Fitzgerald sinking was told in multiple runs

By Brady Slater bslater@duluthnews.com

Days and nights of news gathering can blend together in a stew of memories that make it hard to discern a timeline.

But former Duluth News-Tribune editor Tod Chadwick remembers the night, almost 45 years ago, when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.

“It was one of the more memorable nights I’ve had there, that’s for certain,” Chadwick said, describing how an already busy news night boiled over into unforgettable territory.

Chadwick was the “slot man,” or nightly news editor, when the city editor burst from the composing room at 424 W. First St. downtown Duluth to say that a boat was missing on Lake Superior.

“I said, ‘That’s all I need,’” the 73-year-old former editor said. He sprang into action on a night that would take him past 3 a.m.

At the time, the News-Tribune, since renamed without the hyphen, featured one of the largest distribution areas in all of Knight Ridder, including separate editions for the Iron Range, South Shore, Superior and Duluth.

The newsroom and press operators would make over the paper between printing runs, swapping out plates and updating stories as the night went along. On the night the Fitzgerald sank, Chadwick sent the paper’s waterfront reporter, the late Richard L. Pomeroy, in search of answers.

“Dick was a damn good reporter, and was trying to reach everybody in the industry,” Chadwick said. “It was getting late and it was a horrible storm.”

The first edition of the paper went out featuring “a blurb” about the missing freighter, he said. As the night wore on, bits and pieces were added and the press operators were left to scramble with each added detail.

“I made over Page 1 seven times that night,” Chadwick said, describing “running makeovers,” which would stop the press in mid-run as a new front page plate was updated.

In the end, Pomeroy was able to include a sidebar about the frightening history of the gales of November on the lake to go with the early report about the ore ship and its 29 crew members being feared lost.

“We didn’t have that much that night,” Chadwick said, underselling the effort.

Later the same day, the Duluth Herald, then the afternoon daily, featured a more thorough story that had the benefit of a full morning’s worth of reporting.

“The Fitzgerald was fairly new and one of the bigger vessels on the lake at the time,” Chadwick said. “It was a shock to everybody.” u