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- [00:09]
Captain of Fort (Troop Control)
This is our troop control, Captain of Fort speaking. We have no other vessels in that Virginia right now, or I guess I should say there are several other saltwater vessels there that we're also trying to have assist in the search. But it looks from the information that we have that it's fairly certain that the sixth Garrel went down. And we're talking now about a matter of life and death and looking for survivors that might be in life rafts or in the water. And we can only ask the masters to do the best without hazarding their vessel. If you think it would be unsafe and would hazard your vessel, then you have to do whatever best you can. But if you come about and head into the sea and try to stay in that area and maybe we can pick up some survivors, if not at night, then maybe at first light.
- [01:12]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald resulted in a tragic loss of life. 29 men who are still deeply mourned by those who knew them. And yet over the years, there have been many other shipwrecks, not to mention many more calamitous accidents on water, air and land. As the years have passed, this wreck, this calamity, has remained the subject of widespread fascination and deep emotion, even among millions of people who had no direct connection to the Edmund Fitzgerald or even to the Great Lakes at all. Why is that? The people we talked to had an.
- [01:46]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
Idea, and I think there's a lot of reasons why this story holds such fascination. But I will say this too. I don't know that I always understand it too. When I say that, I mean the emotions that people bring to this interest in this story. And I will say this too. I've spoken with some of the family members and they're kind of the same way. They don't always understand it with how emotionally connected that so many people that don't really have a connection to the story, again, they're not. They didn't lose their dad, they didn't lose their brother, but yet they're tearing up. There's that emotional connection which, whether we understand it or not, is not really relevant. It's there. So people have that connection. So why do they have it? Well, they're aware of it mostly. Probably. Probably because of Gordon Lightfoot.
- [02:28]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
To younger folks that might not remember and are have a reason to know about the sink of the Edmund Fitzgerald. They just might know the Gordon life of the song.
- [02:40]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
The ballad is so haunting and that's.
- [02:42]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
What really got people.
- [02:44]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
What kept the interest in that shipwreck.
- [02:47]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
The power of song of A song. Who would know that there's a Folsom prison? Folsom Prison, San Quentin, because Johnny Cash put his second song there with a Boy Named sue and he wrote the. He did the song San Quentin. My point, though is those prisons, those names would not be remembered to this day. Back to the Lightfoot song, why is Erfit still remembered? I say because of the song. He brought light to it. He brought information and put everybody's eyes on the subject. Eyes and brain and heart on the subject. And because of that, that's why this book was written. That's why these articles were done. That's why I believe we still remember it today.
- [03:28]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
In this final episode, we'll look at the legacy of the Edmund Fitzgerald, at how the ship is remembered and why. We'll also look at what we still have to learn from this haunting story half a century later. I'm Jay Gabler of the Duluth News Tribune, and this is Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 years below. David James Carlson kind of looks like Gordon Lightfoot. In fact, when the two hung out together back in the 1970s, people thought they were related.
- [04:16]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
People would always say, are you Gordon's brother? And I would say, before I got the N, before I got the O out of no. He would come over, put his arm around my shoulder, shaking me, kind of laughing. Yeah, he's my little brother. Don't. Can't you tell?
- [04:32]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Carlson is well suited for his job today as frontman of the Gordon Lightfoot tribute band. They play all sorts of songs by the late Canadian musician, but there's one that always gets a particularly strong response.
- [04:45]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
Any club we play in, there's always going to be like people who are like farther away, like in a bar or some booths, from the tables and the booths and the chairs that are all closer. And the 100 people that are in the show, they're the ones who are really into the show and obviously. And the other people are listening too, kind of. But when we do the fits, people come in from the other rooms. People are all coming in. They would say, we had to come out to hear that song. People would come from the. Just gather.
- [05:07]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Gordon Lakefoot once told Carlson about the inspiration for the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
- [05:13]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
And there was an article. I don't know where the article was printed, but he read it. It was like about a four, three or four paragraph little article just telling the details went down. Oh, bah. So sad. And Lightfoot went, I can't believe it. That's all this happened. And that's all he was upset he told me he used a little bit more language. Zaya. So he went into his par work and for three days, pen to paper and guitar cord in. In his hand and he was working, working, working on it. And he had been working on a. On like a melody with using those chords and kind of, hey, I'm kind of coming up with something and now I got something to put it to. And he improved the melody, but now I had words and he wrote the thing and it became such a hit.
