Lakes. One day, technology might help uncover the cause of the shipwreck, but right now, this is still known as the mysteries of the Great Lakes.