Church to honor 45th anniversary of Fitzgerald shipwreck

Mariners’ Church of Detroit will observe the 45th anniversary Sunday of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald during its yearly memorial service for those who have died in Great Lakes shipwrecks.

The event will be livestreamed on Facebook for the first time, said the Rev. Jeffrey M. Hubbard, rector at the church also known as “The Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.”

“This year, we’re especially mindful of the challenges first responders face in protecting our freedom, our rights and our health,” Hubbard said. “That includes all the current and past sailors who ply the Great Lakes waterways. As beautiful as they are, the Great Lakes can be incredibly dangerous. This service honors and remembers those who have perished over the centuries.”

More than 10,000 lives have been lost in the roughly 6,000 shipwrecks on record in the five inland seas.

The S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank Nov. 10, 1975, during a storm on Lake Superior. The vessel was carrying a load of iron ore pellets to a Detroit steel mill when it plunged to the bottom 17 miles from Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. All 29 crewmen were lost.

The Rev. Richard Ingalls, then pastor of Mariners’ Church, rang its “brotherhood bell” 29 times to honor them as described in Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” As is customary, it will be rung again during the Sunday memorial.