- [05:55]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Lightfoot drew on multiple news reports when writing his song, but one important story was a brief article in Newsweek. Journalists James R. Gaines and John Lowell brought together many of the facts that Lightfoot would use in his song, and they situated the story in historical context. Here's the opening of the Newsweek article.
- [06:13]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitchigumi never gives up her dead.
- [06:19]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Modern day mariners of Lake Superior know the legend has some basis in fact. The article goes on to describe the lake's treacherous history and the circumstances surrounding the loss of the Fitzgerald. It concludes in the stone 126-year-old Mariner's.
- [06:34]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
Church Church in downtown Detroit. A minister offered prayers for the lost semen and told the church bell 29 times in grim tribute to the unslaked furies of Lake Superior. Newsweek, November 24, 1975.
- [06:48]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Lightfoot recorded the new song with his band, and remarkably, they used the very first take for inclusion on the album Summertime Dream, released in June 1976. The album's peppy title track was released as a first single because no one would ever have guessed that a six and a half minute ballad about a shipwreck could become a hit. In 1976, radio host Dave Strandberg was doing overnights on Duluth station wakx.
- [07:14]
Dave Strandberg (Radio Host)
Listener called me. Actually, the Summertime Dream album had just come out, I know, a couple days earlier, and somebody called when I was doing the Midnight Ship and said, hey, did you realize that Wreck of the Eminent Fitzgerald is a cut on that album? No, I didn't. I hadn't played the whole album. So I put it on and previewed it. Oh, this is great. Put it on the air. And people started calling. What was that? Oh, that was the new album, the new album from Gordon Lightfoot. It had this cut on it. Could we hear it again? Sure. So I ended up playing it several times that night, and by morning the phones were lit up and the program director at the time decided, hey, we're going to put this in heavy rotation and Start playing it. So he did, and the rest is basically history. The company, Warner Brothers, eventually decided to release it as a single because it got so much airplay around the Great Lakes particularly. And even though the thing ran six minutes, they put it out as a single, and it did quite well for Gordon. So kind of surprising that they released it as a single and it did so well nationwide.
- [08:13]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald would go on to hit number two on Billboard's Hot 100, the most popular song in the country, except for tonight's the Night by Rod Stewart. For Dave Strandberg's role in making the song a hit, WAKX received a gold record plaque from Lightfoot's label. Years later, when the artist came to the twin ports on tour, he signed Strandberg's plaque. People living on Lake Superior were excited to have such a popular song about their own region. But the families of the lost men had mixed feelings. Bruce Lynn, director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, has come to know many of those families well.
- [08:46]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
So many of them that we know absolutely adore Gordon Lightfoot. And I think maybe when they first heard the song, things were very raw, so to speak. It was a recent loss. Maybe some of them looked at it a little bit differently. But certainly Gordon Lightfoot and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the song contributed to that public awareness of this story and of this shipwreck.
- [09:07]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
While Lightfoot would go on to recognize the song as, quote, my greatest achievement, he took a risk in writing a detailed narrative about a real recent event about which so much was and remains a mystery. The song contains one glaring error. The Edmund Fitzgerald was fully loaded for Detroit, not Cleveland. Then there was Lightfoot's characterization of the Mariners Church. Here's Bruce Lynn again.
- [09:31]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
Reverend Richard Ingalls from the Mariners Church in Detroit. You know, there's the lyrics that reference the musty old hall in Detroit. And this is actually. It is a funny story because Richard Ingalls, I don't know if it was a concert, I forget the context, but actually had the opportunity to talk to Gordon Lightfoot and told him who he was, and I think probably laughingly said, you know, you should really come and visit the Mariners Church. It's not. It's not a musty old hall. And I think they probably had a good laugh after that. But in the end, Gordon Lightwood actually did subtly change that lyric too.
- [10:01]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Lightfoot's most controversial lyric, though, concerned a very sensitive subject for the Sailors families. Here's David James Carlson quoting the offending lyric and explaining later that Night, a.
- [10:12]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
Main hatchway caved in. He said, fellas, it's Bengo de noia. So that line there was a speculation. And later, after they did all the research with the underwater submersibles and so on, they said they determined they went. The hatches were good. And Lightfoot felt. He felt ashamed. He apologized to the family members who were the exact, not just of the 29, but the four or five who were the ones who locked down the hatches. He said, I am so sorry that I said I wrote that line in the song. I was speculating because the experts said it happened this way.
