A 661-kilometre (411-mile) relay swim to commemorate the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald will see swimmers travel the full length of the St. Clair River this summer.
The swim will be done in 17 stages, with 17 teams of four, starting on July 26 in Lake Superior where the shipwreck lies.
Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim Event Director Jim Dreyer said the swimmers will be "making history while commemorating history."
"2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, where 29 souls were lost," Dreyer told Sarnia News Today. "To help memorialize these 29 mariners, we are going to symbolically finish the Edmund Fitzgerald's tragic journey."
Dreyer said the swim will end at the ship's intended destination.
"The finish line is Detroit, Michigan, where we will deliver iron ore pellets to Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit. [The pellets] are from the same dock in Superior, Wisconsin that loaded the Edmund Fitzgerald. We're going to complete the cargo delivery, we're going to finish that trip for them symbolically as a way to memorialize the 29 mariners," he said.
Dreyer said 68 swimmers are signed up to participate, including three Canadians, one of whom is Jane Baldwin-Marvell from Ridgetown.
Participants will ride the currents when they reach the St. Clair River.
"The river moves very, very fast. So, even though it's 30 miles (48 km) - a little over 30 miles actually to swim the length of the St. Clair River - we will be moving fast in that current. So, we may set some records for how fast we cover 30 miles," Dreyer said.
He said the local stage of the swim could start anywhere from August 23 to August 26.
"We'll start in Port Huron with four swimmers and they'll swim the entire length of the St. Clair River and finish in Algonac, Michigan," he added.
More details on the swim, which will also be the subject of a documentary film, are posted at EdmundFitzgeraldSwim.org.
The 222 metre (729 feet) SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes when it launched in 1958.
The freighter sank in a storm on November 10, 1975. It was located four days later by a U.S. Navy aircraft and eventually found to be in two large pieces.
No bodies were ever recovered and the exact cause of the sinking remains unknown.