Anyone who calls the Great Lakes home knows the tale of the Edmund Fitzgerald , a Great Lakes freighter lost to a Lake Superior storm 50 years ago, its fate immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot’s unforgettable song.

Carrying 26,216 tons of taconite pellets to Detroit, Michigan from Superior, Wisconsin, it encountered a severe storm with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to 11 metres (35 feet) high on Nov. 10, 1975.

At the time, the vessel, the largest ship on the Great Lakes, was in Canadian waters, about 27 kilometres (15 nautical miles) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich ., and Sault Ste. Marie, Ont .

In 160-metre deep (530 feet) waters, the vessel fought the wind and waves as Capt. Ernest M. McSorley spoke by radio with Capt. Cedric Woodard

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