The W.E. FITZGERALD covered in ice, 1926
postcard
POSTCARDS2-2020.39.0045-0046
Curt Teich & Co.
USA, MI, Sault Sainte Marie
192740
paper
overall: 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
Postcard of the W.E. FITZGERALD, a Great Lakes freighter, in the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, covered in ice after a gale in 1926. Captioned "Steamer Fitzgerald Locking Down/In December After a Seventy-Two Hour Battle with a Zero Storm on Lake Superior." While sometimes mistaken for an image of the later freighter EDMUND FITZGERALD, better known because of its disastrous shipwreck in 1975, this painting was copied from a published photograph of the earlier ship W.E. FITZGERALD taken on Thanksgiving Day, 1926. According to Dwight Boyer who has written about the event and the photograph, the ship was carrying an extra burden of 1200 tons of ice. The "W.E." in the name is visible on the postcard, and the number at the bottom right dates this Curteich-Chicago postcard to 1927. There is a connection to the EDMUND FITZGERALD, however-- the W.E. FITZGERALD was named for William E. Fitzgerald, the father of the Edmund Fitzgerald who was the namesake for the later ship.
2020.39.45