- [10:47]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
In the end, many of the families came to appreciate Lightfoot's sincerity and his role in elevating a story that would certainly, if not for him, be far less well known than it is today. Here's Bruce Lynn.
- [10:58]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
He would come to the shipwreck museum and we would spend a little time with him. He. He wouldn't want to come on November 10, at least in recent years since I'd been here. That wasn't a goal of his. He wanted to come here before that, even if it was a day before. But he didn't want to be the center of attention on November 10th. He needed it and wanted it to be about the family members.
- [11:16]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Here's David James Carlson here and there.
- [11:18]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
I've had a person give me a comment. Yeah, that song, that life. Taking advantage and making his millions off of people who. Who died. And boy, oh, boy, do I ever give them a lecture. Not in an angry way, but I said, here's some things you do not understand. Every year, Gordon Lightfoot goes to the ceremony to honor the families, and guess who wants him there? The families. They have never said, this guy did us wrong. This guy did us right. Sorry, I get emotional.
- [11:48]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
I get emotional on this.
- [11:49]
David James Carlson (Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band Frontman)
He, in some way, has kept them alive. In many ways, he showed the importance that they had.
- [12:02]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The Lake Superior Maritime Visitor center at the foot of the aerial lift bridge in Duluth, tracks comings and goings in the port and duly recorded the departure of the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 9, 1975. Today, it's one of the places the ship is remembered. The museum has a display with artifacts, including a life ring from the Edmund Fitzgerald, donated to the museum by the shipping line after the museum's curator noted the important importance of the twin ports in the Fitzgerald story. Here's Kaylee Matuszak, who works at the museum.
- [12:30]
Kaylee Matuszak (Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center Staff)
It's pretty much the number one thing that we hear asked about besides, like, what ship is coming in and where's the bathroom? People are so curious about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Even 50 years on this exhibit behind me here is the one that people really, really come to see. Some people don't even realize that they found the Edmund Fitzgerald. So people wonder about that. But, yeah, people are very interested in it. We hear people back here playing the song, like, almost daily in the summer.
- [12:55]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Honestly, until as recently as 2024, the Arthur M. Anderson was still working the Great Lakes and came to Duluth.
- [13:02]
Kaylee Matuszak (Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center Staff)
Often we do say it, like in the part of our script that we read for all the boats coming in, when the one for the Anderson does say that it's the last vessel that had visual, radio and radar contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sometimes people don't realize that. Like, they'll hear the name and go, oh, it's got to be a different one. Surely nothing's been sailing that long, because they don't realize how long freshwater ships could stick around, you know. But, yeah, people do come down here, like, specifically for the Anders, specifically because of that.
- [13:27]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The museum ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie is itself a retired laker. Built in 1917 and retired in 1966, the ship's holds now contain exhibits on maritime history. Curator Paul Sabrin speaks with many visitors who come to see artifacts, including the Edmund Fitzgerald's lifeboats, the boats that could not be used. On November 10, 1975, we asked what it's like when family members of the Edmund Fitzgerald's crew visit the exhibit.
- [13:55]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
Very, very emotional. It's very, very emotional. I can only repeat it one more time. It's very emotional because they introduce themselves. Then I get the opportunity to be able to spend as much time as I can.
- [14:10]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Sabrin has participated in the annual memorial ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
- [14:15]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
It was very emotional because I know that the executive director, Bruce Lynn of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society inquired with me and said, paul, are you interested in ring? Well, see, definitely. And it was an honor on my behalf to be able to ring it for Captain McSorley. My wife was there and she was saying, paul, are you okay? I think I was shaking. I think I was wondering, what is it? And I went there and I pretty much set the tone, if I would say, because I pulled as hard as I could so that it could be heard.
- [14:52]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The ship's Belle was removed from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on July 4, 1995, in an expedition conducted by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, the National Geographic Society, the Canadian Navy, the Sony Corporation, and the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians. The bell is now on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. In 2006, Canada passed a law declaring three Great Lakes shipwrecks, including the Edmund Fitzgerald, to be marine heritage sites, forbidden to visit by diving or submersible without explicit permission from the government. Prior to that, there were a number of expeditions to the wreck by submersible, but in only one case are people known to have scuba dived to the site. In 1995, Terence Teysol and Mike Z. Dove to the wreck together in what remains the dead deepest shipwreck scuba dive in Great Lakes history. Here's Terence Teisal speaking about how the diver's support vessel remained in place over the shipwreck.
