The mighty 729 foot long Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the
largest ships ever to run in the Great Lakes but a weather event of historical
proportions sunk the ship 35 years ago today, on November 10, 1975. The ship
was located a week later at the bottom of Lake Superior, but to this day not
one body was ever recovered.
An intense low pressure developed in the plains and moved to
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Winds were sustained out of the east and
northeast at 40 to 50 mph with waves up to 10 feet high causing major problems
for ship traffic early on November 10, 1975.
By late afternoon the low pressure moved over the Lake and
into Canada driving the winds out of the northwest which then gusted up to 80
mph over the open lake. This caused waves to crash on to the ship at more than
25 feet high. All of this was taking place as intense rain mixed and then
changed over to very heavy snow and sub-freezing temperatures. The raging super
blizzard on an unforgiving Lake Superior doomed the ship and left a mark on the
history books. The weather records were recorded very well by a ship only 10
miles away from the Anderson. 
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