51 years after the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, all 29 men aboard are still remembered

Mariners' Church of Detroit honored sailors lost on the Great Lakes at its 2026 Great Lakes Memorial service Sunday, two days before the 51st anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Mariners' Church was founded in 1842 as a place of prayer and reflection for sailors, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to prior CBS News reporting. The church holds the memorial service every year.

The Fitzgerald is one of the most well-known shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. The freighter, the largest Great Lakes ship of its era, sank on Nov. 10, 1975, during a gale on Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard died.

The ship began its final trip on Nov. 9. The intended path was from Superior, Wisconsin, to Zug Island in Detroit, with a load of iron ore pellets bound for a Detroit steel mill, CBS News has reported. Most of the crew had roots in the Great Lakes region, with homes in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The ship and its story became part of Great Lakes lore and American popular culture. Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk singer who wrote and released the ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976, died in 2023.  

What happened 

Capt. Ernest M. McSorley chose a northerly route for the trip across Lake Superior. Gale warnings were issued on the night of Nov. 9, with worsening storm warnings early on Nov. 10.

Another vessel, the Arthur Anderson, trailed behind the Fitzgerald as waves reached more than 25 feet. The Anderson's crew was the last to hear from the Fitzgerald, when McSorley said, "We are holding our own."

The ship sank so fast that no distress call was made. The reason it went to the bottom of Lake Superior has not been determined. When the Fitzgerald disappeared from radar screens at about 7:20 p.m., those monitoring its course realized what had happened. The ship sank about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan.

Early on Nov. 11, 1975, Richard Ingalls, then the church's rector, rang the Mariners' Church bell 29 times to honor the crew after learning the Fitzgerald had sunk. That impromptu tribute was retold in Lightfoot's ballad. The church rings the bell again at its memorial service each year.

Remembering those lost 

A life ring was found shortly afterward, washed ashore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The shipwreck is now protected as a grave site under Canadian law. The ship's bell was retrieved in 1995 at the request of the crew's families. It now serves as a memorial to the lost crew at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan