- A new book explores the history of the Edmund Fitzgerald, from construction to sinking
- The freighter’s living and dining quarters were luxurious to attract the best crew
- The 50th anniversary of the sinking is Nov. 10.
This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan (bridgemi.com), a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter here (https://bit.ly/BridgeMichiganNewsletter).
On a balmy November day in Duluth, Minn., the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald embarked on his last voyage before retiring. One day later, as a Canadian songwriter was struggling to find the words for a sea shanty he was writing, that ore freighter was being tossed around on 30-foot waves in Lake Superior.
Nov. 10 marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. All 29 sailors aboard were killed in a massive storm, a tragedy that was immortalized in a song by Gordon Lightfoot.
Michigan native and New York Times best-selling author John U. Bacon’s latest book, “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” chronicles the story of the ore carrier, from construction to its final tragic trip, interviewing family members and sailors who had worked on the ship before the wreck.
The book offers details of the ship, crew and sinking that surprised even the author, who has been fascinated by the Edmund Fitzgerald since childhood.
“Trust me,” Bacon told Bridge Michigan, “90% of this has not been told before.”
In a written and video interviews, Bacon spoke with Bridge about his latest book, which hits bookstores Oct. 7.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
You spent almost four years on this book. What surprised you?
I’ve been in and on all five of the Great Lakes, but it’s amazing how little I really knew about them: how big they are — larger than all of New England, plus New York state; how much we depend on shipping — the cement in your basement, the steel in your car, the food on your table, it all comes from Great Lakes shipping.
The Great Lakes are actually more dangerous than the ocean for shippers. It’s not even close. Salt water actually pushes down (ocean waves, to be like) a soft roller coaster. Great Lakes waves are pointy and they’re close together.
There (were) 6,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks between 1875 and 1975, one a week on average; 30,000 men and women drowned. That’s one a day for 100 years. That’s how dangerous these lakes are.
Everybody’s heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald now, but was it well-known before the sinking?
It was a rock star, the most popular ship on the Great Lakes. When it went through the Soo Locks, the crowds would gather twice as much as (for) anybody else. It was for a long time the biggest, one of the fastest, (hauling) the most cargo. It broke every record in the Great Lakes for one trip for a season, and it did it repeatedly up until the ‘70s.
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This was the be all and end all of Great Lakes shipping.
Something I never knew until reading your book was how luxurious the living and dining quarters of the Fitzgerald were. Why did the owners spend money to make an ore carrier feel like a cruise ship?
They went all out, hiring the legendary JL Hudson’s to create the best accommodations for crew and visiting VIPs alike. One reporter described the VIP state rooms and viewing lounge as “Certainly the equal of anything then available on commercial ocean liners.”
But why should an ore carrier spend good money on carpeting, air conditioning, wood paneling and a world-class kitchen? Not to indulge the crew and clients, but to help attract and retain the very best crewmen at every position and make sure their clients kept hiring them to haul their cargo. Seen in this light, the Fitzgerald’s luxurious amenities weren’t a lavish waste but a very shrewd wager, which earned a robust return on investment.
The sinking occurred on the last load of the season?
This was going to be (Captain Ernest McSorley’s) last trip. He was 63 years old. He promised his wife, Nellie, who was sick, (that he would) retire after that trip. At least five of his colleagues, his buddies, were going to retire also.
Their last trip was going to be the week before. But he tacked on one more, because he would get a nice bonus. He needed that bonus to pay for his wife’s health care.
He was not a greedy man who had not put his crew in peril. But this one more trip seemed easy. The day they left, the weather was in the 70s in Duluth. No wind. Perfect day.
I’ve always assumed the sinking was a fluke of nature, but your book suggests that human decisions may have made the boat more susceptible to such a tragedy.
