Anyone who has spent time along the Great Lakes has likely seen freighters plying their trade on the open waters of the lakes' shipping channels. One is so popular, it has its own fan club.

Meet the Arthur M. Anderson, a ship that fans seek out to photograph and post pictures and videos to a group on Facebook with more than 5 thousand members.

Those who follow her show the exploits on that group like taking on limestone at Rogers City, near Alpena on the Lake Huron shore. Another recent series of photos shows an unloading of material at Muskegon. Check out this photo of the freighter against a cotton candy sky in Grand Haven. Equally majestic is the Anderson passing under the Mackinac Bridge.

Why does this humble fright workhorse of a ship have such a following? It goes back to the ill-fated Edmond Fitzgerald. The SS Arthur M. Andreson was the last boat to make contact with the Fitzgerald before it sank. The Anderson heard the final words communicated from the doomed freighter, "we're holding our own."

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69 years after it was put into service and 46 years after its chance encounter with history and Lake Superior lore, the ship is still actively hauling across the lakes regularly making stops in ports like Duluth and Muskegon.

Here she is in Duluth on the 45th anniversary of the Fitzgerald shipwreck giving what's known as a Master's Salute (3 long and two short whistle blasts) to the lost vessel.

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