North Star Port

6 | NORTH STAR PORT | FALL 2025 As reporters rushed into the television station and started phoning contacts, more details emerged about the size of the vessel, where it was headed, and worsening conditions on Lake Superior since it had left the Twin Ports through the Superior entry a day earlier. There was no Internet, no Google to search— just good old-fashioned legwork. "We got enough information to go on the air several times that night," said Anderson, who is credited with breaking the notorious story. "I was first on the air, but a lot of other media picked up on it very quickly." TV crew flies into action A few miles away in downtown Duluth, KBJR-TV reporter Ray Niekamp and photographer Bill Hansen were among them. Hansen recalls wrapping up film editing for the station's 10 p.m. newscast that night and heading next door to the Red Lion Bar. "I got one day off a week back then, which happened to be Tuesday, so I wanted to unwind and watch the end of Monday Night Football," Hansen said. "That's what I was doing when Dennis Anderson broke in, voice only, and said there was a Lake Superior freighter reported sinking and that all Coast Guard personnel should report to work. I knew it was a big story, so I ran back to the station and called our chief reporter, Ray Niekamp." Niekamp had heard the same bulletin and was already heading for the door. Soon they were racing to the Coast Guard station on Duluth's Minnesota Point to get interviews and footage. "They were scrambling the crew of the (U.S. Coast Guard Cutter) Woodrush and heading out to eastern Lake Superior, so I knew we had to move fast," Niekamp said. "I called our station manager for permission to charter a plane. In a market the size of Duluth, that is a really major expense. The guy at the charter service said it would have to be a twin engine plane because of the weather, so that doubled our costs. We got permission, and Bill and I each went home for a few hours of sleep, but we were at the airport before the crack of dawn, ready to fly." They timed the flight to arrive at the last known position of the Edmund Fitz- gerald, about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan, right when there would be enough light to film with their Bell and Howell 16mm wind-up film camera. "We knew we had reached the search area when we came across several ships in the lake," Niekamp said. "Immedi- ately we had the pilot do a banking turn over all of the ships, and we shot our film pointing almost straight down at the water." "It was the end of the storm, but defi- nitely a rough ride," said Hansen who was trying to film while battling motion sickness. "We came in low and just as we approached, up popped a life raft and a bunch of timber and oil and debris. That was the first real confirmation that it had sunk." Between the two of them, Hansen and Niekamp captured film of the vessels, including some "shaky footage" and "a nice shot of the Roger Blough taking on a life raft." They were turning around to make another pass when the Coast Guard banned all aircraft from the area. They headed to Sault Ste. Marie to interview shipping company representatives and Coast Guard officials, then began a hazardous trip home. ILLUSTRATION / Michael Iver Jacobsen BR E A KING NE WS: Ship Down KBJR-TV REPORTER RAY NIEKAMP (LEFT) AND PHOTOGRAPHER BILL HANSEN (RIGHT) HOPPED ON A TWIN-ENGINE PLANE TO CIRCLE THE EDMUND FITZGERALD'S LAST KNOWN POSITION—UNTIL THE COAST GUARD BANNED ALL AIRCRAFT FROM THE AREA.

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