Spend enough time along the shores of Lake Superior and it won’t be long before there’s some reminder of what happened “when the gales of November came early.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest and most famous of the estimated 6,500 ships that have gone down in the Great Lakes. But the

Fitzgerald is remembered while the others are forgotten, thanks in large part to Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting 1976 folk ballad that became a surprise hit.

The Fitzgerald, a 730-foot long freighter named after a Milwaukee insurance company executive, went down in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 men on board died.

A crew and good captain well-seasoned

The Fitz, as it’s still affectionately called, was the largest ship on the Great Lakes when it launched in 1958 and kept that title until 1971.

On its final voyage, the Fitzgerald departed Superior, Wisconsin, on Nov. 9, 1975, carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore along a familiar route to Zug Island in Detroit.

Oliver “Buck” Champeau, 41, was making his first trip on “The Mighty Fitz.”

The U.S. Marine veteran and experienced seaman was drawn by the higher pay that time of year due to increased risk, recalled daughter Debbie Gomez-Felder, who was 17 at the time.

“It was an honor to be on the Fitzgerald,” Gomez-Felder said, speaking in her home outside of Milwaukee adorned with images of her dad and paintings of the famous ship.

Most of the crew members were born and lived in states that border the Great Lakes — Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota.

The captain, 63-year-old Ernest M. McSorley, intended to retire after the 1975 season. He was known for his ability to navigate storms on the Great Lakes, but the one that hit on Nov. 10 was unlike any he had encountered.

When the waves turn the minutes to hours

McSorley chose a northerly route across Lake Superior to be protected by highlands along the Canadian shore. Gale warnings were issued the night of Nov. 9. Those worsened to storm warnings in the early morning of Nov. 10.

The crew of the nearby Arthur Anderson, which was trailing the Fitz, reported waves as high as 25 feet. The first mate radioed McSorley, who reported that the Fitz had been damaged by the storm.

“We are holding our own,” McSorley said. That was the last message received from anyone aboard.

Gomez-Felder said she was called out of class the following day and told to go home immediately. Her mom told her that the Fitzgerald was missing.

“I was banging on the church doors at St. Michael’s Church, our home church where I grew up, wanting answers from one of the priests as to how could this happen,” Gomez-Felder said. “I didn’t understand it.”

And all that remains is the faces and the names

There are many theories as to what caused the Fitzgerald to sink so rapidly without a distress call, but the exact reason remains unknown.

Even without an answer, the wreck spurred many “incredible” safety improvements, said Frederick Stonehouse, whose 1977 book “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was the first of dozens written about the tragedy.

Whereas a similar-sized ship would be lost on the lakes every six or seven years before the Fitzgerald, none has gone down since then, he said.

“Every sailor on the Great Lakes that’s sailing today owes a great deal of debt of gratitude to the Fitzgerald,” said Stonehouse, who taught Great Lakes maritime history at Northern Michigan University, located on the shores of Lake Superior.

The Fitzgerald still sits at the bottom of Lake Superior, submerged in 535 feet of water, about 17 miles (27.36 kilometers) north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. No bodies have been recovered.

The wreck is protected as a grave site under Canadian law, a status that family members including Gomez-Felder lobbied for. Unauthorized dives or artifact retrieval are barred.
Gomez-Felder said she wants the wreck — and the bodies entombed within — to remain undisturbed.

The legend lives on

Events around the Great Lakes each year remember the men killed and reunite their family members, and organizers say the 50th anniversary has driven public interest to a new peak.

The Great Lakes Historical Museum in Whitefish Point plans a public event on Nov. 10. A separate ceremony only for the crew’s families will be livestreamed. The Edmund Fitzgerald’s bell, retrieved in 1995 at the request of crew family members, is housed there as a permanent memorial.

Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lake Shipwreck Historical Society, said the museum is on track to see its busiest year ever on the 50th anniversary.

“When we remember the Fitzgerald, I like to think that at the same time we’re remembering all those other shipwrecks,” he said.

The wreck is also remembered in Detroit at the Mariners’ Church, where Rector Richard Ingalls rang its bell 29 times in honor of the crew after receiving word in the predawn hours of Nov. 11, 1975, that the Fitzgerald had sunk.

The tolling bell helped spread the word of what had happened and was memorialized by Lightfoot when he sang “the church bell chimed til it rang twenty-nine times.”

In 2023, after Lightfoot died, they rang the bell a 30th time. The bell will also be rung 30 times this year on the anniversary, with the final toll representing all sailors lost on the Great Lakes.
‘Fellas, it’s been good to know ya’

On this 50th anniversary, Gomez-Felder said she wants people to remember the Fitzgerald crew’s loved ones.

“It took me a little while to recognize he’s not coming back,” Gomez-Felder said of her father. “He’s not going to be here for my wedding, he is not going to see me graduate, he isn’t going to walk me down the aisle. He has gone.”

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She has been comforted by traveling to Whitefish Point each year to be with other families and, for the past 30 years, ringing the Fitzgerald’s bell in memory of her father and the others who died.