- [15:53]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
Since it is such a sensitive site, we were very careful not to hook into the wreck or use any of those traditional techniques like you throw gravel down or hook it or go down and chain into it or anchor the boat to it or anything like that, because we, we didn't. We were trying to be extremely sensitive to the. To everybody's sensitivities about the wreck. And so he. We literally utilized a drop camera that enabled him to keep the. The vessel on station effectively over the wreck.
- [16:22]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The divers knew they would not have much time.
- [16:25]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
We planned on a short bottom time, approximately 15 minutes or so to go down there. Yes, this is the. The Fitzgerald. And, you know, and we wanted to go on the upright portion of it, which is, of course, the bow third, roughly. You know, the midships is pretty much disintegrated. And we got a good position over it. Our support team helped us get ready. We were diving big steel tanks with another tank of what we call travel gas mounted between those. The camera had gone a little deep, and we were just to the port side of the wreck. I mean, literally, it was an arm's length away. And, you know, having seen the stuff from the old Navy footage, the curb that I think went down originally and then some other ghostly photographs, I mean, it was quite obviously you could see, was the Fitzgerald. And we went all the way down to the bottom because we were following the camera. And that's where I have carried one of my first impressions of it, because it's mud, clay bottom. And to this day, I don't know if I've seen blocks of clay of this size. I mean, so it looks as if the ship is just steaming, almost like an icebreaker through blocks of clay, I mean, meters, like maybe meters thick that are just coming away and they have that distinct panting on them and then basil layer on the top and then. So we, to be there and then we were looking at our gas. It took us a bit longer than we thought to descend. I bet it took us close to almost 10 minutes to descend the, the full length. But I remember as we. I said, all right, let's turn around, let's go up to the main deck level and then the wheelhouse, which is right there. And you know, just, just to see the, the name on it. And I tend to be a very kinesthetic person. And so one of the things that. It was kind of a relief, it's like, okay, we've a lot has gone into this, you know, we're, we're here. And so to me, it was just the most natural thing in the world to just, you know, there's the rail right, sitting outside of the wheelhouse and just to just watch my hands wrap around that rail. I mean, that was a really important moment to me. It's the first time that a living hand had touched that thing in decades.
- [18:36]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Tysol and Z planned to make more dives, but the weather kicked up and that proved impossible. The divers emphasized that their intentions were respectful, and at the request of crew members, families, they did not release any images they captured during their dive. Still, the fact that they had successfully dived to the Edmund Fitzgerald demonstrated that it could be done and might be done again, perhaps by divers with fewer scruples about leaving the wreck undisturbed. Still, Tysol points out that the strong prohibition on visiting the Fitzgerald is highly unusual when compared to other shipwrecks.
- [19:08]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
And I've been on countless wrecks, including some with human remains in the Great Lakes, where you can see the skeletal remains of, of people there. And I've been in U boats and, gosh, wrecks in the. I mean, all over the world, warships and other ships that many people have died on. And I've never seen a diver that I've been involved with ever act with anything of the utmost reverence. I mean, like, we put plaques down on the Atlanta and Guadalcanal and a wreck that we did called the Athabascan, which was Canada's largest warship sunk in World War II. We had survivors on the surface that took us aside. They watched us dive them, they looked at our footage with us each day. We visited the graves of their comrades with them, of the ones that were buried. But one of the most poignant moments on that is one of the survivors took us as a side and pressed in my hand his German POW tags that he had to wear once they were captured. And he asked if I would personally take that down to the wreck so that that could be with his shipmates. I mean, this is the spirit in which we visit these wrecks.
- [20:16]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The extraordinary protection given to the Edmund Fitzgerald reflects the extraordinary amount of attention paid to that particular shipwreck. The annual memorial ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, when the ship's actual bell is rung in the presence of family members, is streamed online, but no longer open for the public to attend in person. Bruce Lynn explains why.
