Green Bay man tries to save at-risk freighter Eds: APNewsNow.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) The nephew of a man who perished on the shipwrecked Edmund Fitzgerald is trying to save an endangered Great Lakes freighter whose crew at the time tried to help the doomed ship.

The Arthur M. Anderson was trailing the the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975. Its crew risked their own safety by turning back into the storm after the Fitzgerald disappeared from the radar screen.

The Anderson and 12 other steamships are in danger of being forced to permanent shore duty by a proposed clear-air rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. U.S. Rep. David Obey is trying to push through an exemption, but John Soyring of Green Bay is worried it would just be a stay of execution.

Soyring will be at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point this Tuesday, the 34th anniversary of the disaster, to rally support for the Anderson during a memorial service. His uncle, Oliver Champeau of Sturgeon Bay, was third engineer on the Fitzgerald.

Information from: Green Bay Press-Gazette, http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 11-08-09 1446CST | save this article / add to your favorites list