Edmund Fitzgerald’s replacement destined for scrapyard

OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) — A 690-foot freighter that replaced the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald as the flagship of a Great Lakes shipping company will be scrapped.

The American Fortitude spent the winter docked at the Port of Oswego, on Lake Ontario in central New York. Port officials tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that the 62-year-old vessel will leave this weekend for Canada, where it will be scrapped.

The iron ore carrier was once one of the biggest and fastest vessels plying the Great Lakes.

In 1978, it replaced the Edmund Fitzgerald as the flagship of a fleet of freighters owned by Cleveland-based Oglebay Norton, which was bought by a Belgian mining firm in 2008. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975, killing all 29 crew members.

The name of American Fortitude’s current owner hasn’t been released.

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