- [20:36]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
And every November 10th, when we host our memorial ceremony leading up until the pandemic, we had it open to the public. We were honored. We loved it. The people really wanted to be a part of this, but it really got to the point where we couldn't stay ahead of it. That museum gallery, it's relatively small. A fire marshal would have shut us down on any of those November 10ths because we had so many people coming through, people wanting to be a part of it to the point where standing room only in the entire gallery, people standing in the exhibits, which I thought, somehow I can't stop what I'm doing in the middle of this ceremony, but I really need that guy to get out of that exhibit is running through my mind as we're doing this. So we had so many people, and then even when we had, let's say as an example, the 40th anniversary, we opened up multiple other buildings and then were able to live stream it inside those buildings. We just couldn't stay ahead of it. We even had people standing in line going from the opening doors of the open doors of the museum all the way out to the lighthouse itself. It's. I don't know how many, what are we talking, 30, 40, 50 yards or more? Actually more. And we just couldn't handle those numbers. That was one thing. But something else happened that made me decide that we really needed to close this down to the public and then do a live stream in general where anybody, anywhere in the world, if they have WI fi, could see this, this memorial ceremony that we would do. But what actually happened was there were a few people that, in a low level way, but it was happening all the same, were kind of harassing some of the Fitzgerald family members a little bit. You know, you had one gentleman who, you know, he was, maybe he was an author and he wanted interviews with them. We had another individual who had some interesting, what I might call or describe as conspiracy theories about why the Fitzgerald sank, and he wouldn't let it rest with some of the family members. And so when, when we finish up that ceremony, there's a big crowd, obviously inside the gallery. Everybody's talking, people are filtering out. But if you can see someone will not let it rest with a family member or two or more, then we start thinking a little differently about how we do this. And that's ultimately how we ended up shifting gears and making it a private ceremony for the Fitzgerald family members. That's really all it was ever meant to be in the first place.
- [22:40]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
You may have noticed that we did not speak with any of those family members for this podcast. Bruce Lynn said he would mention to family representatives that this project was happening, but we didn't push any interview requests. Over the years, these family members have told their stories at times and places of their choosing. A number of family members talked with author John Bacon for his new book, the Gales of November. Bacon told us some of the things he learned about what it like to work on a laker like the Edmund Fitzgerald.
- [23:07]
John Bacon (Author)
The incredible sacrifices of these families. You don't have a dad for nine months out of the year. How is that not going to hurt? It hurts everybody. And I. My dad is around. I can't imagine what that was like, truly. So the sacrifices made before you get to the shipwreck were also, I think, a big part of the story. Just this hard lifestyle, that it's the daughters, you know, the wives, the sons and the daughters, as life says, who paid the price, as well as the husbands. And John Hayes gave me a great line about this from his 35 years in the sea and the Great Lakes, that you take your family photos, you put them down on the table when you start the season, and you don't turn them over till we. Till only a week is left. Why? Because it's too hard. You can't see your kids and your wife every day and not get incredibly homesick. And John Tanner, as tough as they come, he said the songs we played in the jukeboxes in Duluth and Two Harbors in Silver Bay, most of them are about homesickness. And I thought, yeah, that kind of makes sense. You know, Brandy, you're a fine girl, of course, sitting on the dock of the bay, all these songs, they play them a lot.
- [24:14]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
In addition to the ceremony at Whitefish Point, there's also an annual memorial ceremony at Split Rock Lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Superior near Two Harbors. Hayes Scriven, the lighthouse's site director, told us why they hold the Ceremony.
- [24:28]
Hayes Scriven (Split Rock Lighthouse Site Director)
A lot of people do wonder, why are you doing this? And my response is, well, I know a couple of the crew members were from the north shore area and the south shore area, so there's some local connections there. There's still a lot of family that live in the area. But also, you notice that, and I've seen this too, that there's a lot of people. Anybody that lives around Lake Superior, it feels like one big community to me. And you can just see, see that in events like this and in Lake Superior Day and other events that happen around the lake, anything that happens, you feel connected to those people. And I think this event is a really good, like, epitome of that or culmination of that, where it is just all these people coming together for one thing, that affected them back, you know, almost 50 years ago. And I think that's why it has the draw that it does and that it has the connection and the emotional response that a lot of people still have to it.
- [25:14]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Split Rock Lighthouse House was retired in 1969, and now its beacon is rarely lit. It is, however, lit every year on November 10th in memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The beacon was also lit in May 2023 to mark the passing of Gordon Lightfoot.
