On November 10, 1975, an intense storm hit Lake Superior. Two vessels sailed through the night in hopes of reaching safe harbor before the weather worsened. The Captain of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, Ernest McSorley, responded to the concern of the Captain of the SS Arthur M. Anderson with a short message:
“We are holding our own.”
That night, Lake Superior took 29 men into the depths. Two of those men were sons of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
“We are holding our own,” is a highly personal temporary exhibit at DCMM in Sturgeon Bay, honoring the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the loss of two men from Door County – Oliver “Buck” Champeau and Russell Haskell.
The exhibit features original shipbuilding plans of the Fitzgerald, personal effects from Buck Champeau’s daughter Deb, and artifacts from the DCMM collection relating to the tragic loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The exhibition is in the Ellsworth & Carla Peterson Special Exhibit Space at DCMM. The exhibit will remain up until December 30, when elements will be moved to the Horton Gallery Great Lakes commercial shipping exhibit in Sturgeon Bay and portions returned to Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock.
On Monday, November 10 at 5:45pm, DCMM hosted a brief 50th anniversary memorial event, honoring the 29 crew members of the Edmund Fitzgerald lost on November 10, 1975.
- A Prayer
- A Poem
- 29 Bells
Additionally, the lights of the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower were dark that night.