“That was the closest thing to my dad,” she said. “That’s the soul of the ship.”
___
Associated Press reporter Isabella Volmert contributed to this report from Lansing, Michigan.

By JOHN RABY, Associated Press

A judge on Monday allowed the continued deployment of more than 300 West Virginia National Guard members to the nation’s capital.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay made the ruling after hearing arguments in a lawsuit by a civic organization.

Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey authorized the Guard’s deployment in August to support President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting efforts in Washington, D.C. The West Virginia Citizen Action Group then filed a lawsuit claiming Morrisey exceeded his authority.

Under state law, the group argued, the governor could deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.

Morrisey’s office has argued the deployment was authorized under federal law.

Lindsay previously heard arguments in the case Oct. 24 and Nov. 3.

The civic group originally claimed that it was harmed by the deployment by being forced to refocus its resources away from government accountability and transparency. The state attorney general’s office sought to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacked standing to challenge Morrisey’s decision. Lindsay continued both of the previous hearings and ordered the state to specifically focus on whether what Morrisey did was lawful.

Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, although the Department of Justice itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.

While the West Virginia National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November, it is consulting with the governor’s office and others on the possibility of extending the stay. Formal orders were issued last week extending the deployment of the district’s National Guard in the city through the end of February.

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By Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Consumers don’t have to worry about products arriving in time for the holidays, though they may be facing higher prices, say officials at one of America’s largest ports.

Imports at the Port of Long Beach are flowing smoothly through its facilities despite the government shutdown and tariff uncertainties, port executives said. Still, they acknowledge that the volume and prices of products in the millions of containers coming through the port suggest that imports are becoming more costly and consumers are more cautious.

Until now, retailers, manufacturers and other intermediaries have absorbed much of the cost of tariffs, but that is changing as it becomes more apparent which tariffs are here to stay, Mario Cordero, chief executive of the Port of Long Beach, said Friday during a virtual news conference.

“Consumers will likely see price escalation in the coming months as shippers continue to pass along the cost of tariffs on goods, and a higher percentage of these costs will be passed on to the consumer,” he said.

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Cordero, who drinks Starbucks coffee, said he’s seen the price of a cup of coffee increase by 15% and that more consumers are going to discount stores to find deals. However, potential price hikes could be offset if the United States and China strike further trade agreements.

The Port of Long Beach, a gateway for trade between the United States and Asia-Pacific, released new data that offers a glimpse into how President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are affecting goods imported from key trade partners, such as China.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court also started to hear arguments as the justices examine the legality of Trump’s tariffs.

Over the past year, the port saw a drop in the movement of containers filled with certain goods such as winter apparel, kitchen appliances and toys that people typically buy as gifts, a sign that consumers are likely wary about spending.

Still, the impact of tariffs on cargo volume hasn’t been as bad as some experts predicted. Cordero said some experts had projected that the port could see as much as a 35% drop in cargo volume.

“Clearly today, it’s fair to say that the worst scenarios some predicted did not occur,” Cordero said. “The challenges were many, and there’s no doubt that many companies and their workers suffered, but cargo volume is turning out to be just as high this year as it was last year.”

In fiscal year 2025, which runs from October 2024 to September 2025, the port surpassed 10 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the first time, up 11% from the same period last year. TEU is a measurement used to describe cargo capacity for container ships and terminals.

While the port saw a decline in the amount of TEUs moved in October compared with the same period in 2024, Cordero said he thinks the port will end 2025 in “positive territory.”

In October, there were 839,671 TEUs moved. That’s because retailers and shippers started shipping goods earlier than normal to avoid fees and to stock up their warehouses because of tariffs.

The Port of Long Beach is an economic engine for California. Officials say it helps create 691,000 jobs in Southern California. More than 2.7 million U.S jobs are connected to the Port of Long Beach, they say.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Kate Sullivan, Bloomberg News

U.S. President Donald Trump said he is nominating John Coale as a special envoy to Belarus and asked President Alexander Lukashenko to consider releasing more political prisoners.

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Trump credited Coale — who is currently serving as a deputy special envoy to Ukraine and was previously one of the Trump’s lawyers — for the release of “100 Hostages” and said he “is going for an additional 50.”

“I would like to thank, in advance, the Highly Respected President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, for his consideration on the release of these additional people,” Trump posted on social media.

Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been sanctioned by various countries, including the U.S., for undermining democracy in the former Soviet republic.

Bloomberg previously reported that in September, Coale told Lukashenko during an in-person meeting that Trump had ordered the removal of sanctions on the Belarus state airline, Belavia. U.S. sanctions on Belavia were lifted in November.

Coale also passed on a letter from Trump at the time conveying birthday greetings to Lukashenko, according to video posted on the Belarus state-run Belta news service.

In August, Trump held what he described as a “wonderful” call with Lukashenko and said he thanked him for an earlier release of political prisoners and that the two leaders discussed the additional releases.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.