- [25:30]
Hayes Scriven (Split Rock Lighthouse Site Director)
You know, the event started because Lee Radzak heard Gordon lightfoot's song on November 10th of 1985, was inspired to go out and light the beacon. Some neighbors saw it, they started showing up. You know, since then, you know, we've had more and more people come and want to be a part of it for us because. Because it. Of the nature of the event and how solemn it is and why we're doing this. We're doing this to honor the crew, the fits and everybody else that lost their life.
- [25:52]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Each November in Duluth, a conference called Gales of November brings people together from across the country to talk about not just the Edmund Fitzgerald, but the entire past and present of maritime activity on the Great Lakes. Here's Rob Hoffman of the Lake Superior Marine Museum association, which organizes the conference.
- [26:09]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
What we try to do is to.
- [26:11]
Rob Hoffman (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association)
Commemorate the loss of the Edmunds Fitzgerald.
- [26:13]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
Through storytelling, but also in a way.
- [26:17]
Rob Hoffman (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association)
Celebrating the vitality of Lake Superior.
- [26:20]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
When we retell the story and the bell is tolled and on their anniversary.
- [26:25]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
And things of that, and reminded of those things, yes, I think our attention.
- [26:28]
Rob Hoffman (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association)
Goes to Lake Superior, the awesomeness of.
- [26:30]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Lake Superior, the immensity of what it means. In the 50 years since the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes have not experienced another wreck of that scale. Why what's changed? The most obvious answer is that weather forecasting has improved tremendously. Sarah Summersliedke, director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor center, said there have been additional safety improvements implemented since 1975.
- [27:01]
Kaylee Matuszak (Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center Staff)
One thing that the Fitzgerald didn't have was a sonar that was able to see underneath them or below them. So one of the theories was that they ran on, ran aground or ran into a shoal or something, and if they would have had that, that equipment, that technology, they might have avoided that if that's what happened. And there have been improvements to Coast Guard safety drills and training exercises. So, you know, sometimes safety gets. We get complacent about safety if we do the same things in and out every day. But it's important to keep those safety tips in mind because when you're out there in an environment that's like the, like Lake Superior, anything can happen, and it's important to be prepared for those. So. And we do see a lot of vessels not traveling during really bad storms, like during the Fitzgerald, and even weather predictions and getting that information, information from the shore to the ships. It has made significant improvements. So mariners get like, real time almost readings from the buoys, the water, the weather buoys that are out in the Great Lakes now. So all those changes are really impacting the safety in a positive manner for today's mariners.
- [28:11]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Still, Frederick Stonehouse, who has been studying the wreck for decades, said he's disappointed that more has not been done. In addition, Stonehouse points out that Great Lakes freighter captains are more conservative today as well, in part because they need to be.
- [28:26]
Rob Hoffman (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association)
We're driving a lot of old iron onto Great Lakes. I mean, we have got old ships, and as a result, the captains are driving them like they're old ships. In other words, they're taking great care with them. When we've got foul weather coming in, they're not afraid to go to port. They're not afraid not to leave portrait port. If you pop open your AIs and watch it during a storm, you'll see the ships all huddled up in Whitefish Bay and huddled up at the point. Yeah, under the Keweenaw Point and then down by Beta Gree, you'll see them all over the lakes, tucked down in a way trebler weather. The only ones you see out in the open would be the salties that don't know any better. So I think the human reaction has certainly taken place to mitigate the scale of the disaster that could occur.
- [29:12]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Anyway, for Stonehouse, it's worth telling and retelling the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
- [29:18]
Rob Hoffman (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association)
What I've watched is I've watched the family members go from the upsetness of it all, their family members being in the public eye because of the wreck, et cetera, et cetera, and a value being placed on that, that's negative. In other words, my family members were impacted and died on this wreck. And we don't think you should be doing this in terms of selling books or doing movies or TV shows or sweatshirts or T shirts, etc. First is the argument that says the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald is a wreck that is important to all of us because it tells us a story of shipwreck, of survival, the big lake. It tells us a story of how people action, tells us the story of our own history of lake shipping today, tomorrow, and where it's going to be in five or six years. It also keeps that story alive in front of us. It keeps it that everlasting tale of shipwreck, everlasting tale of the Fitzgerald that now has come to mean all ships on the Great Lakes. All of them now are wrapped into the legend of the Fitzgerald and the. And Fitzgerald itself has moved on to being an icon.
