Maritime memorial
One year ago today, the annual Great Lakes memorial service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald, is shown at the Mariners' Church of Detroit. The mighty freighter and its crew of 29 men were lost during a terrible storm on Nov. 10, 1975. While this locale is the "musty old hall in Detroit" referenced in Gordon Lightfoot's famous song about the shipwreck, memorial services for crewmen who perished on the Great Lakes are held in a number o places. One is at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City at 1 p.m. today; the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point hold a private ceremony for the surviving family members of the Fitzgerald crew at 7 p.m.; and the Minnesota Historical Society hosts a bell-tolling, name-reading and lighting at Split Rock Lighthouse at 4:15 p.m. All three events are livestreamed. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
This underwater photo of the sunken SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by an unmanned submersible robot, as a research team investigates the wreck site 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., on August 24, 1989. The 729-foot ore freighter sunk on November 23, 1975, during a severe storm, taking its load of iron and the crew of 29 men to the bottom of the Lake Superior. (AP Photo)
Tom Farnquist, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, talks during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Mich., near where the ship sank in a vicious storm. (AP Photo/John L. Russell)
Frederick Stonehouse, whose 1977 book "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was the first written on the famous ship, discusses the impact of the disaster 50 years later on Oct. 25, 2025, in Marquette, Mich. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
One year ago today, the annual Great Lakes memorial service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald, is shown at the Mariners' Church of Detroit. The mighty freighter and its crew of 29 men were lost during a terrible storm on Nov. 10, 1975. While this locale is the "musty old hall in Detroit" referenced in Gordon Lightfoot's famous song about the shipwreck, memorial services for crewmen who perished on the Great Lakes are held in a number o places. One is at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City at 1 p.m. today; the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point hold a private ceremony for the surviving family members of the Fitzgerald crew at 7 p.m.; and the Minnesota Historical Society hosts a bell-tolling, name-reading and lighting at Split Rock Lighthouse at 4:15 p.m. All three events are livestreamed. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
This underwater photo of the sunken SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by an unmanned submersible robot, as a research team investigates the wreck site 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., on August 24, 1989. The 729-foot ore freighter sunk on November 23, 1975, during a severe storm, taking its load of iron and the crew of 29 men to the bottom of the Lake Superior. (AP Photo)
Tom Farnquist, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, talks during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Mich., near where the ship sank in a vicious storm. (AP Photo/John L. Russell)
Frederick Stonehouse, whose 1977 book "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was the first written on the famous ship, discusses the impact of the disaster 50 years later on Oct. 25, 2025, in Marquette, Mich. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)