WHITEFISH POINT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Fifty-one years after the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, the memory of its 29 crew members endures.
The freighter left Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No. 1 in Superior, Wisconsin, on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 1975. At approximately 7:15 p.m. the next day, it sank during a powerful storm near Whitefish Bay. All 29 men aboard died.
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Michigan has commemorated the crew in the decades since, while Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” brought their story to listeners around the world.
For this year’s anniversary, Visit Sault Ste. Marie announced on X that it will share radio transmissions from the night the freighter was lost. The posts will follow the timeline of events, from reports of rough seas to the ship’s final transmission.
Starting tonight at 1 AM, we’ll be sharing the real radio transmissions from the night the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost on Lake Superior, 50 years ago. These posts will follow the timeline as it happened, from the first reports of rough seas to the ship’s final transmission. We share them in remembrance of the 29 men who were lost, and in respect for all who work the Great Lakes. Transmissions from: https://t.co/cE4Ednwct7
— Visit Sault Ste. Marie (@VisitTheSault) November 10, 2026
Captain Ernest McSorley’s last reported radio message to the nearby freighter Arthur M. Anderson was brief: “We are holding our own.”
The 29 men lost on Nov. 10, 1975, were:
- Michael Armagost
- Frederick Beetcher
- Thomas Bentsen
- Edward Bindon
- Thomas Borgeson
- Oliver Champeau
- Nolan Church
- Ransom Cundy
- Thomas Edwards
- Russell Haskell
- George Holl
- Bruce Hudson
- Allen Kalmon
- Gordon MacLellan
- Joseph Mazes
- John McCarthy
- Ernest McSorley — captain
- Eugene O’Brien
- Karl Peckol
- John Poviach
- James Pratt
- Robert Rafferty
- Paul Riippa
- John Simmons
- William Spengler
- Mark Thomas
- Ralph Walton
- David Weiss
- Blaine Wilhelm
