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EDMUND FITZGERALD Great Lake Freighter
Not all ship models
are equal, and a lot of them are junk. For those who
have seen some cheap Edmund Fitzgerald models out
there and felt the urge to go cheap, be forewarned.
Those models are wrong on many important features.
Their hulls are so wrong that no words can ever
describe. One even has wrong color on it (also on
the deck). The railings on one model are very
oversized and look like none ever existed on any
real ships (in fact, those railings are cut from
cockroach mess in tropical regions where cockroaches
are huge.) The
all-important funnel is erroneous on many counts. Stairs
without handles, strange window
shapes, massive lamps. Life rings are difficult to
make and omitted. One shop even decides to put a lot
of light bulbs on deck like huge mushroom. The light
is supposed to come from the lamps along side the
ship, not on deck. Any common laborers can assemble prefab
parts and stick a name on the thing to label it
Edmund Fitzgerald. By the way, the
"EDMUND FITZGERALD"
words are way too large. It took us a mere
15 minutes to spot those errors on several different
models that pop up everywhere on the Internet and we did not
want to spend more time looking at the perhaps
ugliest things ever seen. The handsome ship
suddenly becomes displeasing in the hands of the me-too
sweatshops.
Our Edmund Fitzgerald
models are build from a five-page plan by high
skilled artisans. They are constructed one by one
for the ship's admirers whose standards are high and
for those who value accuracy and intricate details.
Have a look.
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When launched on June 8, 1958, SS Edmund Fitzgerald
was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes.
Nicknamed the "Mighty Fitz", "Fitz", or "Big Fitz". The 730-foot
freighter
set a number of cargo
records during her lifetime. This extremely handsome
ship was well known to both casual and serious ship watchers.
For seventeen years the
Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near
Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and
other Great Lakes ports. As a "workhorse" she set
seasonal haul records six times, often beating her own
previous record. Her size, record-breaking
performance, and "DJ captain" endeared the Fitzgerald to
boat watchers. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for
piping music day or night over the ship's intercom
system while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit
Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining
spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and
Huron) with a running commentary about the Fitzgerald.
On the afternoon of
November 9, 1975, carrying a full cargo of ore pellets,
the Edmund Fitzgerald embarked on her voyage from
Superior, Wisconsin. En route to a steel mill near
Detroit, Michigan, she joined a second freighter, the SS
Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day the two ships were
caught in the midst of a severe winter storm on Lake
Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up
to 35 feet high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., the Fitzgerald
suddenly sank in Canadian waters 530 feet deep. Although the Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty
earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank.
Her crew of 29 all perished, and no bodies were
recovered.
The sinking of the
Edmund Fitzgerald is the most famous disaster in the
history of Great Lakes shipping, and is the subject of
Gordon Lightfoot's hit song, "The Wreck Of The Edmund
Fitzgerald."
The wreck & sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald
has been a subject fascinating many people. How a storm on Lake Superior
could take down a ship that had a length of 2 city
blocks with such speed that no
distress call could be made? The precise cause of
her sinking remains a mystery.
Edmund Fitzgerald
remained the largest freighter on the great
lakes for 17 years, until sunk.
32" long x 7"
tall
$2,590 
Shipping and insurance in the
contiguous
US included, other places: $350 flat rate.
This model is built per commission only.
We require only a small deposit to start the
process $900 The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed, in about 4 months.
25" long
x 6" tall
(1/350 scale)
$1,990 Shipping and insurance in the
contiguous US included,
other places:
$300 flat
rate. This model is built per commission only.
We require only a small deposit to start the
process $900 The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed, in about 4 months.
44" (1/200 scale)
$3,750 Shipping and insurance in the
contiguous US included,
other places: $500 flat
rate. This model is built per commission only.
We require only a small deposit to start the
process $900 The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed, in about 6 months.
We also build the
Edmund Fitzgerald at
60"
(1/144 scale), and 88" (1/100 scale). Email
us for quotes and lead time:
services@modelshipmaster.com.
THE
PHOTOS ABOVE ARE OF THE 32" MODEL. BELOW ARE THE
26.5":
"Your masterpiece arrived,
and my son opened it last weekend. It is gorgeous. Not
sure I mentioned to you but my Grandfather
was Edmund Fitzgerald and my son’s middle name is
Fitzgerald. When he came to pick it up he brought one of
his sons with him, named Fitz, and we told him the story
about the ship sinking etc. It was a really wonderful
moment..."
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