Why The Bodies From The Edmund Fitzgerald Were Never Recovered

Most people know about the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald thanks to Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad. But how did the largest ship on the Great Lakes vanish without so much as an SOS call, taking all 29 crewmen with her?

#Ship #History #Mystery

Voiceover by: Tim Bensch

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[GrungeHQ]

What do you think of what happened to the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald?

[josephosheavideos]

Fifteen months ago, Gordon Lightfoot joined the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Eternity. May they all Rest In Peace.

[sdcoinshooter]

I was 14 and living in Detroit this night, listening to music on the radio. The announcement was made. I’ll never forget that moment. May they all RIP.

[leonnahofer]

It’s such a tragedy but I love the song about it. Gordon Lightfoot did an amazing job with it 🌸

[leegalen]

Glad you reported on this
Born in Michigan and still remember the old legends
Gordon Lightfoots' song is haunting.

[Mrspjb-bwks]

I was working in my college library when I picked up the Detroit paper and saw the headline. One of my grandfathers had sailed the Great Lakes in the Merchant Marines. I immediately felt sick. I never forget that moment.

[rickholland]

If you ever get a chance to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Definitely do it.
I went there and it is so worth it. I just wish my wife could have been with me to see it all. Unfortunately she passed away suddenly before we could go there.

[gregwasserman]

The Arthur M. Anderson is still in service. It's in remarkable condition considering its age. It is dwarfed by the 1000 ft freighters. My dad knows the brother of the cook was went down the Fitzgerarld. He wasn't supposed to be on the ship and was a replacement when the regular cook fell ill. Despite the lyrics of the Gordon Lightfoot song, no one knows what the cook said before the ship went down.

[danrandall]

It is not deteriorating rapidly. As a Lake Superior shipwreck diver I have have seen many old wrecks that look like the went down yesterday. A little silt but that is about it. Some of these wrecks were over one hundred years old.

[wolfman]

Bodies from the Fitz should stay right where they are. It's their final resting place and should be respected as such.

[charlesmiddlebrooks]

McSorley was from my hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

[garylefevers]

Thank you for covering this fascinating tragedy.

[marylist]

Waves on at least Lake Superior & Lake Michigan were very high at that time

[Mattlin-xqmd]

The best was the tribute to Gordon Lightfoot when he passed on it merely stated “there are 29 men waiting to meet you”

[northernstudioworks]

It's really no mystery how the Fitz sank. She scraped bottom near Caribou Island and started to list then three rogue waves (The Three Sisters) hit the ship with the final of the Three Sisters hitting the ship with so much force that it caused the bow of the ship to go under and she hit bottom.

[apreppingwithcharlietuna]

In 1975 I was 10 years old living in Duluth Minnesota my classmate lost his father in that ship

[Dan-qtkq]

I was 12, remember the night vividly. We heard minutes after it happened. My dad knew a buddy who did search and rescue. My mom was in a panick because trees kept falling all over, she wouldn’t let us out of house. Huge 2 plus feet at trunk fell all over the neighbourhood. Never seen wind like that before. I was in the Sault on Canadian side.

[GaryMP.]

NEVER underestimate the power of Mother Nature. I grew up on the NJ shore. I watched huge cranes build jetties with these massive boulders. A north easter storm would deposit one of those on top of the jetty. Come back after another storm and it will be gone...😮

[Mr_Oggie]

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead...

[HoshizakiYoshimasa]

The fact the Fitzgeralds exactly sister ship SS Arthur B Homer was scrapped a decade after the Fitzgerald loss despite many millions of dollars spent to lengthen her years prior, leads me to believe stress/hull failure. Former Fitzgerald crewman Richard Orgel and Red Burgner testified Fitzgerald's hull was "wiggling" too much in bad weather. Even saying Captain McSorley himself called it the "wiggling thing" was frightened by it sometimes. Engineers who built both the Fitzgerald and Homer said the ships were not designed to be carrying the amount of cargo that they were in the 1970s. The Arthur B Homer was eventually quietly scrapped. The Fleet blamed the economy. Yet the ship could have been laid up in dry dock till another fleet bought it since it was still relatively new, had millions of dollars spent in her lengthening and also had a bigger cargo capacity than older vessels that were still sailing. Yet nobody bought the