Built in 1952 at Lorain, Ohio, for U.S. Steel's Great Lakes fleet, the Arthur M. Anderson has spent decades carrying iron ore, coal and stone across the lakes. Lengthened by 120 feet in the mid-1970s and later converted into a self-unloader, she now measures 767 feet.
Her name is forever linked with the Edmund Fitzgerald. On 10 November 1975 the two freighters crossed Lake Superior together into a violent storm. The Anderson kept in radio contact with the Fitzgerald, and her crew were the last to speak with the doomed ship – "We are holding our own" – shortly before it vanished from the radar screen. Despite the conditions, the Anderson turned back to search for survivors, but found only wreckage. She is named after Arthur M. Anderson, a leading figure at U.S. Steel and J.P. Morgan & Co. Today she is laid up in Toledo, Ohio.
