Posted on 11/10/2019 6:55:43 PM PST by LukeL
CLEVELAND — Sunday marks 44 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank near Whitefish Point in Michigan.
Twenty-nine men died that day. (excerpt)
This is one of my big bug-a-boos. . . the misuse of the word honoring for such a thing as this. They can “remember” the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, they can “memorialize” that sinking. . . But “honoring” it? Even “honoring” the dead may not be appropriate, because what did they do to be honored? You honor heroes, not merely people who were victims of a tragedy. Perhaps there were unsung heroes among those victims who should have been so honored, but we cannot know what they did before they died tragic deaths when the ship went down. . . So all we can do is memorialize the tragedy.
This is watering down the use of the English word “honor” when we should use it.
That earworm infected everyone who clicked on the link. Although I do love that song........
Dern near slipped past me this year, but listening now...
It’s said that Gordon Lightfoot spoke the families of each of the 29 men who died to ask their permission to write a song about the disaster.
That’s class.
I have seen 12 foot waves on that lake. Turns out they get a lot higher than that-
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/buoy-logs-highest-wave-ever-recorded-lake-superior-first-snow-hits
No radar.
And it looks like were in for that kind of weather again. As I write this I’m sitting in a town on lake Huron and we are expected to get 6 inches of snow overnight.
CC
Lightfoot was a little perturbed cuz of the scant attention paid to the event by the media.
Some interesting facts about the lyrics...
The “witch of November” relates to a period I think in Nov. 1910 or so when 4 or 5 ships sank in Lake Superor in heavy storms.
“The lake it is said never gives up its dead”...Superior is deep and cold...and bodies in it do not swell up from decomposition and float up..
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes...”
Poignant reminder of a theodicy. I.e...if there is a God...why is there evil in the world?
Finally...
“....they may have broke deep and took water, and all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and sons and the daughters” No one has been recovered from the wreckage site. I think they only saw one body underwater...thats it.
Lightfoot exhibits many lyric gems like that in so many of his songs...truly a master.
I think that I have to disagree with the Coast Guard here. Those 79 guys were just trying to make a living- why are they honoring their death?
Best interview ever! Tommy Mischke interviews an author of a history of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The man’s last interview of the day and Mischke sings his questions to the tune of Gordon’s song.
In other words, Gordon Lightfoot put the newspaper article to song.
40 years ago...I hope people won’t ever forget...
Norm Cash...?
Very true...one day I was out in my 19 foot bowrider, boating on Long Island Sound, when I went into a thick fog bank. I couldn’t see anything, but after 15 minutes the fog lifted and a Sub was about 1/4 miles from me...I was glad I didn’t hit it...
I’d love to get a 1:160 scale of that ship. My model railroad would be complete...
I wonder if the Arthur M. Anderson is still around?
Marine Traffic dot com lists her as still active, and currently underway on Lake Huron.
"Arthur M. Anderson will return to service"
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