Long before ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ the Mighty Fitz was a Great Lakes marvel

These days, when someone mentions the Edmund Fitzgerald, our minds immediately flip to Gordon Lightfoot’s iconic ballad that tells the tale of the freighter’s terrible sinking in a Lake Superior storm on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 of her crew went down in that gale.

But long before that tragedy, talk of the Mighty Fitz had centered around a ship that was known as an engineering marvel. She was a record-setting behemoth on the Great Lakes that drew crowds whenever she pulled into port, and appeared in countless photos and home videos during her heyday.

The wreck of the huge “laker” was a $24 million loss for the maritime industry. The ship was considered a Great Lakes workhorse as it racked up seasonal records for its cargo-hauling abilities.