Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald: 51 years later

And as you look at the calendar today, it is November 10th, which means 51 years ago today, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald went on its final voyage, of course, sinking and all the crew members on board losing their life. And it's one of those moments that I know so many people remember, and they're often trying to learn more about. So we wanted to take some time today on Fox 6 Now to discuss the Edmund Fitzgerald. I want to go ahead and bring We bring in documentarian Rick Mixter joining us here. We're on Fox 6 now. Rick, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to chat with us. Oh, it's my pleasure, especially Milwaukee, the home port of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Yeah, I know you've spent a ton of time in your career researching into this, but I guess just for starters, we're talking about an event that happened 51 years ago, and yet every time we talk about the documentary that we made or anything, people immediately click on it. There's still a high interest level when it comes to this topic. Why do you think that is? There are several reasons, but the big main reason is Gordon Lightfoot's song. Every November, we tend to hear it. It's a long song, you know, six minutes long, so it gets your attention. Those haunting guitar licks from a Detroit native. It certainly is one of those songs that just captures your mind, your imagination, as you see the wind start to blow. And I think it's the lyric, you know, does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours? That still makes the hair on my arm stand up. Yeah, to your point, it's not a bright spot in history. It's an incredible tragedy when you talk about all of the lives lost here and just a whole lot of unknown. But I guess for you, you've spent, as I mentioned, just a ton of time dedicated to this story, to the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. What about this for you really struck a chord that made you want to literally at moments dive deeper? Well, I was from Marquette, you know, I was born and raised, I was in the storm that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in, so the storm went right over the top of our trailer, and I remember the storm, but it was nothing compared to the blizzard of 78. Then we remember the headlines, you know, coming down, and of course then the song that followed out went to number two on the charts, but then eventually getting into shipwrecks. I was a journalist that covered several accidents that happened, one, the largest tanker ever lost that actually blew up. Three million gallons of unleaded gas, and I was there for two nights. So the shipwreck topic became very real for me. And then I started making documentaries on other storms. The 1913 storm is the same anniversary as right now. This is 12 ships that vanished with all hands. And I did a documentary with two guys that actually went through that storm. So I was hooked by the time I got to finally dive the Edmund Fitzgerald in a submarine in 1994. Yeah. And so again, kind of talk to me about some of the things that you discovered when you did dive there. I know none of the bodies were ever recovered, but I believe you were the first to kind of report that one had been found. It was so tragic. I mean, we knew that there were 29 lives that had been lost. The question was, why did Lake Superior never give up any of its dead? We'd seen in 1958 when the Carl Bradley went down, two survivors made it and most of So the crew recovered in 66 when the Morrell broke. We had one survivor, Dennis Hale. But why was it in 75 that not one person, not one body was found? And then when we dove it in 1994 in July, it was the dive right after mine. And ironically, it was actually a... The tugboat owner who we were renting the tug from, the guy that put our expedition together, Fred Shannon, spent $80,000 of the money that was supposed to be his wife's dream home. And he spent that to put us, a documentary crew, on the Fitzgerald. And it was that dive right after mine that they found the missing crewman. And it took us from an all-time high of diving such a spectacular, you know, known shipwreck, the most famous on the Great Lakes, to that... bottom where you realize this is 29 people lost their lives here and here's a guy that had his life jacket on but sadly was crushed at that depth of the life jacket just wouldn't float and it just crushed all of us when we when we realized that and then had to report it you know that was our our duty was to tell the police everything we found when we were down there everything we had recorded. And that just brought up horrible memories for the families. And that still continues today. We never like to go into this anniversary talking a lot about the crewman, just because we know that still is yet another one of those pains that will never go away. Yeah, you know, normally you talk about going on a dive and discovering something. And normally there would be an excitement around it. But obviously, to your point here, it's just devastating and it's tragic. It really helps you understand the gravity of the situation. Obviously you've been covering the Edmund Fitzgerald for decades at this point. For some people watching, I'm sure they've been thinking about it for the last 51 years. For others, this might be their first year. So what do you kind of want the average person to know really about this tragedy and about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald? You know, it's so much more than the song. The song really, I like to hear the 29 times the bell rings and remember the 25,000 people who lost their lives. Remember that this was the end of the shipbuilding mecca of the Detroit area. You know, 200 years they built freighters there, and the largest on the Great Lakes came out. It really was an incredible gift to the city of Milwaukee with Edmund Fitzgerald having so many contacts with Northwest Mutual putting $8 million