MICHIGAN — The Edmund Fitzgerald might be the Great Lakes’ most famous shipwreck, sinking 50 years ago on November 10th, 1975, in Lake Superior.
If you grew up in Michigan, you have at least heard the song.
As we reflect on that anniversary, I had the chance to speak with the relatives of that ill-fated freighter’s namesake five decades after its sinking.
Edmond Fitzgerald, the freighter, was named after Edmund Fitzgerald, the man, who was chairman and president of the company that owned the ship.
And this is his distant relative, Sheila.
“So the ancestor we share in common would have been his, his great-grandfather," Sheila told me. "And he's my great, great, grandfather, because Edmund was two generations ahead of me. That means, that means that he would have been like he'd be a distant cousin of mine.”
Not exactly on the Christmas card list, but I called Sheila recently because she took part in an Edmund Fitzgerald memorial relay swim across the Great Lakes. Along with her brother, Dan, as the Fitzgeralds, they do have a unique perspective on the ship’s legacy after all these years.
“I've as I've gotten older, and you really understand the sacrifice that sailors make, that that mariners make, in order to build the world that we know and love, you know.”
Build a modern world, but one that still bends to Mother Nature.
“The 70s was a long time ago now, but it was already a time of technology, a time men had been to the moon, where we felt we had a handle on nature, and our ability to manage nature and to, you know, to conquer in some, you know, to some degree. And so for a storm of that magnitude to come, come and swap this mighty ship, you know, in seemingly an instant. I just think it creates a sense of wonder and awe.”
But from that sinking, which claimed the lives of all 29 men on board, did come some lessons learned.
“You know, created an awareness to the danger of the lakes," Dan Fitzgerald told me. "And there hasn't been a major ship loss since the Edmund Fitzgerald, which is pretty amazing 50 years later.”
And of course - the memory of the Edmond Fitzgerald couldn’t be discussed without mentioning the song.
“There's the song by Gordon Lightfoot. It's, it's moving, and it's, it's memorable, and that has imprinted it on people's imaginations and hearts,” said Sheila.
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