Posted on 11/10/2009 12:12:18 PM PST by LukeL
34 years ago today, on November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald - aka "Mighty Fritz," - foundered and sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Launched on June 8, 1958, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes for the next 13 years
(Excerpt) Read more at gather.com ...
Cursed from the start.
Northwestern Mutual owned the ship. Edmund Fitzgerald was a former CEO of the company, hence the name.
The ship also listed when it was launched, crashed into a dock, the blocks holding it on shore were stuck, and it took three whacks to break the champagne bottle.
My favorite dirge.
[ Make the song go away. It's echoing in my head!]
A Boston radio station was playing it last night...I remember it from way back plus have it on a best of Lightfoot album. When it first came out I wondered if it was about an incident from long ago, perhaps because it talks about “the legend lives on”, talking about Lake Superior. It makes you think the sinking of this ship was long ago too; only recently did I find out that it was not long before the song came out.
...And now that I think of it, the station playing it was actually WBOQ based on the North Shore of Boston, and they followed it with their jingle: “We play your good time
favorites/North Shore 104.9”! And I thought, yeah, a “good time” song about 29 dying on a ship?
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I was raised in lower Michigan, I remember the day very well. I was in the boy scouts and we had plan a camping trip that weekend, It turned bad weather as soon as we set up camp, it rained and rained and the wind picked up and blew like crazy and the temperatures dropped, basically cold and damp windy night. It ended up being a crappy first night, and in the morning we called it quits and hiked out of the camp.
17 miles from the entry of Whitefish Bay:
“The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay if they put 15 more miles behind her.”
"Bigfritz Glug-glug."
I was a very youthful Disk Jockey at a Michigan radio station at the time of the wreck. I was in Chicago the day before and the weather was out of this world. Lake Michigan was blowing up over Lakeshore Drive, and that is a very large swell.
It was a HUGE local story for us. UPI wire was ringing every few minutes with bulletin updates.
The legend in the song is not the legend of the ship; it’s the legend of Lake Superior.
“The brothers and mothers and sisters and daughters,
Their lungs all filled up with water”
Er..maybe my memory of the lyrics is a little off.
true story. check the newspapers for Uncle Bob's quote.
and Tahquamenon Falls are a nice place to visit the day after the wife insists on going to Mackinac Island
true story. check the newspapers for Uncle Bob's quote.
The Edmund Fitzgerald is about to be launched at the Great Lakes Engineering Shipyard in River Rouge just prior to her launching in June 1958.
The massive propeller offers a sense of the scale of the big ship.
Detroit News.
Those Great Lakes ore carriers sure are odd looking vessels.
Canadian flag on the bow, American flag at stern, the Edmund Fitzgerald was a frequent site on the Great Lakes during its almost two decades of service before it sank with the loss of all 29 crew members.
Edmund Fitzgerald 25 Years of Speculation, Fascination and Grieving by Hugh E. Bishop
ELAINE: “Andrea Doria? Isn't that the one they did the song about?”
JERRY: (Correcting her) “Edmund Fitzgerald.”
ELIANE: “I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice.”
JERRY: (Gives Elaine a look) “No, Gordon Lightfoot was the singer. Edmund Fitzgerald was the ship.”
GEORGE: (Talking about his would-be apartment) “You could fit 15 people in that bathroom..”
ELAINE: “I think Gordon Lightfoot was the boat.”
JERRY: (Sarcastic) “Yeah, and it was rammed by the Cat Stevens.”
all that remains are the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters
http://gordonlightfoot.com/WreckOfTheEdmundFitzgerald.shtml
Who did the cover version that recited the crew at the end?
And mushrooms between their ears!
God bless the 29
I made contact with the memorial amateur radio station at Whitefish Point this weekend which was set up to commemorate the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald. We’ve visited the lighthouse and museum many times on vacation to the U.P. – beautiful country. My son in the U.S. Coast Guard, stationed in the 9th district, says the men who sail those big lakers are true professionals.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind
When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
Gordon Lightfoot, © 1976 Moose Music, Inc.
(One of the great folk songs of the 20th century, IMHO.)
“Those Great Lakes ore carriers sure are odd looking vessels.”
I get to see ‘em day in and day out from my office window overlooking the Duluth harbor. The 1000 footers are pretty impressive making their way throught the skinnly little breakwater opening into the harbor.....especially when the waves are hitting around 8 feet!
Militant
Gordon Lightfoot, now THERE’S a man’s voice for ya! No squealing screeching Boy Band or British Techno-Pop sissy sounds. He needs to come back and record a sequel about the Yugo which blew off of the Mackinac Bridge in 1987.
Ahh the Fitz...bringing the Iron Range to Western Pennsylvania one rock at a time...
throught=through
skinnly=skinny
Duh!!
Militant
A friend of mine years ago was taking an overnight ferry from Ireland to France. There were rough seas and the cattle down in the hold were bellowing. In the ship’s lounge, they had a singer with a guitar. My friend requested “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The singer said, “You Americans always ask for that one.” But he did play it.
I had front row almost center seats at the DECC in Duluth two years ago when he played here. He started out a bit weak....hell, he’s 70 years old! But as he went on, he showed that he still has “the voice”!
Militant
I just got off Google Earth and if you follow the Soo Locks and the channels you can see some pretty decent satellite photos of these large ships.
I just got off Google Earth and if you follow the Soo Locks and the channels you can see some pretty decent satellite photos of these large ships.
I like videos like this even better. They are music videos movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw
I’ll second that opinion
I grew up in the Thumb area of MI. Now I live near Lake Superior...I always think of that wreck.
I grew up on Sawyer AFB in the UP. I remember going into Marquette many a time and seeing the bulk carriers loading iron orr at the dock.
My father used to take me up in the Terminal Tower as a child growing up in Cleveland to watch the ore ships (for some reason, we called them ore “boats”, not really correctly) winding their way up the Cuyahoga River to the steel mills (he had worked in Jones and Laughlin). That river has a number of sharp bends in it, and the pilots would guide the ships up the river with about a one foot clearance off the bow and stern, and a foot of clearance amidships on the opposite side.
Amazing stuff!
We call them ore boats, too.
Militant
17 statute miles = 14.7 nautical miles
About 4 years ago I was at a Lightfoot outdoor concert... a huge cloudburst struck just before the break. He sang Edmund Fitzgerald in the midst of this drenching rain, lightning and crashing thunder. Everyone was soaked. And cheering.
The Edmund Fitzgerald is only another one of the lessons that man should learn about Mother Nature. The power of the wonders that our God created is far greater than our miniscule capabilities can get close to mastering, even if we confine ourselves to only the small power (in comparison to Sol, Galactic, etc.) that Mother Earth can generate.
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