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 ...
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.
*
My dad was a Hullet operator back in the day and used to unload the Big Fitz. One of the biggest ore carriers ever.
I too use to think it was a ship from the 1800s or even earlier. I was shocked when learned a ship of that size could sink in 1975 without even a mayday going out.
<p
I think they bottom out at the shoals and were later hit by a rouge wave.
Had to by the CD years later just for the memories.
When they finally found it, I think it was found capsized. Not sure though.
The backside was upside down. They think the ship did a nosedive and split in half, the back end still had the propeller running and that cause the ship to torque over and land on its deck.
That was a huge tragedy, remembered by the Gordon Lightfoot song.
This song is so haunting gives me chills when I hear it.
My favorite line of the song:
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
I used to live in Marquette. That day the waves were bigger than anyone remembers.
Do you remember the waves comming over Presque Isle that day?
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