Fitz pics-1958 - from FLICKR:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=edmu...23083154%40N02
June 7th, 1958 and the launch of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My great grandfather worked at the Great Lakes Engineering Works, where the Fitzgerald was built. My grandmother got the pictures, in memory of her father, so she must have thought the launch of this ship was historic enough to be there.
From Wikipedia-
Initially Hull # 301, the Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 ft (222 m) with a “carrying capacity of approximately 26,800 long tons (30,000 ST/27,200 t) of iron ore.”[13] As the new ‘Queen of the Lakes’ was launched into the lake Saturday June 7, 1958 from GLEW’s Ecorse shipyard, Mrs. Edmund Fitzgerald had the privilege of breaking the champagne bottle on Fitzgerald’s bow. Along with the wide spread media coverage, 15,000 people showed up to witness the event that marked the first new ‘maximum seaway-size’ freighter on the Lakes.[14] The Edmund Fitzgerald, although most famous because it was immortalized in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Canadian singer, song-writer Gordon Lightfoot, was not the only ship unable to retire gracefully (lost November 10, 1975). Many vessels saw their untimely end during the war years.
HARBOUR SHOT:This the crowd awaiting the launch in the Detroit River area. The yacht in the left of center forground may be the Dodge Brothers Dalphine.