SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a Great Lakes freighter launched in 1958 as the largest ship then sailing the lakes and later the largest vessel ever lost there. Built for Northwestern Mutual and operated by Oglebay Norton, she spent 17 years hauling taconite from Minnesota to steel ports, setting records and becoming a familiar sight. On November 9, 1975, she left Superior loaded with ore under Captain Ernest M. McSorley and entered a violent Lake Superior storm. After a final radio message the next evening, she sank in Canadian waters with all 29 crew members. Her loss became one of the Great Lakes’ most famous shipping disasters and prompted major safety changes.