8:45 AM | *The role of the weather in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on November 10th, 1975*

Colorized IR satellite image on November 10, 1975; courtesy University of Wisconsin, NOAA

Overview

Forty-six years have passed since a major storm over the Great Lakes helped to sink the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior taking the lives of all 29 crew members on November 10th, 1975. When launched on June 7, 1958, it was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and to this day she remains the largest to have sunk there. The Edmund Fitzgerald was in the worst possible location during the worst weather of the ferocious storm. The wind and waves from the west hit the freighter broadside as it tried to flee south to safety in Whitefish Bay. The Edmund Fitzgerald was loaded with about 26,000 tons of taconite pellets on November 9th, 1975, at Superior, Wisconsin and was bound for Detroit, Michigan when the storm hit.

The Storm

Storms on the Great Lakes can rival hurricanes in their intensity and the one that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald had sustained winds of 67 mph, gusts up to 86 mph, and waves reported up to 35 feet according to another vessel in the area that survived the storm. On November 8, 1975, a storm was brewing in the center part of the country and it headed northeastward towards the Great Lakes. On November 9 at 7 p.m. the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a gale warning for Lake Superior. The NWS predicted east to northeasterly winds during the night, shifting to NW to N by the afternoon of November 10. At approximately 10:40 p.m., the NWS revised its forecast for eastern Lake Superior to easterly winds becoming southeasterly the morning of the 10th. At about 2:00 am on November 10th the NWS upgraded the gale warning to a storm warning (winds 48-55 knots) with a prediction of "northeast winds 35 to 50 knots becoming northwesterly 28 to 38 knots on Monday, waves 8 to 15 feet".

US surface weather map on November 10, 1975; courtesy NOAA/NWS

Around 2 a.m. on the 10th the captains of the Anderson – a second freighter caught in the storm that survived - and Edmund Fitzgerald discussed the threatening weather and decided to change their route. This safer route would take them northward, toward the coast of Canada. The northern route would protect them from the waves that the storm generated. At 3 am, the winds were reportedly coming from the northeast at 42 knots. The Anderson and Edmund Fitzgerald proceeded together with the Edmund Fitzgerald ahead of the Anderson. They had radio contact and the Anderson's radar located the position of the Edmund Fitzgerald. At 7 am on the 10th, the intensifying storm passed over Marquette, Michigan and it started to move across Lake Superior.

There was an intensification of the Great Lakes storm system in a twelve hour period from 993 millibars at 00Z on 10 November 1975 to 982 millibars at 12Z 10 November 1975. Maps courtesy Marquette National Weather Service (NOAA)

On the afternoon of November 10th, an important wind shift took place. At 2:45 p.m. the winds had backed to NW and were still strong at 42 knots. Steady winds at 43 knots and waves of up to 12 and 16 feet were reported by the Anderson. At around this time, the Edmund Fitzgerald contacted the Anderson and reported "a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged and a list” (a list is when a ship leans to one side). A shift of winds to the NW is very important, as this increased the fetch allowing large waves to build. The Edmund Fitzgerald and Anderson were no longer protected by land.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.

Late on the afternoon of the 10th, the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald made radio contact with another ship, the Avafor, and reported that they "had a bad list, had lost both radars, and was taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas he had ever been in." Captain McSorely was a seasoned sailor of the Great Lakes with 44 years of experience and this incredibly was to be his final voyage before retirement. At 7 p.m., the Anderson made radio contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald and had her on their radar. When asked how the Edmund Fitzgerald was making out (around 7:10 pm) they replied "we are holding our own". Shortly afterwards the Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from the Anderson's radar screen. No distress signals were ever issued. The Anderson reported the missing Edmund Fitzgerald to the U.S. Coast Guard. After conducting a heroic, but futile search of the area for survivors, the Anderson entered into the protection of Whitefish Bay from the stormy Lake Superior in the early hours of November 11. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 530 feet of water about 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, near the cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The most probable tracks and positions of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald (red) and Arthur M. Anderson (blue) based upon reports of their position and information contained in the NTSB78.  Final position of the Edmund Fitzgerald is 46.99°N, 85.11°W.

Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald was made famous one year later by Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot's who was inspired to write the ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976, Moose Music, Ltd.) after reading an article about the tragedy in Newsweek. He included the song on his 1976 album Summertime Dream, and the nearly six-minute single reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year and became Lightfoot’s second-most successful hit (his most successful hit was Sundown which went to #1 on the charts in June 1974).

The song was a tribute to the ship wreck and to the men who lost their lives. Some of the lyrics of the song made it sound as though the crew knew they were doomed. In reality, it is believed that the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was very rapid and it is likely they did not know the seriousness of their condition. Indeed, after the wreck a severely damaged life boat was found and only part of the second. The condition of the lifeboats suggests that no attempts were made to leave the ship.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
[Former version:] That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
[Latter version:] That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
'Twas the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Saying, "Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya."
[Former version:] At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
[Latter version:] At seven PM it grew dark, it was then
He said, "Fellas, it's been good to know ya."

The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

[Former version:] In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
[Latter version:] In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

-Gordon Lightfoot, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976) [Credit to azlyrics.com for the lyrics].

[If you now have a strong desire to listen to the song, click here for the video courtesy YouTube].

This map shows the shipwreck locations during the “Great Storm of 1913” (listed below)

More on Great Lakes shipping disasters

Incredibly, in the past 300 years, about 30,000 people have died in 10,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Other shipping disasters on the Great Lakes, in which weather played a role include:
• Nov. 11, 1913: eighteen ships were lost killing 254 people.
• Nov. 11-13, 1940: 57 men died when three freighters sank in Lake Michigan.
• Nov. 18 1958: 33 men died on Lake Michigan with the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley.
• Nov. 29, 1966: Daniel J. Morrell sank in Lake Huron killing the 28 crew members.

The list of weather-related ship disasters are all from the month of November mainly as a result of ice-buildup that typically inhibits shipping in the Great Lakes during the months of December, January and February.

One final note, an annual Edmund Fitzgerald memorial ceremony takes place on the anniversary date at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point (Michigan). The recovered and restored bell tolls 29 times for each member of the crew, and a 30th time for the estimated 30,000 mariners lost on the Great Lakes.

Meteorologist Paul Dorian
King of Prussia, PA