Booty: Remembering the Fitz

On November 9th in 1975 the bulk freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, known affectionately to her crew as the Fitz, left the port of Superior, Wisconsin bound for Detroit. She sailed Lake Superior in company with the Arthur M. Anderson with little incident aside from high winds until the following day. That evening, the Fitz was stuck by especially dirty weather. Captain McSorley quickly radioed that his ship was taking on water and listing heavily. The pumps were working but the Fitz had lost her radar. One of McSorley’s finally radio transmissions said that his ship was in the middle of the worst storm he had ever seen. Shortly thereafter, Edmund Fitzgerald went down 17 miles off Whitefish Bay. All hands, 29 men total, went down with her. She is now at the bottom of Lake Superior under 530 feet of cold, unforgiving water. Rest easy, brothers and know that we remember you. For better or for worse you are not the first nor will you be the last to be claimed by the world’s seas.

Click here to appreciate the now famous memorial ballad "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot.

Header: The Fitz via surbrookdevermore.net