Lake Superior is also known as the Graveyard of the Great
Lakes…The Southern shores from Grand Marais to Whitefish Point is the deadliest
stretch of the Lake. Lake Superior is the most treacherous of the five Great
Lakes, due to its unrelenting fury…I have seen Lake Superior go from calm waves
to waves up to 20 footers in a matter of an hour…Lake Superior has a mind of
her own, does what she wants when she wants…
Ok so the question is how many shipwrecks have happen on Lake Superior?
This answer is a hard one….I have see number as low as 350 to as high as 550…I would tend to believe the higher number myself…..These numbers are the known shipwrecks…I would suspect there are many other shipwrecks that have not been discovered yet.
The most famous shipwreck of Lake Superior, and all the
other Great Lakes is the Edmund Fitzgerald…In fact this shipwreck also ranks
number three in the top five famous shipwrecks of American History…Let’s talk
about this famous shipwreck.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was nicknamed “The Pride Of The American Side” This was 729 feet, this was the first ship to move more than a million tons of ore through the Soo Lock’s…She would have broken that record, as she had 26,100 tons of taconite as she was heading to Detroit MI.
The events leading up to the Wreck of the Fitzgerald….
Around November 1st 1975 the Fitzgerald went
through her yearly inspection. The inspection documented damage to the coamings
area….This would have prevented water from leaking into the cargo hatch areas
on the ship’s main deck, if I understand this right….The problem was never
fixed….Did this play into the sinking of the ship? Some say it might have,
while others say no…..On November 9th 1975 the Fitzgerald left
Superior harbor..On November 10th 1975 Lake Superior was slammed by
a vicious storm system, one that has not been seen for years until that year. The
waves were reported to be as high as 30 footers, along with winds from 80 to 90
MPH. The Fitzgerald went down between 7:15 PM – 7:20 PM based on all the
information known….Her last word were “ we are holding our own” that was received
by the Anderson, a ship that was behind the Fitzgerald. About 7:15 PM the
Anderson reported the Fitzgerald disappeared from its radar screen …..So this
would put the wreck at about 7:15 PM…Giving all the information I have read,
looks like the ship sank rather fast….Also I saw some reports that the beacon
at the lighthouse on Whitefish Point was not working….If the Fitzgerald would
have made it another 15 miles, it would have been in safe waters, or the harbor
of Whitefish Point…
29 men lost their lives to Lake Superior the evening of
November 10th 1975…There are still a lot of unanswered questions to
what really happened and why the Fitzgerald went down….All the answers remain
locked in Lake Superior’s icy mansion….
Some other facts.
1976 Gordon Lightfoot released the song “The Wreck of The
Edmund Fitzgerald” below is the best video I found so far.
1995 the Fitzgerald bell was recovered, its now on display
at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. Something I didn’t know….There
was a replica bell casted and was engraved with the 29 names of the crewmen…The
replica replaces the original bell on the Fitzgerald…
Some other interesting facts about Lake Superior…
Duluth/Superior harbor is the busiest inland ports in the
Country, with an avg of 1000 ships per year.
Largest Lake = Lake Superior.
Smallest Lake = Lake Ontario.
Deepest Lake = Lake Superior.
Shallowest Lake = Erie.
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