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Associated Press reporter Harry Atkins was far away Lake Superior On November 10, 1975, “When the November Storms Came Early.” But his news coverage of the infamous wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald the day after helped shape its legacy.
Atkins, now 86, was a news reporter detroit when he was sent michiganUpper Peninsula to write about Fitzgerald. The cargo ship was transporting iron ore wisconsin While on Zug Island in Detroit she encountered a terrible storm. All 29 people on board died, and the exact cause of the crash remains a mystery.
The last major shipwreck was the Fitzgerald. great LakesThanks to improvements in technology in the years since the disaster. The wreck also became the region’s most famous due to Gordon Lightfoot’s eerie folklore, which has kept it in the public memory.
Lightfoot wrote the poem for Fitzgerald after reading Atkins’ story about the wreck and the November 24, 1975 article in Newsweek magazine. The song was released in August 1976, less than a year after the disaster.
Family members and maritime devotees will gather Monday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the wreck. Ahead of the anniversary, Atkins recalled that fateful day in a recent interview with his former employer, the AP.
How did you first hear about the wreck?
Atkins, who now lives in Savannah, Georgia, said he was working on the AP Detroit broadcast desk when the bureau heard something was wrong. A resident of Whitefish Bay, described by Atkins as an “old hermit”, was listening to radio communications from ships on the water and called radio stations to broadcast what he heard.
“He could sense that Fitzgerald was not performing well,” Atkins said.
The last message heard from Fitzgerald was sent to a nearby ship, the Arthur Anderson. Fitzgerald’s captain said, “We are defending ourselves.”
Atkins said he made up a quick story about how the ship was in distress and then drove overnight to Sault Ste. Marie, about 347 miles (559 kilometers) north of Detroit. He set up shop in Sault Ste. Marie Evening News, a newspaper that carried the radio’s message to Detroit.
“I got the Yellow Pages and started looking for an airplane,” Atkins said.
What did you see over Whitefish Bay?
Atkins said he found a retired Navy pilot who had a four-seat plane with the wings above the cockpit instead of below, so he could fly him and a photographer over nearby Whitefish Bay. When they reached the Canadian side of the lake, Atkins said they saw two freighters, two Coast Guard boats, and another ship pointing at each other “like the Chrysler Star.”
“So we had to find Fitzgerald in the middle, where all those boats were parked,” Atkins said.
From the sky, Atkins said, he saw a lifeboat and vest. But none of the bodies of the crew were ever recovered.
As of today the Fitzgerald lies under 535 feet (165 m) of water, about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. The wreck is protected as a burial site under Canadian law.
Once on the ground, Atkins called his colleagues in Detroit to circulate his draft which spread the news. He wrote in the “lead” of the first paragraph of his story: “Salvors searched the cold waters of Lake Superior Tuesday for the 29-man crew of the sunken ore-carrier Edmund Fitzgerald, but found only the oil slick, empty lifeboats and life jackets.”
When did you know that the ship had become a legend?
Atkins was a longtime sports reporter for the AP in Michigan. He heard Lightfoot sing from time to time.
“It’s a terrible song,” Atkins said, her voice brimming with emotion. “I choke every time.”
But he didn’t realize how notorious the disaster was until 25 years later when he first saw news coverage of the anniversary.
“To think that 29 people were alive yesterday and died today,” Atkins said. “I cared a lot about what I was writing.”