It’s been 50 years since the storied Edmund Fitzgerald and all 29 of its crew members perished during one of the worst recorded storms on Lake Superior.
While much time has passed since Nov. 10, 1975, the sinking of the large freighter about 60 km from Sault Ste. Marie still sits atop the most famous events to have ever taken place on the Great Lakes.
Bruce Lynn, the executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, said it’s no secret why.
“As much as we like to think we do a great job of keeping the memory alive, we really can’t hold a candle to Gordon Lightfoot,” Lynn said. “If it wasn’t for him, it would be a fraction of the people now who know about this story and this ship.”
Lightfoot’s 1976 song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald retells the story of the ship’s fateful end through a folk-rock lens. It’s considered by many to be the Canadian singer-songwriter’s greatest hit.
Officials with the shipwreck museum at the Whitefish Point Light Station in Michigan — roughly an hour from Sault Ste. Marie — will honour Lightfoot, the boat and its crew members Monday in what’s projected to be among the biggest ceremonies they’ve ever hosted.
Later that evening, a private ceremony will be held for family members of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s crew.
“We’ve been getting calls from people for more than three months,” Lynn said. “People have been asking how soon they can be there or how early to get a parking spot. They’re utterly fascinated by this story and by the shipwreck.”
To this day, Lynn said Lake Superior still hasn’t experienced as violent and turbulent a storm like the one that occurred half a century ago.
“There have been some pretty bad storms, but we haven’t had anything quite as dramatic,” he said. “In 1998, working at the museum I remember sideways rain and 25-30 miles per hour winds. When the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, it was 90-mile per hour winds in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Using marine sonic technology, the museum operates a research vessel that goes out to look for downed ships on the Great Lakes. Since 2021, the museum has found 15 shipwrecks.
“Of course, none of these are the Edmund Fitzgerald, but they all have their own stories,” Lynn explained. “Very much like the Fitzgerald in a lot of cases, quite a few people perished when their ships sank. We try to keep the memory alive of the sailors and the stories of those ships.”
An expedition to the Edmund Fitzgerald site hasn’t happened since July 1995. That year, a team recovered the ship’s bell — which is now rung 30 times every anniversary for each of the crew members and other sailors who have been lost on the Great Lakes.
Protected by the Ontario Heritage Act, the site is off limits to expeditions. A trip down would only be approved today if there was some sort of scientific value in going, or if there were new details that emerged into exactly how the ship sank, Lynn said.
“We don’t advocate for [going back down],” he said. “We have a pretty close understanding with the surviving family members. I’m not sure what else can be gained.”
Few people are more appreciative of Gordon Lightfoot’s legacy through the Edmund Fitzgerald than Jerry Popiel — a singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio.
A search and rescue specialist with the U.S. coast guard by day, Popiel has worked on all five Great Lakes and has experienced some nasty storms himself.
“I got a very big appreciation for the size of the waves and how intense they can be on the Great Lakes,” he said. “The feeling I get with the ship with its bow under water, shuttering and shaking — it’s a feeling I’ve never had before.”
Having recorded a cover of Lightfoot’s iconic song, Popiel recently released a music video to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.
The video contains rarely seen footage of actual case files from the search and rescue operation, which includes search plots, message traffic and other related articles from 1975.
“I thought it would be a good thing to show on this 50th anniversary — a little behind the scenes on the search part of it,” he said.
Living near Lake Erie at the time of the sinking, Popiel is just old enough to remember when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.
“I was about five years old, and I remember my dad coming out the day after saying a big freighter just sank in Lake Superior,” he recalled. “I was both interested in shipping and Gordon Lightfoot, which led to me becoming a singer-songwriter and working in the Maritime business.”
Popiel believes the 50th anniversary is a great opportunity to review what’s known about the ship while acknowledging the competing theories about what ultimately caused the large freighter to meet its end.
He also encourages people to take a few minutes out of their day and listen to Lightfoot’s nostalgic hit.
“It’s an eternal song,” Popiel said. “It says the message and carries the pathos of the event. There have been other ship sinkings since then, and none of them are known as well as the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
