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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

General cargo

SS Edmund Fitzgerald

IMO 5097216United StatesBuilt 1958

Operated by Northwestern Mutual

Photo: Greenmars · CC BY-SA 3.0 · file

No gross tonnage is recorded for this vessel, so it cannot be ranked by size. Rank is only shown where the underlying measurement exists.

In brief

About SS Edmund Fitzgerald

Full article ↗

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there. Her wreck was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and soon afterwards found to be in two large pieces.
For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite (a variety of iron ore) from mines along the Minnesota Iron Range near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit rivers (between Lake Huron and Lake Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.
On the afternoon of November 9, 1975, she embarked on her final voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, carrying a full cargo of taconite ore pellets with Master Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command.

Quoted from SS Edmund Fitzgerald on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Vessel particulars

Identification and dimensions

Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.

Identification

IMO number: 5097216
IMO check digit: Valid
MMSI
Call sign
Flag state: United States
Port of registry: Milwaukee
Vessel class: —
Status: in service

Construction

Type: General cargo
Builder: Great Lakes Engineering Works
Yard number
Launched: —
Year built: 1958
Designed to carry: —
Owner: Northwestern Mutual
Operator on record: Columbia Transportation Division, Oglebay Norton Company of Cleveland, Ohio

Measurements

Gross tonnage: —
Net tonnage: —
Displacement: —
Length overall: 222.2 m
Beam: 22.9 m
Draft: 25.0 m
Service speed: 14.0 kn
Deadweight: 25,500 t

In context

How SS Edmund Fitzgerald compares

Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

United States is the country of registry for 2,278 vessels in this directory. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (977 ships), and the median vessel measures 1,706 GT. Browse every ship flagged United States.

Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 121 general cargos flying the United States flag.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was built in 1958, making it 68 years old. It is one of 267 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 718 GT. Across the whole of the 1950s the registry holds 2,005 vessels, median 960 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.

The registry attributes 24 vessels to Great Lakes Engineering Works, with a median tonnage of 8,018 GT, delivered between 1905 and 1960. See the rest of that yard’s output.

At 222.2 m overall, SS Edmund Fitzgerald is 121.2 m longer than the 101.0 m median for general cargos on record, with a beam of 22.9 m and a draft of 25.0 m.

IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 5097216 this registry holds 16 other vessels, whose median build year is 1953 and which range from 1915 to 1962. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 1958.

Its IMO number, 5097216, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 5×7 + 0×6 + 9×5 + 7×4 + 2×3 + 1×2 = 116 — and the last digit of that total, 6, must equal the seventh digit, 6. It does, so this number is well formed.

Nearest by IMO number

Ship	IMO	Built
MV Edmund Gardner	5097228	1953
Edmund P. Smith	5097254	—
Sorachi Maru	5097319	1930
Edra	5097345	1962

Same yard, same years

Built alongside at Great Lakes Engineering Works

No ship class is recorded for this vessel, so these are not asserted to be sister ships — they are contemporaries from the same builder, shown because that is what the data supports.

Herbert C. Jackson

1959 · 12,292 GT · United States

Provenance

Where this page comes from

Vessel recordWikidata, released under CC0, keyed on this ship’s IMO number.

Written summaryQuoted from SS Edmund Fitzgerald on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

PhotographBy Greenmars, reused under CC BY-SA 3.0.

All general cargos Ships flagged United States Built by Great Lakes Engineering Works Northwestern Mutual