50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald, a ‘rock star’ ship, sank in Lake Superior
The 729-foot ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald, shown in 1972 file photo, in Marie, Mich. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Bettmann Archive/Getty Images No one was more surprised than Gordon Lightfoot when his ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" became one of the biggest hits of 1976, less than a year after the







