largest ship sunk in great lakes?

Answer 1

The Edmund Fitzgerald (from the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of...")

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

© 1976 Moose Music, Inc.

Answer 2

Statistics
Length: 729 feet (222.2 m)
Beam: 75 feet (22.7 m)
Draft: 39 feet (11.9 m)
Deadweight tonnage: 8686 long tons (8,825 metric tonnes)
Rated speed: 14 knots
Fuel: 72,000 gallons (273 m³) fuel oil
Capacity: 26,600 register tons (75,900 m³)
Builder: Great Lakes Engineering Works (River Rouge, Michigan)

Fitzgerald was a "Laker," a 729-foot-long (222 m) ore bulk carrier with a capacity of 26,600 tons (24,131 tonnes). Her large cargo hold loaded through twenty-one watertight hatches, each measuring 11'-7" by 54' of 5/16" steel (3.53 m by 16.5 m of 8 mm steel). When completed in 1958, at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan, Fitzgerald was the largest boat on the Great Lakes and remained so until the early 1970s. Comparatively, boats today can be 1000 feet (305 m) long and 105 feet (32 m) abeam, with twice the capacity, but these boats are trapped on Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior because they are too large to fit through the locks at the Welland Canal. The boat's engines were originally coal-fired, but were converted to oil during the 1971-72 winter layover.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a cargo ship that sank suddenly during a gale storm on November 10, 1975, while on Lake Superior. The ship went down without a distress signal in 530 feet (162 m) of water at 46°59.9′N 85°6.6′W, in Canadian waters about 17 miles (15 nm; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. All 29 members of the crew perished. Gordon Lightfoot's hit song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", helped make the incident the most famous marine disaster in the history of Great Lakes shipping.


Crew members
The Edmund Fitzgerald's crew on its final voyage included (listed by name, age, position, hometown):

Michael E. Armagost, 37, Third Mate, Iron River, Wisconsin
Fred J. Beetcher, 56, Porter, Superior, Wisconsin
Thomas D. Bentsen, 23, Oiler, St. Joseph, Michigan
Edward F. Bindon, 47, First Asst. Engineer, Fairport Harbor, Ohio
Thomas D. Borgeson, 41, Maintenance Man, Duluth, Minnesota
Oliver J. Champeau, 41, Third Asst. Engineer, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Nolan S. Church, 55, Porter, Silver Bay, Minnesota
Ransom E. Cundy, 53, Watchman, Superior, Wisconsin
Thomas E. Edwards, 50, Second Asst. Engineer, Oregon, Ohio
Russell G. Haskell, 40, Second Asst. Engineer, Millbury, Ohio
George J. Holl, 60, Chief Engineer, Cabot, Pennsylvania
Bruce L. Hudson, 22, Deck Hand, North Olmsted, Ohio
Allen G. Kalmon, 43, Second Cook, Washburn, Wisconsin
Gordon F. MacLellan, 30, Wiper, Clearwater, Florida
Joseph W. Mazes, 59, Special Maintenance Man, Ashland, Wisconsin
John H. McCarthy, 62, First Mate, Bay Village, Ohio
Ernest M. McSorley, 63, Captain, Toledo, Ohio
Eugene W. O'Brien, 50, Wheelsman, Toledo, Ohio
Karl A. Peckol, 20, Watchman, Ashtabula, Ohio
John J. Poviach, 59, Wheelsman, Bradenton, Florida
James A. Pratt, 44, Second Mate, Lakewood, Ohio
Robert C. Rafferty, 62, Steward, Toledo, Ohio
Paul M. Riippa, 22, Deck Hand, Ashtabula, Ohio
John D. Simmons, 63, Wheelsman, Ashland, Wisconsin
William J. Spengler, 59, Watchman, Toledo, Ohio
Mark A. Thomas, 21, Deck Hand, Richmond Heights, Ohio
Ralph G. Walton, 58, Oiler, Fremont, Ohio
David E. Weiss, 22, Cadet, Agoura, California
Blaine H. Wilhelm, 52, Oiler, Moquah, Wisconsin

Answer 3

The Edmund Fitzgerald 900, a + foot tanker

Answer 4

I agree - The Edmund Fitzgerald - but it was not a tanker. It was carrying iron ore when it went down.