- [30:29]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Bruce Lynn at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum hopes the attention drawn to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald reminds people of the important work that has been done and is being done by mariners working on the Great Lakes and potentially risking their lives.
- [30:42]
Bruce Lynn (Director, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)
We get wrapped up in the ship. What did the ship look like or what kind of a ship was it? And sometimes the crew of that ship, whatever that ship may be, but at times can take a back backseat to the ship itself or the story. Those final moments, they were all crew, they all had families, and they were all part of this broader part of our history, that there's a huge importance to what those ships are doing out there today. There was a huge importance to what they were doing back then. It just was a lot less safe for them to be out there. Back then versus now.
- [31:11]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The crew members were not just names, but people. And before Edmund Fitzgerald was the name of a ship, it was. It was the name of a person, a person who didn't even want his name painted on the hull of a freighter. When author L. Andrew Warner was working on her book about the Edmund Fitzgerald, she received a call from an unexpected source.
- [31:29]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
The son of Edmund Fitzgerald, the one that's named out the ship is named after. He got ahold of me. Somehow he knew I was writing a book.
- [31:35]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
I wasn't in contact with him before and he said his dad like was 80 when the ship went down.
- [31:41]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
That's what he said.
- [31:42]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
So, so he said at the funeral. He took his dad to the funeral.
- [31:45]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
Because his dad wanted to go. Doctor said no, but he always felt.
- [31:48]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
Somehow because his name was attached to.
- [31:50]
Paul Sabrin (Curator, Museum Ship Valley Camp)
It, it was his fault that he was to blame. Somehow he carried that with him.
- [31:54]
Jay Gabler (Narrator)
The 29 men who were on the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975 are still on the ship, their remains resting at the bottom of Lake Superior. We now know that was already the case when the Arthur M. Anderson turned around and risked its own cruise safety to search for the Edmund Fitzgerald. There were other ships that joined the search as well, among them the William Clay Ford, which was already at anchor when it set out to look for survivors. The Arthur M. Anderson is still afloat and was hauling ore until the 202425 shipping season. Since the end of that shipping season, the Anderson has been docked in Toledo in what the shipping industry terms long term layup. It is unknown whether the ship will ever work the lake again. A sailor who was on the Anderson that night told John Bacon, they went back out because that's what you do and they would have done it for us. The last time the Anderson arrived in Duluth, possibly the last time it will ever arrive in Duluth, it was a foggy night, December 27, 2024. As the Anderson passed beneath the aerial lift bridge, the ship and the bridge exchanged a master's salute instead of the more typical three Blast salute. A five Blast Masters salute is used to signify a special occasion. In this audio from the Duluth Harbor Cam, you can hear that exchange of horns and you can hear the cheers of people who lined the piers recognizing the ship whose crew 50 years ago did everything they could to help those 29 men locked in a life and death battle with the gales of November on board the Edmund Fitzgerald World. Edmund Fitzgerald fifty Years Below is a production of the Duluth News Tribune. This podcast is written and narrated by Jay Gabler with audio engineering by Wyatt Buckner and Dan Williams. The audio of this episode was edited by Wyatt Buckner. Our editors on this project are Katie Roman and Barrett Chase, and our executive editor is Rick Lubbers. Original score composed by William Brueggeman. This episode's Newsweek excerpt was read by Barrett Chase. Thanks to our guests on this L Andrew Warner, John U. Bacon, David James Carlson, John Crowley, Rob Hoffman, Bruce Lynn, Kayleigh Matuszak, Paul Sabrin, Hayes Scribbon, Dave Strandberg, Sarah Summers Liepke, Frederick Stonehouse and Terence Tysall. Thanks also to Duluth Harbor Cam for permission to use audio from the arrival of the Arthur M. Anderson. Read more stories about the Edmund Fitzgerald and learn more about this podcast@duluthnewstribune.com. In closing, we remember the last crew of the edmund fitzgerald gordon mcclellan, joseph mays, thomas benson, ralph walton, blaine wilhelm, oliver champeau, russell haskell, paul ripa, mark thomas, carl peckall, thomas edwards, edward bindon, george hall, nolan church, frederick beecher, alan kallman, robert rafferty, david weiss, bruce hudson, william spengler, ransom cundy, thomas bergeson, john poviak, eugene o', brien, john simmons, michael armagost, james pratt, john mccarthy and ernest mcsorley.