The 29 crew members who died aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald

When the 729-foot-long SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior in 1975 , it took its entire 29-member crew with it.

The men — sons, brothers, fathers, husbands and friends — were connected to dozens of families and a number of comrades in the shipping and freight industry.

"Everyone who was on the ship had loved ones at home. When that ship sank, like so many others across the Great Lakes, you had this impact across the community. You had fatherless children, widows, people's lives were turned upside down," Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum Executive Director Bruce Lynn said.

When launched in 1958, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes, and is still the largest to have sunk there. Here's a look at the 29 men who were lost on Nov. 19, 1975, when the bulk