On November 10, 1975 a ferocious storm struck the Edmund Fitzgerald off guard just 17 miles off of Canada's Lake Superior shoreline. The ship left Duluth, Minnesota the day before on a trip to Detroit, Michigan but never made it to its destination. All 29 crewmembers on board perished when Superior's sixteen foot waves overtook the 26,000 ton ship. But it is widely thought that a rogue wave did the ship in...perhaps from a seiche (or giant wave). In the Great Lakes seiches can occur becuase of strong winds along the axis of a lake, a pressure jump, or down draft winds associated with fast moving squall lines. In either case, water is piled up creating a wave large enough to sink a large ship.The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the subject of a popular song by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot in the late 1970s.
If you'd like to read more about the ship and the lore that surrounds it, click here.
In 1994 the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) did a documentary piece on the Fitzgerald. You can watch it by clicking here. -ERIC
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