Ernest M. McSorley

{{short description|American merchant mariner}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Ernest M. McSorley

| image = Captain, sign detail, SS Edmund Fitzgerald (36919929682).jpg

| image size = 250px

| image caption = Captain Ernest M. McSorley shown in the wooden photograph frame.

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1912|9|29}}

| birth_place = Spencerville, Ontario, Canada

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|11|10|1912|9|29}}

| death_place = Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada

| occupation = Master Captain on the Great Lakes

| spouse = Nellie L. McSorley (m. March 19, 1949; died February 13, 1993)

}}

Ernest M. McSorley (September 29, 1912 – November 10, 1975) was the last captain of the lake freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald. McSorley perished along with the other 28 members of his crew when the ship sank in the Canadian side of Lake Superior on {{nowrap|November 10, 1975.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AA9PAAAAIBAJ&pg=6628%2C2566870 |work=Toledo Blade |location=(Ohio) |agency=Associated Press |title=Hopes fading for survival of lake freighter's crew |date=November 12, 1975 |page=1 |access-date=November 10, 2022}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ssefo.com/features/faq/general.html |title=General Frequently Asked Questions |publisher=S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online |date=2000–2008 |access-date=March 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212034059/http://www.ssefo.com/features/faq/general.html |archive-date=February 12, 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.boatnerd.com/fitz/ | title = Untitled article | publisher = Boatnerd.com |access-date=March 24, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314044823/http://www.boatnerd.com/fitz/ |archivedate=March 14, 2014 }}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ag9PAAAAIBAJ&pg=6821%2C3137093 |work=Toledo Blade |location=(Ohio) |agency=Associated Press |title=Coast Guard calls off search, assumes all ship's crew lost |date=November 15, 1975 |page=1}}}}

File:Edmund Fitzgerald, 1971, 3 of 4 (restored).jpg, McSorley was captain of the Fitzgerald from 1972 to 1975.]]

McSorley was a Canadian by birth. At age 11 in 1924, McSorley moved to the United States with his father and stepmother and spent part of his life in the St. Lawrence River town of Ogdensburg, New York, and eventually moving to the Toledo, Ohio, area. McSorley started sailing as a deckhand aboard ocean–going freighters when he was 18 years old. He began working with freshwater freighters as a wheelsman, and achieved the title of third and second mate before becoming the youngest master captain on the Great Lakes. A veteran mariner, McSorley had over 44 years of experience on the Great Lakes, and oceans. McSorley took command of the Fitzgerald at the start of the 1972 shipping season and had captained nine ships before joining the Fitzgerald crew.

McSorley turned 63 a month and a half before the Fitzgerald incident and intended to retire at the end of the 1975 shipping season. His last known words were, "We are holding our own."

McSorley resided in the Toledo suburb of Ottawa Hills, Ohio,{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald&id=157 |title=Legends & Legacies: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald |publisher=Legacy.com |date=1999–2014 |access-date=March 24, 2014}} and was married to the former Nellie L. Pollock, a Chicago native on March 19, 1949. Although he had no children of his own, Nellie was the mother of three children from a previous marriage. Nellie, who was in ill-health at the time of her husband's death, survived for another 17 years, passing away at age 82 on February 13, 1993.