Commemorating the Edmund Fitzgerald's 50th Anniversary

One week from today – November 10 – will mark the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking. While the tragedy looms large for the Great Lakes region, it has personal ties to Traverse City: two former Great Lakes Maritime Academy cadets were on the ship when it sank, and Traverse City Coast Guard helicopters aided in initial search-and-rescue efforts. Numerous organizations will honor the anniversary this coming week, from the National Writers Series to Old Town Playhouse to Northwestern Michigan College.

According to the National Writers Series, in-person tickets are almost sold out for an appearance by John U. Bacon Thursday at 7pm at the City Opera House (livestream tickets are also available). Bacon will share behind-the-scenes stories from his new book The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The New York Times bestseller draws on “more than 100 interviews with the families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost,” according to its description. “Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America’s economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking’s most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind.”

Bacon tells The Ticker he was able to interview half the families of the Fitzgerald’s 29 victims – families who “never talked to a reporter before” – as well six crewmen who served on the ship before it went down. Two of those on board when it sank attended the Great Lakes Maritime Academy (GLMA): David Weiss, who graduated, and Thomas Bentsen, who dropped out shortly prior to graduation. Bacon’s book features vivid descriptions of the men’s lives in northern Michigan before boarding the Fitzgerald: going on dates at the State Theatre, playing in the Traverse City symphony, clinking beers at local bars with other cadets. The creation of GLMA and interviews with former cadets and former superintendent John Tanner are also covered in the book.

Modern technology allowed Bacon to examine the Fitzgerald’s sinking in a new light. Mathematical models show the ship not only experienced 25-foot-waves that day – “already ten feet bigger than any waves most of the sailors had seen in their long careers,” he writes – but waves likely reaching 40, 50, and even 60 feet high. “This is a ship that only had 11 feet out of the water on a good day, and this was not a good day,” Bacon tells The Ticker. Add in 100-mph winds and blinding snow as the ship struggled to reach the safety of Whitefish Bay, and the Fitzgerald “found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time,” Bacon writes.

When the ship went missing, aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City were deployed to search for survivors. Treacherous conditions deterred rescue efforts, including from nearby ships. Though crews spent hours searching the rough waters, no survivors were found. Cindy LoCicero, who dated GLMA graduate Weiss in Traverse City, describes learning of the sinking the next morning on 7&4 News. “It took quite a while for it to hit me, to understand what had really happened,” she says in Bacon’s book. “I think I was still in shock. I was thinking that David wasn’t really out there, on the ship. He was always late for everything, so I was thinking he was late for the ship – the one time I wished he was.”

LoCicero was among the 250 attendees of the first memorial service GLMA held to commemorate the Fitzgerald “within a week of when the vessel and her crew were lost,” according to a 2019 GLMA history book. Families of both lost cadets were at the ceremony. At the time, the academy was just six years old. Northwestern Michigan College has continued to hold the Mariners Memorial service annually; it will do so again November 10 at noon at the GLMA campus on East Front Street.

The sinking of the Fitzgerald had several significant impacts. There’s the Gordon Lightfoot song, of course; Bacon covers the song’s creation in The Gales of November. “Most Americans can name one (Great Lakes) shipwreck, and this is it – that’s obviously because of the song,” he tells The Ticker. “Without the song, there’s not a book.”

Bacon also says it was “stunning” to learn during his research how dangerous the Great Lakes are for sailors compared to the ocean. “It’s not even close,” he says. “The salt water smashes down waves and spreads them out, so they’re nice, smooth roller coasters. Great Lakes waves are sharp and pointy and twice as close together. There are locally occurring storms in the lakes. And there are canals, bridges, breakwaters, shoals, islands, docks, and ports all to be navigated.”

Despite those dangers, the Fitzgerald’s sinking had a profound impact on Great Lakes safety. Prior to the Fitzgerald, 6,000 ships – a low estimate – were wrecked in the lakes. Since November 10, 1975, “the answer is zero. Not one has gone down,” Bacon says. “Why is that? Well, as John Tanner says: ‘When do you fix anything? When it’s broken.’” In the same way 9/11 transformed the aviation industry, the Fitzgerald transformed the maritime industry – improving everything from forecasting to communications to “basic common sense,” Bacon says. “You stay in port now (during bad storms), and back then nobody did. And so – knock on wood – no one has been lost since.”

Several other events will commemorate the Fitzgerald anniversary this week. The Old Town Playhouse will mount a sold-out dinner theater performance of Ten November – a dramatic play that recounts the ship’s sinking through monologues, songs, and storytelling – November 7-9 at the Grand Traverse Yacht Club. Interlochen Public Radio will host a live listening party at Identity Brewing Company on Union Street from 6:30-8pm Wednesday for the new Points North podcast episode The Other Side of the Storm, which tells the story of Native American fishermen who survived the same storm as the Fitzgerald. The free event will feature live music scoring and a Q&A with the episode’s producers and The Living Great Lakes author Jerry Dennis. Finally, Peninsula Community Library will host shipwreck expert Ross Richardson on November 10 at 6pm to “honor those lost in a Lake Superior storm 50 years ago,” an event that will end with Lightfoot’s ballad.