(WXYZ) — Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, killing 29 men who were aboard the ship.
The shipwreck is one of the most well-known in the world, yet so much is still unknown.
Every year at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, the original bell on the Edmund Fitzgerald is tolled 29 times in honor of the 29 men who perished.
Related stories on the Edmund Fitzgerald below
- Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald: Events across Great Lakes memorialize 50th anniversary of sinking
- The 'Gales of November' shares the 'untold' story of the Edmund Fitzgerald & its 29 crewmen
- New book sheds light on how Gordon Lightfoot wrote ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’
The bell is on permanent display inside the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.
See the worker cutting the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck in 1995 in the video below
According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, the Fitzgerald's 200-pound bronze bell was recovered on July 4, 1995, through a joint expedition between the society, Canadian Navy, National Geographic Society, Sony Corporation and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
In "The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Michigan author John U. Bacon details how Ruth Hudson, the mother of Fitzgerald deckhand Bruce Hudson, and Bruce's girlfriend, Cindy Reynolds, worked with others to convince families to bring the bell up.
"Ruth and I drove all over, working on that. Quebec, Ottawa, Michigan, talking to all the governments involved," Reynolds told Bacon.
At the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, you can watch a video of crews raising the bell, and hear from family members who were on board the U.S. Coast Guard's icebreaker, the "Mackinaw," when the bell was raised.
Also on display is the specially-designed "Newt-suit" that diver Bruce Fuoco wore to the site of the shipwreck as he worked to cut the bell from the ship.
"It's cold and dark at 530 feet," Fuoco told National Geographic in a January 1996 article titled "Requiem for the Edmund Fitzgerald." "But with all the help we're getting from the submersibles, it's like 10 feet. It feels good knowing you're not alone."
In the bell's place, Fuoco placed a memorial bell that was inscribed with all of the names of the 29 men who died on the ship.
"Since I can't bring Buck's remains home for a proper burial, I'm here to do the next best thing," Jack Champeau, the brother of Third Assistant Engineer Oliver Champeau, said, according to Nat Geo.
Ruth also told Nat Geo," Finally, we had our own funeral. It's a grave now. There is no reason why anyone should dive to the Fitzgerald again. Let them rest in peace."
Ruth and the other families worked with the Canadian government to get it officially declared a gravesite. That means people can't visit the wreckage without the approval of the Canadian government.
"The bell and the gravesite, they were both hard to get done. Lots of letters. Lots of calls. Lots of trips," Reynolds told Bacon in the new book.
