The Edmund Fitzgerald sank under mysterious conditions into the depths of Lake Superior in 1975, but the bodies of the crew have never been recovered. Show More than 40 years ago, in her 17th year and 40th voyage, the ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, taking with all 29 members of the crew to the bottom. Once the longest freighter on the Great Lakes, the 729-foot ship was torn in half during a storm on November 10, 1975 and plunged into the black depths before the crew could escape or send out a distress signal. What caused the Edmund Fitzgerald to sink is a mystery. One of the prevailing theories is that it was hit by a series of three consecutive rogue waves, a phenomenon called “three sisters,” which was reported by another nearby ship. It sank 17 miles from Whitefish Point on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an area that has claimed at least 240 ships. A team found the wreck four days later at a depth of 530 feet using a side scan sonar and other equipment, but they were unable to recover the bodies.  More than 15,000 people attended the June 7, 1958 christening and launch of the Fitzgerald. The sight of the massive ship crashing into the water was so harrowing that one man reportedly died of a heart attack on the spot. Lake Superior BodiesThere an 350 shipwrecks in Lake Superior and an estimated 10,000 people have died in the icy waters, but as legend says, Lake Superior never gives up her dead. Underwater bacteria feed on human remains and create gas which causes bodies to float back to the surface. The average temperature of Lake Superior is about 36°F, cold enough to inhibit bacterial growth and prevent bodies from rising. In the case of the Edmund Fitzgerald bodies, they all went down with the ship and never came back up. During a 1994 expedition to the wreck, divers finally found the body of a crewmember for the first time. Video footage shows the remains outside the wreck, near the bow, “fully clothed, wearing an orange life jacket, and lying face down in the sediment.” They left the remains undisturbed. Memorials are held annually on November 10 to commemorate the lives lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and throughout the Great Lakes. The ship’s bell was recovered from the wreck in 1995. A replica engraved with the names of the lost crew was returned to the ship. Today, the original bell and other artifacts can be seen on display the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point near Paradise, Michigan, as well as the Dossin Great Lakes Museum in Detroit, and the Steamship Valley Camp museum in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Artist’s depiction of the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck <i> From Associated Press</i> ABOARD THE ANGLIAN LADY — Explorers in a mini-submarine spotted human remains on the floor of Lake Superior near the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck, the expedition leader said Wednesday. The body is believed to be one of the 29 crew members who perished when the Fitzgerald sank in a violent storm on Nov. 10, 1975, said Fred Shannon, a
businessman leading the three-day voyage to examine the wreck for a forthcoming documentary and book. No bodies had been seen during four previous examinations of the Fitzgerald grave site, including a submarine excursion by a different group earlier this month. It is widely believed that most of the crew members are entombed inside the wreckage. “We were not looking for bodies and didn’t really anticipate finding any,” Shannon said. He said he had notified the Canadian government of the find. The ship’s wreckage lies in Canadian territory, about 535 feet under water, 17 miles from Whitefish Point, Mich. Bernice Field of Canada’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said her office or the explorers must contact police, who may try to recover the body. Shannon said the body, partly clad in what appeared to be seaman’s coveralls, was not in the wreck but near the bow of the ship and under some debris. What happens to bodies in shipwrecks?Putrefaction and scavenging creatures will dismember the corpse in a week or two and the bones will sink to the seabed. There they may be slowly buried by marine silt or broken down further over months or years, depending on the acidity of the water.
Can you dive on the Edmund Fitzgerald?The Edmund Fitzgerald:
However, in 2006, the Canadian Government passed a Law the will not allow anyone to dive it and two other shipwrecks in Canadian waters of Lake Superior. There is a one Million Dollar fine for diving it!
Where is the Edmund Fitzgerald now?The Edmund Fitzgerald's bell now is displayed at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.
What was recovered from the Edmund Fitzgerald?Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the loss of the Fitzgerald and all 29 aboard with his 1976 hit song "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." On July 4, 1995, divers recovered the Fitzgerald's bell from the bottom of Lake Superior, replacing it with a replica engraved with the names of the crew.
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Are there still bodies on the Edmund Fitzgerald?
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