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July 31, 2025

Page 1

July 31, 2025

Volume 55 - No. 31

Her Last Voyage

by lyle e davis It was a sunny afternoon on that 9th day of November, 1975. The captain and crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald knew full well that November is referred to as “The Month of Storms” on the Great Lakes but, at the time, under the warming sun, they didn’t seem to be too concerned. Little did the 29 man crew know

that they would soon face one of the biggest and worst storms that their Captain had ever seen. Nor would they know that they would soon perish beneath the cold, angry waters of Lake Superior and become part of a legend. The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed in books, film and media only by that of the Titanic.

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Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot inspired popular interest in this vessel with his 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The 729 foot Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, heavy with 26,918 long tons of iron ore (taconite) pellets. She was bound for the steel mills of Zug Island, just off Detroit. Shortly after leaving, she made radio contact with the Arthur M. Anderson, a sister ship, soon to

leave the same port, and bound for the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Eyewitnesses recall that it was an unseasonably beautiful day, and recall seeing the Fitz pass with off duty staff sunning themselves on the Fitz’s always pristine decks. They were the last from shore to see the ship afloat. On November 9 at 7 pm the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a

Edmund Fitzgerald See Page 2


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