It has been exactly 47 years since the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a violent Lake Superior storm roughly 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, where Pam Johnson’s heart remains today.
“I am the daughter of a cook, and he was not supposed to be on that ship,” Johnson said, prior to boarding Museum Ship Valley Camp.
Although closed for the season, Sault Historic Sites made a special exception for the daughter of Edmund Fitzgerald crew member Robert Rafferty on the anniversary of his death.
Upon viewing two torn up lifeboats and seeing her father’s name in bold black letters before her, Johnson’s eyes filled with tears. She had a story to tell.
As much as Rafferty loved the water and cooking, his family meant everything to him.
“He was a good father,” Johnson said. “He cooked many times for our church, and made big pots of spaghetti. One time I asked him, ‘How do you know when the spaghetti is done?’ He took a noodle and threw it up against the wall. If it stuck, it was done. When we moved out of our house, he pulled out the oven. There was ten pounds of spaghetti under there.”
While Johnson chose not to adopt her father’s noodle throwing habit, he did inspire her to cook.
“I like cooking and keeping people happy,” said Johnson, softly smiling at happier times. “ I worked as a cook in a nursing home and school for many years. He used to teach me how to make things. He was very good at bread.”
Rafferty provided for his family by doing just that. He sailed around the world, visiting places like Japan and Bombay, India (now called Mumbai).
“Every time he would port in Toledo, where we were raised, I would get to go on the boat,” Johnson said. “In 1965, my dad fell between the boat and broke his leg. He couldn’t sail for a while. I remember that because we had to walk to my brother’s graduation in 1965. We didn’t have a car. He had crutches. They all went ahead. I stayed back to walk with my dad because he was all by himself. That felt really good. He was such a good father.”
Prior to the infamous shipwreck that took all 29 lives, it seemed fate had intervened to unite a father and son.
“When my brother was stationed in Vietnam, dad’s boat happened to be there,” Johnson said. “He had the opportunity to go see his son during the Vietnam War… twice. He went over there and came back. A year later, he did it again.”
Rafferty was called aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald in October, three weeks before it sank. Two other cooks had fallen ill and were unable to make the trip. Rafferty stepped up to fill in.
Captain Ernest M. McSorley and his crew left Duluth, Minnesota on Nov. 9, 1975, carrying 26,116 tons of taconite to be delivered at various Great Lakes ports.
At 7:10 p.m. on Nov. 10, 1975, Arthur M. Anderson was close behind Fitzgerald. The Anderson had already been struck by two 35 foot waves, damaging its bottom.
A timeline on the SS Edmund Fitzgerald website shows the crew’s final transmissions to the Anderson:
Anderson: "Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Have you checked down?" Fitzgerald: "Yes, we have."
Anderson: "Fitzgerald, we are about 10 miles behind you, and gaining about 1 1/2 miles per hour. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. So the target would be 9 miles on ahead of you."
Fitzgerald: "Well, am I going to clear?"
Anderson: "Yes. He is going to pass to the west of you."
Fitzgerald: "Well, fine."
Anderson: "By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problem?" Fitzgerald: "We are holding our own."
Anderson: "Okay, fine. I'll be talking to you later."
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank sometime between 7:20 and 7:30 p.m.
Johnson was 23-years-old and eight months pregnant, living with her military husband in Georgia.
“We never got a call saying the boat sank,” she said. “My mom heard it on the TV the next day.”
The couple had been happily married for close to 30 years at the time.
“Several of us didn’t know,” said Johnson. “My mom called on a Monday, I believe. I wasn’t home, but my husband was. He came to get me and said, ‘You need to get home.’ So, I went home and said, ‘What’s up? Are we going to go somewhere?’ He said, ‘Stop, your dad was on a boat…’ I knew what that meant. I looked down in the newspaper and there it was.”
Rafftery never met his fourth grandchild, Jeremiah, born 36 days after the sinking.
“I was crying and I couldn’t say anything,” said Johnson, reminiscing back to her father’s service. “It was up in Toledo. I had a five-year-old, four-year-old, and two-year-old with a baby in the oven. So, I decided not to go. If I could ever take that back, I would. I could have had a baby any place.”
47 years later, Johnson boarded Valley Camp to remember all who went down with the Fitzgerald.
“This is very emotional for me today,” said Johnson, pulling a piece of taconite from her pocket in memory. “I know my dad was probably on this boat at some time during his life.”
Sault Historic Sites Museum Curator Paul Sabourin gave Johnson and her friend, John DeBeck, a personalized tour.
“I direct the SS Daniel J. Morrell research group,” DeBeck said. “It is the third largest shipwreck in the Great Lakes. We ended up rewriting history about what caused that wreck."
DeBeck and other researchers are at it again, soon to rewrite the history of Edmund Fitzgerald.
“I cannot say a whole lot about it right now, but I can tell you the story of Edmund Fitzgerald is going to change dramatically," said DeBeck. "I have to leave it at that right now.”
From there, DeBeck accompanied Johnson to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in Paradise for a closed service at 6 p.m.
The shipwreck museum contains Edmund Fitzgerald’s 200-pound brass bell, recovered from the wreckage on Tuesday, July 4, 1995.
It will ring again at 7:10 p.m. this evening.
