Photos: Looking back at the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Perhaps no other Great Lakes shipwreck has as much notoriety as the ill-fated SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729-foot iron ore carrier that sunk to the bottom of Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, during a fierce November gale. All 29 crew members died.
The ship set off from Superior, Wisconsin, on Nov. 9, carrying iron ore pellets from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to be processed in Detroit. Early in the morning of Nov. 10, the ship encountered winds as strong as 80 mph and waves more than 30 feet high. The 729-foot ship took on water and eventually snapped in two, plunging more than 500 feet to the lake bottom, where it remains.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, and all 29 crew members died in a powerful storm known as a panhandle hooker.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald, a Great Lakes ore carrier, took on water and snapped in two during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975, on Lake Superior, plunging 556 feet to the lake bottom.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior is seen in this photo of the 729-foot vessel, resting in two pieces 530 feet below the surface. It was taken from the submarine Celia during a 1994 dive.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The 729-foot ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a roiling Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
A bright moon shines over the horizon near the decommissioned Split Rock Lighthouse on Nov. 10, 2019, in Two Harbors, Minn. The lighthouse, only lit for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes each year, was lit to honor the lives of the 29 men that died aboard the SS Edmund Fitzgerald 44 years earlier.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
In 1975, the ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald mysteriously sank during a storm in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crew members.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 feet long.
Front page of Minneapolis Tribune
The front page of the Minneapolis Tribune on Nov. 12, 1975, recounted news of the shipwreck.
Front page of Wisconsin State Journal
The front page of the Wisconsin State Journal on Nov. 12, 1975, shared news of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
29 feared lost as ship sinks in Lake Superior
The initial account of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, as it appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal on Nov. 12, 1975.
29 aboard ship feared lost
The continuation of the Associated Press story that appeared in the Nov. 12, 1975, edition of the Wisconsin State Journal.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, and all 29 crew members died in a powerful storm known as a panhandle hooker.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald, a Great Lakes ore carrier, took on water and snapped in two during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975, on Lake Superior, plunging 556 feet to the lake bottom.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior is seen in this photo of the 729-foot vessel, resting in two pieces 530 feet below the surface. It was taken from the submarine Celia during a 1994 dive.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
A bright moon shines over the horizon near the decommissioned Split Rock Lighthouse on Nov. 10, 2019, in Two Harbors, Minn. The lighthouse, only lit for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes each year, was lit to honor the lives of the 29 men that died aboard the SS Edmund Fitzgerald 44 years earlier.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
In 1975, the ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald mysteriously sank during a storm in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crew members.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 feet long.
Front page of Minneapolis Tribune
The front page of the Minneapolis Tribune on Nov. 12, 1975, recounted news of the shipwreck.
Front page of Wisconsin State Journal
The front page of the Wisconsin State Journal on Nov. 12, 1975, shared news of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
A program that has pumped $2.7 billion into healing long-term injuries to the Great Lakes environment has received authorization from Congress to continue another five years.
The Kenosha County Dive Rescue Team is picking up the pieces after its boat, which was participating in a rescue search on Tuesday, suddenly took on water and sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
On June 8, 1984, an F5 tornado ripped through the Iowa County village of Barneveld, killing nine people and destroying most of the small commu…
The Great Ice Storm of March 1976 knocked television stations off the air, caused Madison's reservoirs to dry up and left more than 600,000 Wi…
Tamara Thomsen is a marine archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society and has documented hundreds of dives in the Yahara lakes. She a…
The worst snowstorm thought to ever hit Wisconsin brought two blizzards in a single week in March 1881, with drifts up to 40 feet high. All ra…
