Where did Edmund Fitzgerald go down? Coast Guard veteran recalls search for vessel

The Edmund Fitzgerald, a Great Lakes freight carrier, will be commemorated on November 10, 2025, 50 years after it sank in Lake Superior, leading to the loss of the lives all 29 crew members on board.

In 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald went down around 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Michigan after encountering a storm.

The ship had been carrying taconite pellets weighing about 26,000 tons, and had started from Superior, Wisconsin on November 9 to deliver the cargo to Zug Island, Detroit, as per CBS News.

After encountering a developing storm, Captain Ernest McSorley of the Fitzgerald and Captain Bernie Cooper, who was leading the nearby SS Arthur M. Anderson radioed and decided to travel by the Canadian shores of the Lake.

Eventually, Captain McSorley, according to CBS News, radioed Captain Cooper and said,

“Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have sustained some topside damage. I have a fence rail laid down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I'm checking down. Will you stay by me til I get to Whitefish?…I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in”

Even though the last communication between the two captains hinted that the Fitzgerald might make it out without much damage, eventually Captain Cooper lost sight of the vessel and called the U.S. Coast Guard for assistance.

A U.S. Coast Guard veteren recounted his version of the Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy

A Coast Guard veteren, John Crowley, who had just graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy a few months before the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, recalled the time when he was called to assist with the rescue operations.

While speaking to Duluth News Tribune, Crowley recalled the night when he went aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Woodrush and said,

“We got the call, and about two and a half hours later, we were underway. It was all kind of a fever pitch…We first got on scene, and within about a half hour, we found a life ring. That added some degree of hope, but that was the last thing we found.”

The period right after the Fitzgerald’s sinking was marked by uncertainty as the wreckage could not be located.

Crowley recalled how a hunch helped to find clues as to the wreck’s location, and as per the Duluth News Tribune, said,

“For a lark, as much as anything, I turned on the fathometer just to see how deep we were. That has a trace capability. And when we went back and looked, we noticed (in) our search pattern across this one area, we were getting a bit of a different blip.”

By November 14, an airplane and another sonar device found clues pointing to the same location.

The Woodrush restarted its operations in the area in the spring of 1976 and confirmed the wreck’s location and identity, according to the Duluth News Tribune.

According to the National Weather Service, the Coast Guard estimated that the Fitzgerald’s low position in the water resulted in a huge amount of water entering the ship’s deck, which led to water entering the cargo area because of loose hatch covers.

Additionally, it was estimated that the ship’s hull might have been damaged because of grounding near Caribou Island.

Now, on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, respects will be paid through a memorial ceremony carried out by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society at Whitefish Point on November 10.