29 lives came to an end in a massive storm on Lake Superior.

The sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is the largest ship to wreck in the history of the Great Lakes.

The huge vessel was renowned for its ingenious design is a cargo ship.

But amid nearly hurricane force winds and waves more than 3 stories high, she broke in 2 and sank to the bottom and more lies and hit 1976.

Ballot.

Despite the fits his fame conclusive answers as to why it sank are still elusive in the new book, the Gales of November.

Author John U Bacon tells the story of the Men who crew the ship, the conditions in which it operated and the Fitzgerald legacy to this day.

John, you Bacon joins us now.

Congratulations on the book.

Nick, thank you.

So this was, you know, a widely celebrated ship on its construction.

As we mentioned, the really clever design elements very narrow.

So is navigable.

Lots of cargo room, not necessarily such an impervious vessel, though, fair to say No said this is true.

A few reasons.

One, the ship's all of them, but especially this one.

They're incredibly long.

729 feet long.

Only 75 feet wide.

That's skyscraper.

Some 3 stories and not in the Home plate and first base.

It's not only make chips, of course, no runs in the world.

They like this is because of locks have to squeeze through locks up and Emory.

So that's why and they swapped out rivets for weld, their cheaper.

They're faster.

They're lighter.

They're not a stir But, you know, you talk about the value of this trading route that Fitzgerald was was navigating at the time.

There are some economic incentives to sailing in November, fairly late in the year, despite the risks.

Tell us about Share these things this especially set all the records in the Great Lakes.

Basically on his last trip, it took 26,000 long tons of taconite iron that's enough to build a 7,000 cars.

It did it once a week mean every 5 days are doing this.

So is to trivia.

You add, of course, make that much more money.

And a case of this last trip, already the captain of the ship.

He tacked on one more week before retired he and 5 others on the ship.

Why?

Because his wife now ya sic in Toledo and this bonus was going to pay for her medical care.

Yeah.

A lot of folks that that you write about that we're very close to calling it.

And I want to get into some of their stories.

But, you know, you wrote that it's a finding the ship proven far easier than determining why it sank.

Tell us a little bit about, you know, the storm they faced and why it's so hard to pin the exact cause of the of the wreck down.

Sure.

It really was neck a storm of the century.

Yet 3 elements going on at once.

One.

The longer winter takes to arrive.

angrier is shows up us 70 degrees in Duluth the day they left.

You don't want that because it's like water by dam.

The more water you have, the worse.

It's going to be so beautiful.

Weather means going turn nasty, fast.

Got a cold front coming in from Canada and a warm front coming in from the southwest United States.

And these 3 elements are gonna combine right in front of Whitefish Bay catcher in front of home plate.

And that was waiting for Fitzgerald when it showed up on Monday.

But it's been hard to determine.

You know, in retrospect exactly what went wrong with the ship.

True.

Obviously a once-in-a-lifetime storm.

There are a lot of theories out The hatch covers is the Coast Guard's theory.

Others say want by a wave and might have hit bottom by show near care.

But island in the middle of the lake I go with those who say Matthew Collette University, Michigan, that it's almost always a combination of forges forces nature, mechanical failures, some decisions that could have gone the other way, of course, with Hudson, the mother of Bruce Hudson.

She had the best line about this one.

Only 30 know 29 men in God and the rest of us are guessing that.

Well, you know, speaking of of Route Hudson, she was somebody who, you know, really fought to keep her son's memory alive.

This book really delves into the personal stories of the men who crewed the Fitzgerald.

Why was it important to you to tell it through that lens?

That to me was the driving force of the story.

Most of the books written on this as the whodunit.

What happened?

And again, we're still not quite sure, but I want to know who the 29 men were.

What are their families like?

What are they doing when they're on board?

these basically personal stories with Hudson is one of my favorites.

She's 4 foot 9.

But as said, she told you she was 5 at 5 and you believe he was spitfire to say the least.

Her only child was Bruce Hudson, 20 year-old deckhand on a break from Ohio State University.

And of course, the cost his life.

And she was known to a lot of the folks, you know, in in the community of survivors as Aunt She's, you know, my Gordon Lightfoot as He talked to her on her deathbed and they're that a real force to be reckoned with.

She lost her only child that day.

flip side as he didn't know that his girlfriend is pregnant.

So 6 later, she becomes a grandmother out of nowhere.

was their story that you learned while reporting out this book, the particularly surprised you capture your imagination.

Nick, started 40 years ago, I knew about 5% of So pretty much all that 24 years basically another story that I thought was point Eddie been in first first engineer on the ship.

He was a butter tire.

Also at 47, his wife and celebrate the 25th anniversary.

He goes across from Superior, Wisconsin to Duluth the day before they leave to buy a 25 and Surrey Diamond Ring.

And it gives it to a friend of his to mail it to his wife.

Why not put in your duffel bag going arrive in 3 days and they docked of Toledo.

gives it to his friend.

And of course, the ship goes down.

week later she received the ring.

She was rest of her life and never remarried.

There was a really notable story to me So to talk about that, the sailors code you know, the men who are who are traversing the Great Lakes.

There is a fellow captain who turned back to look for the ship despite the danger that he and his crew face talks about.

That meant that is case.

You're wondering, yes, true.

My concern reading the book is OK, everyone, we lose everybody.

You know how they're heroes out of this.

These guys are heroes before the on the ship.

All our stuff comes from the ship's.

It turns out food, steel.

So then you name it.

But more heroes.

The guys who got away right after Fitzgerald, survived the storm of their lives.

They're lucky to be alive.

They know it.

Coast Guard asked him to go back out on a fool's mission.

You're not going to find the ship.

You know, you're not gonna find ship and they went out anyway because why?

And I talked to one guy, Rick, by Philly on that ship 2 because they would have done it for us and that keeps you alive.

You know, it's been 50 years, as we mentioned since the ship sunk.

Did you feel that that time crunch trying to talk to as many folks as possible while they were still with us.

Nic, I got lucky.

Lucky, lucky I found 600 crew men who'd been a ship obviously before it went down.

So they're still around.

Not not more of those.

I found one guy in Anderson that night.

The closer we can get to what it was like for the Fitzgerald.

Got to have to families.

And the 2 guys who wrote the stories are still alive in their 80's.

2 guys in the band, the drummer and the and the Bass player.

They're still alive.

I just kept getting lucky with my sources.

You couldn't do this book in 5 or 10 years.

Absolutely.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

There's there's a lot to it.

There's a lot of elements, lot of elements, I guess of their 2 things is granted shipping is immensely important.

I guess that's where our stuff comes from.

It's an invisible industry because these guys are in a ship 9 months out of the years.

You're not going to beat him.

So we don't know these guys, but that's where our stuff comes from.

They risk their lives.

Every time we go out there.

So that is one thing big who these people really are and the families I talked to.

No, it will help was 12 Yo girl who lost her father.

You don't get over even 50 years later.

And also one surprising thing that really blew my mind.

The Great Lakes are considered more dangerous.

Then the ocean for those who sail them.

I never guess that saw water versus fresh water is the main reason.

And it's a true story.

So pretty amazing.

Yeah, a lot to learn in this book.

John,