Shortly after 7:10 pm on 10th of November 1975, one of the largest ships to ever sail the Great Lakes and the largest ship to ever sink on them, was lost with all 29 crew members. Launched 7 June 1958, the owner Northwestern Mutual named the ship after its president and chairman of the board, Edmund Fitzgerald. With Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, in the afternoon of 9 November 1975, the Mighty Fitz left Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, en route to a steel mill near Detroit. The ship is now 530 feet below the water's surface about 17 miles from this museum at Whitefish Point. On our trip, we had left the same port in Superior WI two days before arriving at the Point. The ship was just one hour from entering Whitefish Bay and relative safety from the storm that sunk her. The Fitzgerald was headed to the Soo Locks, which we visited a day later.