SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there. She was located in deep water (§ Wreck discovery below) on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1971
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, upbound and in ballast
SS Edmund Fitzgerald under way
One of Edmund Fitzgerald's lifeboats, on display at the Valley Camp museum ship
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the engine located at the rear of the ship.
SS Arthur M. Anderson, with pilothouse forward and engine room astern, also equipped with a self-unloading boom.
R. J. Hackett, the first modern Great Lakes bulk freighter
Whaleback Joseph L. Colby
Cason J. Callaway laid up in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. (2021)