Nearly 50 years after the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, a group of 68 swimmers is preparing for a 411-mile relay swim to commemorate the event. The relay will begin above the shipwreck site and end in Detroit, the vessel’s original destination. Participants plan to carry iron ore pellets from the last dock in Superior, Wisconsin—where the Fitzgerald took on its final cargo—with the intent to present them to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
According to a WZZM13 report, as of now, the event has raised over $187,000 for the cause. Scheduled to begin on July 26, the event aims to honor the crew who were lost and raise support for preserving the historic Whitefish Point Light Station, a longtime navigational aid on Lake Superior.
The relay will be conducted across more than a month in 17 stages with teams of four swimmers, each contributing to the journey that aims to symbolically complete the Edmund Fitzgerald’s unfulfilled voyage, as noted by a WILX article. The iron ore pellets that the swimmers will carry symbolizes the 26,000 tons of cargo the ship was transporting when it went down in Canadian waters near Whitefish Point.
The journey and story of the swimmers will be documented in a film titled “The Legend Lives On,” which will cover both the physical challenges and the emotional significance related to the Edmund Fitzgerald and those who died aboard. Brian VanderHoff of Kalamazoo, who raised nearly $9,000 as the event's top fundraiser, told ABC12, "The Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim is important to me because it commemorates the 29 lives lost in 1975 in Lake Superior." The swim is scheduled to conclude on August 28 with a memorial service, during which the bell of the Mariners' Church will ring 29 times—once for each life lost.
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