Here are several miscellaneous facts about the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.  They range from the width and height of the ship, all the way to who the ship was named after.  If you know of any which are not listed here, please send them here.

1. The Fitz was built by Great Lakes Engineering Works, and the engine was built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

2. The hull number of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was 301.

3. The Edmund Fitzgerald was launched/christened on June 8, 1958.

4. The Fitzgerald weighed 13,632 tons when it was not carrying cargo.

5. The ship was thirty-nine feet tall, seventy-five feet wide, and 729 feet long.

6. Registry number: US 277437

7. The Edmund Fitzgerald foundered only 17 miles from the "safe haven" of Whitefish Point.

8. The Fitzgerald was named after Edmund Fitzgerald, president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

9. On November 9, 1975 Fitzgerald was supposed to transport a load of taconite from Superior, Wisconsin to Zug Island in Detroit, Michigan.  It never made it to it's destination.

10. There have been more 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, the Edmund Fitzgerald being the most famous.

11. The entire crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost the night of November 10, 1975.

12. It took three tries to open the celebration champagne bottle at the christening for the Edmund Fitzgerald.

13. One person had a heart attack at the christening and died on the spot.

14. The song by Gordon Lightfoot has an informational error in it.  It says the Fitz "left fully loaded for Cleveland."  Though it was going to Cleveland after Detroit, the cargo "fully loaded" was headed for Detroit.

15. The bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald was restored by Michigan State University in 1995, later being altered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

16. The wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975, lies 530 feet beneath the surface of Lake Superior.

17. Robert Rafferty wasn't even supposed to be on the ship!  He was filling in for someone with bleeding ulcers.

18. Captain McSorley planned on this being his last voyage before retirement!  He wanted to stay home and take care of his sick wife.

19. The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald had structural damage even before the maiden voyage ever occurred.

20. The Edmund Fitzgerald is the most famous shipwreck of the Great Lakes (second to no wreck out of 6,000) and this is believed to be caused by the mystery and the ballad by Gordon Lightfoot.

21. The Edmund Fitzgerald broke her own records for most cargo carried in one year several times in her short life of seventeen years.

22. Gordon Lightfoot originally decided to write a song after reading a newspaper that spelled the name of the ship incorrectly; he was appalled that people could have such a lack of respect.

23. Gitche Gumee is Indian for "Big Lake" or "Big Sea Water."

24. McCarthy and McSorley made a "pact" to sail out their years together before dying together in the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.