By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
The 411-mile Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim, a Great Lakes relay commemorating the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the namesake freighter, has been suspended after the tugboat escorting swimmers lost an engine.
On August 9th, the relay reached Alpena when the 43-foot escort tug began leaking oil, stopping the schedule for a day. Without a replacement boat, organizers say the swim cannot be safely continued, and the remaining stages and the symbolic delivery of the Fitzgerald’s final cargo are in jeopardy.
The relay started July 26th at the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck site, 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point. From there, swimmers intended to complete the freighter’s original route to Detroit, with an August 27th finish on Belle Isle, followed by a memorial service at Mariners’ Church.
The swimmers have faced challenging conditions from the beginning. They’ve reported respiratory problems, serious cramping, and 57-mph winds on one stage. The relay has drawn crowds at shoreline stops, including the Soo Locks, showing support for the swimmers.
There are 68 swimmers divided into teams of four per stage, working in half-hour rotations over 17 sections of coastline on Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Each athlete is hauling iron ore pellets to symbolize the ship’s last cargo, which will be presented to the mayor of Detroit at the end.
The fundraiser for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, which maintains the Whitefish Point Light Station, the lighthouse the Fitzgerald was heading for when it sank in 1975, has raised close to $200,000 to help fix the 164-year-old lighthouse.
“If we don’t have a boat, we really cannot continue until we do,” said Jim Dreyer, the organizer of the event on Sunday, to the Detroit Free Press, “I mean, as horrible as that sounds, there really is no other choice.”
Dreyer used to be terrified of the open water, even saying, “the open water was my biggest fear in life”. In the decades since, Dreyer is just the second man ever to solo swim across all five Great Lakes.
Built in 1958, the 729-foot freighter was headed from Wisconsin to Detroit with 27,000 tons of iron ore when it sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10th, 1975. All 29 crew members were killed, and it remains the largest ship to ever sink on the Great Lakes.
The swim is meant to honor not only the 29 crew members who died on the Fitzgerald, but also all other mariners lost on the Great Lakes. Whether the relay can resume will depend on finding a seaworthy escort quickly to lead the swimmers to Detroit.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim Halted Midway by Escort Boat Breakdown
