Over the past five decades, parts of the Edmund Fitzgerald have been recovered and preserved and so has the memory of the ship.

The ship sits on the bottom of Lake Superior, preserved by the cold, fresh water, b ut Bruce Lynn, the executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said, even there, time is taking its toll. The last expedition to the wreck was back in 1995, when a team recovered the ship's bell.

"After that it was going to be deemed a protected gravesite, and the Ontario Heritage Act does protect that shipwreck," Lynn said.

That expedition, and the ones before, were driven by a desire to learn what happened on Nov . 10, 1975.

"I don't really believe that that occurred," Lynn said. "We still don't know why the ship sank, but since then, the b

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