into the ship. Edmund Fitzgerald's son actually started the Milwaukee Brewers, the world champions. So the connections go way beyond just the bell tolling and the graves that we think about today. It goes into an incredible legacy of a ship that had cargo hauling records. And it really holds our attention because we do feel kind of futile against the big storms that continue to happen and will always happen on the Great Lakes. Yeah, no, absolutely. Again, it's just, it's something that I feel like, you know, you either know a lot about or you're just kind of learning about, but it's certainly an important topic here for you. I mean, you could have done anything with your life. You could have picked any career. What about, you know, kind of these shipwrecks? And I know you've done more than just the Edmund Fitzgerald really made you want to hone in on that and make these, these films and do these dives. I think everyone in your newsroom, including yourself, realize that we are given incredible access as journalists. We get to see things and do things that other people don't get to do. The good news is we get to bring cameras. So I... Put on a wetsuit, dove around the submarine, filmed all the exterior shots, and then actually made a dive almost two hours on the Edmund Fitzgerald. It's really just a chapter in an incredible history of being able to witness, you know, the history of the Great Lakes firsthand. And so that's why I wrote Tattletale Sounds, a 300-page book. I've done three documentaries for PBS on the Fitzgerald. I've got a new special coming out in National Geographic Explorer, and I've been on the History Channel. I mean, it's just wonderful to share this history with. with people who aren't even really aware of our fresh water and share 300 years of legacy of shipwrecks that have happened on the Great Lakes, and many of which that are perfectly preserved on the bottom, where we can still find clues to what happened. Yeah, again, you've written a book, you've done several specials, you've done these films. I think last year you gave more than 40 lectures on the Edmund Fitzgerald. You're certainly an expert here. But I guess what are What are some of the questions that you still have? Again, there's so much. Unknown when we talk about this tragedy as well. I'll just put on the internet what you believe and you'll find out. Everybody has a different opinion on what happened and what we found. And it really comes down to, you know, how much people believe Gordon Lightfoot's version or how many people believe that the crew weren't at fault. But as I went down, I realized that the hatches weren't all dogged down. I could tell by looking at those. But I did not do a thorough investigation of where the spill pattern of where the iron ore went to really figure out, did it go down in one piece? I don't believe that it did. I found most of the taconite behind the shipwreck. And this is all brand new. This was never published in books. It certainly never showed up in any other documentaries. So in addition to finding the missing crewman, we added a lot of new information of where some of that stuff was located, but we did not do a thorough job. So, you know, someday if the families allow it, it would be fantastic to go back and to look at those areas, avoid any areas, especially the area where we know that that crewman is. We don't need to see that. But there are so many clues as to where the hatches are, the covers, where the hatch crane is. All this is really a blueprint, if you will, of what happened. And it hasn't been thoroughly told yet. So the only way to do that is with modern sonar, with a modern diving ability, either an ROV robot or a submarine. And we don't necessarily have to bring people down there. We could do it very well with a robot. But I think that it should be opened up. There's... Over 12,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes that don't have restrictions that, you know, the Fitzgerald has. So I believe it should be opened up. Again, there is just still so much to learn here. Tell us a little more about your book. Where can we get our hands on that if any of our viewers are really hoping to dive into this story and learn more? Well, my first place is to go to any maritime museum. I thoroughly hope that people will learn more about not just the Fitzgerald, but all of our ship stories, our lighthouse stories. So go to your favorite maritime museum. I'm usually on the bookshelf sitting there. Tattletail Sounds is available online at shipwreckpodcast.com, where you can also listen to many of the stories. Hear the actual survivors from the 1913 storm, the 1940 storm, and even a four-hour podcast on the men that built the Fitzgerald, that sailed the Fitzgerald, and, of course, the people that ultimately went down to look at it, including Jacques Cousteau's son, who I interviewed in Chicago. So it's pretty in-depth. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, we really appreciate you taking some time to join us today on Fox 6 Now. We know you have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this topic, and we just appreciate you sharing that with us today. I appreciate you giving time to your viewers to hear about maritime history. Thank you so much. Absolutely. That is Rick Mixter there joining us here on Fox 6 Now. I also just want to let all of you guys know that today on Fox Local, we will be streaming again the original production that Fox 6 made called The Gales of November, The Final Voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This came out last year when we were marking 50 years since her final journey. And we know so many of you guys found this fascinating. To honor the lives lost or learn a little bit more today on the 51st anniversary of that final voyage, it will be streaming tonight at 7.30 and again at 11. So just wanted to mark that down for anybody who would like to watch it, whether it's your first time or you saw it last year. It is certainly worth your time, and you can learn a lot.