SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.

For 17 years Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a "workhorse," she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own previous record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Fitzgerald to boat watchers.

Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered.

Many books, studies, and expeditions have examined the cause of the sinking. Fitzgerald might have fallen victim to the high waves of the storm, suffered structural failure, been swamped with water entering through her cargo hatches or deck, experienced topside damage, or shoaled in a shallow part of Lake Superior. The sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald is one of the best-known disasters in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of Newsweek. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.

The GLEW was formed in 1902 to purchase Riverside Ironworks. Riverside was the short-lived successor to the venerable S.F. Hodge Company (Samuel F. Hodge & Company), which was well known for quality steam engines and provided access not only to marine engine markets, but also to non marine markets as well. Because of the Hodge Company, which was founded in 1863, and other companies like them, the Detroit River community had become a hot bed for steam engine development. Antonio C. Pessano was elected as President and General Manager for his engineering background and charismatic personality. The new company realized that the Riverside yard had limited room and service docks. GLEW announced the purchase of a second shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan in 1903 which later became the River Rouge yard. The GLEW again expanded in 1905 when it acquired the Columbia Iron Works in St. Clair, Michigan, and in 1912 when operations began at their Ashtabula shipyard in Ohio. These GLEW shipyards helped Pressano realize his goal for the company. From the time it launched Hull #1 (Fontana) out of Ecorse, this immense shipbuilding enterprise would later be known for the construction of famous ships like SS Wyandotte, SS William C. Atwater and the Edmund Fitzgerald.

It was anticipated that GLEW would be the largest shipbuilding plant on the Great Lakes. In 1903, the plant owned eighty-five acres (34 ha) along the Detroit River that included 1,400 feet (430 m) of river frontage. The company began with a capital of $1.5 million and a $500,000 bond issue. Within three years of GLEW's formation, Detroit built fifty percent of the tonnage of all ships in the Great Lakes.

The GLEW created opportunity for other companies and played a large wartime role during the company’s fifty-eight-year span. Many shipping companies hoped that the skilled craftsmanship of the GLEW would help establish their firm as a major contender within the Great Lakes shipping industry. The Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company of Milwaukee contracted the GLEW to build the first ‘super freighter’ thus putting them on the map. Other orders of the same magnitude ensued which benefited the local economy. Hugh McElroy, general superintendent of the GLEW stated that these contracts presented 1,300 new jobs and thereby tripling the company’s workforce. William Penn Snyder, president of Shenango Furnace Company of Sharpsville, Pennsylvania felt that the incorporation of GLEW ships would clearly change his smaller (by comparison) iron and steel industry into a leading competitor. Just as Snyder had hoped, the record-breaking freighter, SS Shenango, helped dramatically expand the company. This relationship between the two companies led to the contract of more ships whereby even Elizabeth Russel, daughter of John Russel, vice president and treasurer of GLEW had the honor of christening the SS William P. Snyder. Although the Snyder did not set records, the GLEW would become renowned via other vessels.

The GLEW set records and earned long-time standing recognition as a leading innovator in shipbuilding technology. In 1908, the SS Wyandotte was launched from the Ecorse site. This 364 ft (111 m). steel hulled, self-unloader was the prototype for the modern day self-unloader. Again technology advanced and the newer ships of 1911 based their design on the Wyandotte but were incorporated with grander features. The GLEW designed and built seven new ships of “full canal dimensions and rather deep draft,” thereby forging the way for bigger and better products and production and pushed technology further.

The year 1925 marked a new technical era when GLEW built the 604 ft (184 m) SS William C. Atwater at the River Rouge site at the request of Wilson Transit. The Atwater was “the first ship with full-size hatches [that] have single-piece steel hatch covers” As machinery advanced, so did the size of the vessels. By 1957, plans were made to build the largest ore carrier to maneuver the Lakes.

The war years not only saw the construction but also the destruction of vessels. During World War I, the SS Vacuum (Hull # 99, Ecorse yard) commissioned by Ocean Freight Cargo Ship in 1912 as the SS Bayamon was sunk by German torpedo April 28, 1917 near Scotland. The SS Gratangen (Hull #156, Ashtabula) commissioned by Corona Coa in 1916 as the SS Corona was sunk by German submarine in 1917. The P. L. M. No. 4 (Hull #162,Ecorse) commissioned by the French government for the Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railway in 1916 was torpedoed and sunk in English Channel on December 27, 1917. However, the construction during wartime enabled the GLEW to bring economic prosperity to the Detroit area.