A lot of authors have devoted entire books to push their theories that the Fitzgerald sank due to this or that. But in my opinion the ship’s demise was more likely the result of many factors, which tragically came together at exactly the wrong place and the wrong time. The list includes:
- The inherently unstable design of all these ships, which are very long and thin to carry the maximum cargo through the narrow Soo Locks, but are vulnerable in heavy seas
- The Fitzgerald’s architects’ decision to employ modular construction and use thousands of welds instead of rivets;
- The US Coast Guard lowering the Fitzgerald’s required “free board” (the portion of the ship above water when fully loaded) from almost 15 feet to less than 12 feet – a huge difference, putting more stress on the ship than it was designed to handle;
- A big storm coming in from Canada called the Alberta Clipper, bringing cold, dry winds; another huge system coming up from the Southwest carrying warm, wet air; and the fact that Sunday, Nov. 9, the day the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, was in the 70s – a bad sign, because the longer winter takes to get to the Great Lakes, the angrier it arrives;
- Just about everything that could break broke, including both long- and short-distance radars, the lighthouse lights and signals that could guide the Fitzgerald to safety and more;
- Captain McSorley’s decision to take the “northern route,” along the east, north, and west borders of Lake Superior — an uncharacteristically cautious move, intended to avoid the worst of the storm. But in this case it simply gave the storm an additional 14 hours to get to the mouth of Whitefish Bay before the Fitzgerald, like a catcher guarding home plate.
There’s more, of course, but that’s enough to put any ship in harm’s way.
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This underwater photo of the sunken SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by an unmanned submersible robot, as a research team investigates the wreck site 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., on August 24, 1989. (Associated Press) -
The largest and longest vessel ever built on the Great Lakes, the 729-foot ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald, slides into the launching basin, on June 7, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan. (Associated Press) -
A 1959 file photo shows the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. (Associated Press) -
In a Nov. 24, 1975 file photo Coast Guard officers on a Board of Inquiry inspected life rings that were recovered from the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald. (Associated Press) -
This 1976 underwater photo shows a close up of the pilot house of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald after it sank at the bottom of Lake Superior. (Associated Press)
John Tanner, the former superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, which had two sailors on the Fitzgerald, said, “I’ve seen 30-foot waves on Lake Superior and it gets ugly fast. Bad things start happening. It’s never just one thing that sinks a ship; it’s a series of events, like dominoes. And if you don’t stop the chain, they can start tumbling fast.”
Many people only know the Edmund Fitzgerald through the Gordon Lightfoot song. What’s the story behind that?
Gordon Lightfoot was a serious sailor. He had won the Port Huron to Mackinac sailing race. He grew up in Toronto on the water, and the night Nov. 10 (1975) that the (Fitzgerald) goes down, he is working on a sea shanty. He’s got the melody in his head, but no words. And that night, around 10 o’clock, he goes down to get a cup of coffee and says to himself, he remembers this distinctly, ‘It must be hell on Superior tonight.’
(The recording itself was a fluke, because Lightfoot had extra time reserved at a recording studio after finishing all his prepared songs for an album early.)
The producer says, ‘Why don’t you try that sea shanty you’ve been messing with?’ They finish 6 ½ minutes later, … and they kind of look around, go, ‘wow, that wasn’t half bad.’
The song you hear on the radio is (a recording of) the first time it was ever played.
It has no chorus, no hook, and it’s six minutes long. But because it tells an incredible story, accurately and honestly, that reaches people — and that includes the families he’s singing about, who play it at family reunions for the grandchildren who never knew their grandfathers.
Did the sinking lead to any changes?
There’s not been one (shipwreck) since Nov. 10, 1975. The national news and frankly the song shocked (the shipping industry) into action.
Forecasting became much better. Communications with the captains on board became much better. But the third thing is common sense, and they didn’t have it before.
Frankly, the ethos always was, go, go, go, any weather, anytime you go.
Even the bean counters figured it out. It’s not worth it, the ship’s not worth it, the cargo is not worth it. And let’s hope men on these ships and women now, let’s hope that they’re worth something too.
It’s been 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared into Lake Superior. Why do you think the public is still fascinated with it?
It’s the song, but it’s also the mystery of the wreck, and really, I think, the endless fascination with shipping on the Great Lakes. As John Tanner told me, “We know the farmer and the fisherman and the factory worker. But no one knows the sailor.”
I sincerely hope this book helps readers understand who these people are, what they do and why it’s so important.
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
