"With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more"-Gordon Lightfoot, 1976
The Edmund Fitzgerald was a ship born to break records. When launched, she broke the record for the largest ship on the Lakes, and in her first full shipping season, she broke the record of largest load in a single trip, which she would continue to break several times before her career was cut short. In 1968, she became the first Great Lakes ship to carry 30,000 tons in a single trip. Her large capacity and impressive speed also allowed the Fitzgerald to break the single season shipping record five times in her career. In addition, in 1968, the Fitzgerald became the first vessel to carry more than 1 million tons of iron ore (in the form of taconite, pictured below) through the Soo Locks, a mark she would surpass six times in her brief 17 years on the Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald ended her star-studded career with yet another record, which earned her the nickname "Titanic of the Great Lakes". On November 10, 1975, the Fitzgerald sank in a massive November storm, claiming both the lives of all 29 crew members on board, and the record of largest ship to sink on the Great Lakes, a record she holds to this day.