This November, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum is honoring the 29 men who lost their lives in the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
This year, the museum will make its Lost Mariners Remembrance Ceremony free and taking place on Nov. 8 in the afternoon, which is two days before ship went down in Lake Superior.
Related: The 'Gales of November' shares the 'untold' story of the Edmund Fitzgerald & its 29 crewmen
According to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, there will be four days of observance from Nov. 7-10, which includes free admission on Nov. 8 and Nov. 10.
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The ceremonies begin on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Livonia Amateur Radio Club will operate Special Event Station W8F, where they will share the story of the Fitzgerald and her sinking.
On the morning of Nov. 8, there will be a Lost Mariners Brunch, which includes a Great Lakes-related presentation and musical performance from Great Lakes Balladeer Lee Murdock, followed by a Great Lakes freighter-inspired lunch which draws from George Yaworski’s "Ships of the Great Lakes Cookbook," including recipes from its Edmund Fitzgerald chapter
Watch below: Video shows worker removing bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Lost Mariners Remembrance Ceremony will take place from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8. DUring the ceremony, a memorial wreath will be delivered from the Detroit River to the shore and placed near the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald anchor, outside of the museum. It will also include an Honor Flotilla and the ringing of bells in remembrance of those lost aboard the Fitzgerald.
On Lost Mariners Day — Nov. 10 — the museum will have free admission. There will also be a screening later that night for a new documentary titled We Finished Their Journey: the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim." It covered the 411-mile journey where swimmers started over the site of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and finished in Detroit.
Watch below: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: What makes the gales of November?
November can be a very turbulent month for weather across Michigan and gales (very strong winds) are common on the Great Lakes.
Intense areas of low pressure can sweep across the Great Lakes region bringing arctic air masses. The relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes can help storms intensify and produce life-threatening conditions.
In November 1975, one of those violent storms blew across the Great Lakes sinking the Edmund Fitzgerald. The wreck occurred just northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior. All twenty-nine crew members were lost as the ship sank in 530 feet of water
The Edmund Fitzgerald was first launched on June 7, 1958 and was the largest carrier on the Great Lakes until 1971. The ship weighed 13,632 tons and measured 729 feet long by 75 feet wide. The Fitzgerald was the first carrier to haul more than one million tons of iron ore pellets through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, earning the nickname, “The Pride of the American Flag”.
On November 9, 1975, the Fitzgerald departed Superior, Wisconsin bound for Detroit’s Zug Island. Within 24 hours, the ship was battling hurricane force winds and waves up to 25 feet. The U.S. Coast Guard told ships out on the Great Lakes to seek safe harbor as the storm strengthened.
Captain Ernest McSorley’s last radio transmission stated he and his crew were “holding our own.” It was just a short time later the Fitzgerald vanished from radar only 17 miles from shore.
There has been speculation that the Edmund Fitzgerald broke in half on the surface as the bow and stern rode the crests of two large waves. However, the Coast Guard’s final report suggests the Fitzgerald instead nosedived into a large wave and was not able to recover and plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior in only seconds.
As the cargo of 26,116 tons of taconite pellets quickly shifted forward while the Fitzgerald was going down, the bow of the ship hit the bottom with such extreme force that the vessel snapped in two.
Every year, ceremonies are held for the family and friends of the lost crewmen of the Edmund Fitzgerald where a bell tolls 29 times for the 29 men, who ranged from age 21 to 63, who were tragically lost that night. Of the more than 1,000 ships in the graves under the icy waters of the Great Lakes, the Edmund Fitzgerald is still the largest to ever go down.
