Jewell sings.
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 .. Great Lakes freighter. lake freighter. Lake Superior. Lake Superior. Great Lakes. Great Lakes. Superior. Lake Superior. 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 .. Great Lakes. Great Lakes. For 17 years Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth , Minnesota , to iron works in Detroit , Toledo , and other Great Lakes ports .. Great Lakes. Great Lakes. taconite. taconite. iron ore. iron. Detroit. Detroit River. Toledo. Toledo, Ohio. As a `` workhorse , '' she set seasonal haul records six times , often breaking her own previous record .. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship 's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers -LRB- between Lakes Huron and Erie -RRB- , and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks -LRB- between Lakes Superior and Huron -RRB- with a running commentary about the ship .. Detroit. Detroit River. St. Clair. St. Clair River. Huron. Lake Huron. Erie. Lake Erie. Soo Locks. Soo Locks. Superior. Lake Superior. Her size , record-breaking performance , and `` DJ captain '' endeared Fitzgerald to boat watchers .. Disc jockey. Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command , she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior , Wisconsin , near Duluth , on the afternoon of November 9 , 1975 .. Superior. Lake Superior. Ernest M. McSorley. Ernest M. McSorley. En route to a steel mill near Detroit , Fitzgerald joined a second freighter , .. Detroit. Detroit River. By the next day , the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior , with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 ft high .. Lake Superior. Lake Superior. Superior. Lake Superior. severe storm. List of storms on the Great Lakes#Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ( 1975 ). hurricane-force. Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. Shortly after 7 :10 p.m. , Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian -LRB- Ontario -RRB- waters 530 ft deep , about 17 mi from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie , Michigan , and Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario -- a distance Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed .. Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Bay. Although Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier , no distress signals were sent before she sank ; Captain McSorley 's last message to Anderson said , `` We are holding our own . ''. Her crew of 29 perished , and no bodies were recovered .. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown , though many books , studies , and expeditions have examined it .. Fitzgerald might have fallen victim to the high waves of the storm , suffered structural failure , been swamped with water entering through her cargo hatches or deck , experienced topside damage , or shoaled in a shallow part of Lake Superior .. Lake Superior. Lake Superior. Superior. Lake Superior. The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping .. Great Lakes. Great Lakes. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song `` The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald '' after reading an article , `` The Cruelest Month '' , in the November 24 , 1975 , issue of Newsweek .. Gordon Lightfoot. Gordon Lightfoot. Newsweek. Newsweek. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits , depth finders , positioning systems , increased freeboard , and more frequent inspection of vessels .. Great Lakes. Great Lakes. freeboard. Freeboard ( nautical )