I found this book to be quite interesting. Particularly interesting to me was the first half, which chronicled the last voyage and sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. I thought the author did a really great job at building a compelling narrative based on a limited number of facts, no one truly knows what happened to cause the Fitzgerald to sink.

The book begins to suffer a bit after the wreck. The author details the investigations into the sinking by various agencies and boards and their contradictory findings. This was interesting to a point, but also repetitive. The final part of the book details the various excursions and dives to the wreck itself and the families attempts to have the wreck site declared a gravesite to prevent desecration. Again it was interesting, to a point, as I felt it got a bit repetitive.

I was glad the author did not ignore the giant elephant in the room when it comes to the Edmund Fitzgerald story. The author acknowledged Gordon Lightfoot’s song and it’s effect on the story of the shipwreck. It’s thanks to Lightfoot’s masterpiece that people remain fascinated by the story of the Fitzgerald and is truly a great tribute to the twenty-nine men who lost their lives.

Overall, this was a solid account of a very famous shipwreck. So many mysteries surround the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and I though the author did a solid job in detailing all the possibilities.

This book is excellent, well written and easy to understand. I highly recommend for anyone looking to learn more about the Edmund Fitzgerald!

This book surprised me, much more informative on the Wreck, and it's crew, and how devastating the loss of both were. Very well written, would have liked more photos of the Fitz, but it once again proves Mother Nature is boss. I live near the Detroit River and watch the Mighty Lake Freighters pass, eerily at nightime, lit up and cruising up river towards Windsor On. It is a splendid view of which I never tire, and now I wonder even more of their crew and how they give up Family time to be on the monster ships for such a length of time. Highly recommend this book to any scuba divers , job well done!

Not totally sure how this ended up on our bookshelf, but it did and I read it [ed: Zack says this was a gift to him from my parents?!]. Great lakes shipping and the sinking of the Edmund Fitz are not areas of expertise for me, so I learned a few things! Expectedly does not pass the Bechdel Test.

I remember when I was in high school and me and a good friend on mine traveled across the US leaching dinners and beds off relatives and we came to roost at one the house of one of his uncles. We stayed there a good couple of weeks. He lived on an island on a backwater of Lake Huron not far from the town of Noble, Ontario. It was a beautiful spot, fishing, clear water, trees, peace and quite. That was a few years after the Fitz went down. His uncle had a crows nest sorta room built on the top floor of the cabin-style house. One afternoon his relatives had gone into town to do some shopping - not an easy feat, 5 miles across the water to the car and then the drive to Noble. It rained that afternoon and my friend and I hung out with not much to do. The crows nest had a small library amassed and I pulled a couple of books off the shelf - one being something called "Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes." I was fascinated and have been ever since. This wreck especially - I ask myself, as I'm sure a lot of others have over the years - "how can something this big, in modern times, just a few miles from shore simply vanish without so much as a cry for help?" All shipwrecks have a mysterious quality to them...unheard last words, last thoughts, etc. The wet cement-color water and bleak skies of winter on the Great Lakes and the silence of the depths, with all the ghosts floating in the carcasses of the dead ships in the dark depths...it's creepy.

A fine account of the loss of the "Edmund Fitzgerald" with all hands. You can't really have grown up in America and not know Gordon Lightfoot's haunting song about the disaster, and Schumacher's book fleshes out the lyrics and discusses what happened out on Lake Superior when one of the largest ships on the Lake simply vanished in a storm that would be called "the Fitzgerald storm" ever after. Very good background, too--- Schumacher gives a good account of the Great Lakes ore trade and the ships carrying taconite ore out of lake ports. And he succeeds very well at humanizing the crew, in letting his readers know that the twenty-nine men lost aboard the Fitzgerald were individuals, with lives and histories and families. Very much worth reading.

Makes you want to hear the song again.

Haunting story, as always. Only thing that was bothersome was the plethora of misspellings (I have the Kindle edition). Other than that, highly recommended book.

"The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy"

Great read

Not much of large boat guy, but I have heard of this boat and the book was well worth the read

A terrible tale of loss. But a great read. I wish it was fiction. I had a hard time putting this down. Even though we all know how the story ends, we still don't know exactly why. Mother Nature can at times show us her ugly side.

this book was easy to read and understand. there is a lot of information about the ship, its voyage, the weather and the theories about what happened.


interesting to note: the song was created based on a Newsweek article. Gordon Lightfoot was a respectful character to the families.

Great account on one of the most famous shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.