Today is the 10th of November, and the 38th anniversary of one of the most famous shipwrecks in American history.
At 710 pm, fully loaded with iron ore and pushing through 35 ft. waves on Lake Superior, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 530 ft. of water, taking all 29 crewmen with her. Their bodies rest with their ship at the bottom of the lake, a grim reminder of how dangerous their profession was, and still can be. The ships bell was recovered in 1995 and is on display at the
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point, MI.
The SS Fitzgerald is only one of several hundred shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. In 1913, a pair of storm systems collided over Lake Superior and interacted with the relatively warmer water, creating hurricane force winds and snow storms. By the end of it, 19 ships had sank, taking over 250 lives.