Hundreds expected to mark sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a ceremony Monday at Split Rock Lighthouse on the North Shore for the annual remembrance of the sinking of the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald.

The ship sank in a storm 33 years ago, after picking up a load of iron ore at the Duluth-Superior harbor.

Lee Radzak, who manages the Split Rock historical site, said that as part of the ceremony, a bell will be rung 30 times - once for each of the 29 crew members who died on the Fitzgerald, and once for all of the rest of the victims of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.

"Three-hundred-fifty-some ship wrecks happened on Lake Superior over all the years of the sailings and the many crew members that never made it back," Radzak said. "So that's something we've tied into Nov. 10th because that's the date most people remember with the Fitzgerald and the gales of November."

Radzak said the lighthouse beacon -- which is dark the rest of the year -- will shine until 7 p.m. In clear weather, he said, the beacon should be visible more than 30 miles off shore.

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