46 years ago today. RIP captain, cook and crew.

When I was around 14, I went to an open house at the Glenview Naval Air Station near my house. They had a P3 Orion submarine chaser plane on display and the Naval airman acting as a tour guide for that plane said that plane we were touring was the one that found the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. A sub chasing aircraft was best suited to find a large body of sunken iron.
I was penpals with my friend who used to live across the street, and after the open house I was writing him a letter, and mentioned seeing that plane and how it located the sunken ship. As I was writing, the Gorden Lightfoot song started playing on the radio in my room tuned to a top 40 radio station. It was the first time I heard that song. I still remember writing in my letter to my friend, "They are playing a song about that ship right now!!!!!".

I was with the Air Force 305 Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Selfridge ANGB flying HH-3E rescue helicopters when the Edmond went down. We were launched to join the search that morning. When we arrived on seen we searched the area hoping to find survivors. Lake Superior had an evil look about it that morning. Unfortunately you know the rest of the story. I’ll never forget that day.

Edmund Fitzgerald Timeline: On November 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald departed from Superior, Wisconsin at 2:15 pm with 26,116 tons of taconite headed for Detroit, Michigan. The Fitzgerald was under the leadership of Captain Ernest M. McSorley. Later that afternoon, the Fitz met the Arthur M. Anderson (Captain Jesse B. Cooper) as it left Two Harbors, Minnesota. Due to the storm headed north, both McSorley and Cooper decided to travel north of the usual shipping lanes, a common practice in poor weather.
By the morning of November 10, previously issued gale warnings were upgraded to storm warnings. As the two ships passed Caribou Island, located on the eastern portion of Lake Superior, Captain Cooper noted how close the Fitz came to a nearby shoal at 3:15 pm. Over the next few hours, the Fitzgerald reported a down fence rail, two lost or damaged vent covers, a list, and down radar systems. At 7:10 pm the First Mate of the Anderson, Morgan Clark, radioed the Fitzgerald to provide navigational points and to ask how the ship was doing. Captain McSorley responded, “We are holding our own.” This was the final communication with the Fitz and it disappeared from sight and radar due to a snow squall at 7:15 pm.
Between 7:25 pm and 8:25 pm, Captain Cooper contacted other ships and the Coast Guard to ask if they could see the Fitz on their radar. No one could. The Coast Guard listed the Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 men missing shortly thereafter. When preliminary searches were done, all that was found was debris.
In the days that followed, the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards continued to search. On November 14, 1975 an anti-sub plane detected an object 530 feet below Lake Superior’s surface 17 miles from Whitefish Point. The object was confirmed to be the Edmund Fitzgerald in May 1976 using an underwater research vehicle.

I'm from that area of the Upper Peninsula near Whitefish Point. My family still lives up there. I was in the Navy at the time of the wreck and away from the area. One of my cousins and his brother in law were commercial fishermen at the time and were out trying to get their nets lifted before the incoming storm in the same area as the wreck. The storm kicked up and they could not make it to shore but ended up on one of the small islands in the area. They ended up spending the night there and pulled a couple other fishermen out of the frigid water. It was a pretty scary time for everyone because no one knew where they were and rumors were running rampant about a ship missing. This was way before there were cell phones and there radios were ruined during the storm.

Try this Brian Burns cover.

The line "The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times" will have some seriously real meaning after you hear the end of the song.


https://youtu.be/0LRBmIqzO6o

Kevin