Michigan returns rare Edmund Fitzgerald relic — and pays US$600,000

The state of Michigan is giving up ownership of a rare relic from the famous Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck, just weeks after it strangely obtained it through a settlement in a lawsuit that was completely unrelated to the doomed freighter.

Larry Orr is getting one of the ship’s life rings back — and the state will still pay US$600,000 to settle his lawsuit over police misconduct.

“I feel a whole lot better,” Orr, 77, told The Associated Press this week.

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In 1975, eight days after the Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing all 29 men, Orr said he found the life ring and a piece of a lifeboat on shore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“There was an eerie feeling. Maybe someone had survived,” he recalled. “I looked around for footprints or any other sign of life for a while and never found anything.”

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Fast forward 50 years to this autumn: Orr was in talks with the Michigan State Police to settle a lawsuit. He accused Lt. David Busacca of violating his rights during a sexual abuse investigation that was ultimately discredited. Orr had spent five months in jail, in addition to house arrest, before charges were dropped in 2019.

Orr and his attorney, Shannon Smith, said the state suddenly expressed interest in the Fitzgerald life ring during the negotiations. Orr said Busacca was aware that he owned it when he saw paperwork during a search of his Michigan home.

Orr said he felt he was being manipulated, but he also needed money to move out of a recreation vehicle in Yulee, Florida. Smith said throwing the ring into the deal raised the settlement to US$600,000 from roughly US$300,000.

“I think we should have gotten a million for everything they did to me,” Orr said.

The AP was first to report the peculiar deal on Oct. 23. When state police were asked to explain why it was appropriate to bargain for the life ring, spokesperson Shanon Banner said the department was “not comfortable” with including the relic.

Additional talks among lawyers led to a new agreement: Orr gets the ring back while taxpayers will still be on the hook for US$600,000 to close the police misconduct lawsuit. Banner acknowledged the terms this week.

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For decades, Orr allowed the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, to display the orange ring, which has “Fitzgerald” in stenciled letters. Now he might sell it at auction.

Orr said he’s trying to buy a modular home and his wife’s car “is on its last legs.”

“I need all the money I can get,” he said.