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rfmcdonaldThe loss of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald in a storm on Lake Superior occurred 40 years ago today.
On this sad anniversary of tragedy, one that inspired Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", the Toronto Star revisited the events.
On this sad anniversary of tragedy, one that inspired Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", the Toronto Star revisited the events.
The waves were over three metres high on Lake Superior early in the morning of Nov. 10, 1975 but that shouldn’t have been too much a problem for the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.
The freighter was 220 metres of steel, the largest, fastest, most expensive manmade object ever launched into fresh water.
[. . .]
So Capt. Ernest McSorley, 63, of Toledo, Ohio was concerned but not panicked by the walls of frigid water as he radioed Capt. Jesse Cooper of the S.S. Arthur M. Anderson early that afternoon.
“Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have sustained some topside damage,” McSorley reported. “I have a fence rail laid down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me ’til I get to Whitefish?”
“Charlie on that, Fitzgerald. Do you have your pumps going?”
