The last ship to sink on the Great Lakes was also one of the most famous. On 10 November 1975 the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost to Lake Superior in a terrible storm. The freighter took the 29 lives of its entire crew with it when it went under, fuelling age-old suspicion that November is the most dangerous month to be sailing on the Lakes. The tragedy went on to inspire Gordon Lightfoot’s hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

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