Posted on 11/11/2022 4:07:18 AM PST by OttawaFreeper
All of the talk of the midterms, I thought it would be important to pause and remember the tragedy of November 10 1975. Any thoughts or memories welcome, sorry this is a day late.
Incredible to contemplate the fury of a “mere lake.”
“The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”
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 twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
[Former version:] That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
[Latter version:] That good ship and crew 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 Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Saying, “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.”
[Former version:] At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
[Latter version:] At seven PM it grew dark, it was then
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ 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 waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put 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 rooms 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
[Former version:] In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
[Latter version:] In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ‘til it rang twenty-nine 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 said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
I drove my 65 corvair from great lakes Illinois to my home in flint, Michigan that night. Deep snow that was.
The Great Lakes Ship Wreck Museum at Whitefish Point is worth a visit if you are in the UP.
https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/ Open May 1 to Oct 31.
I put fuel on a dozen Lakers in the 80’s and 90’s.
Our bunker captain said he remembered the Ed Fitz....
I know. I know.
It was Trump’s fault.
Why not, he has been blamed for everything else this week.
“mere lake.” ??
The Great Lakes are indeed huge.
Inland Ocean?
MN is the land of 10,000 lakes.
Here’s a couple
Sundown
https://youtu.be/kv8zyBi4ZXk
If you could read my mind
https://youtu.be/jiU2lrGnT7U
Heavy Seas on Lake Superior
[Seen from on deck]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8FaotwbMdw&ab_channel=454wizbang
I recall watching an interview with a US Coast Guard captain (if that is the appropriate title) who went out on the lake that night as part of the search and rescue effort. He had served on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic for that number of years earlier during his service, but he had never, ever seen seas as rough as what he saw on Lake Superior on that occasion.
He sang another song about a ship disaster, “The Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle.” You can find it on youtube.
bttt
Lake Superior is about 350 miles from west to east. The sun rises and sets in Duluth, MN more than half an hour after sunrise/sunset in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
On November 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald pushed across the waters of Lake Superior with a cargo of iron ore. A storm came up in the afternoon and pounded the ship through the night with winds up to 75 mph, blinding snow, and waves reaching 25 feet. That evening, the ship radioed another vessel, Avafors, with a warning:
Fitzgerald: (shouting) “DON’T LET NOBODY ON DECK!”
Avafors: “What’s that, Fitzgerald? Unclear. Over.”
Fitzgerald: “I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I’ve been in.”
At 7 p.m., the Fitzgerald radioed another nearby ship, “We are holding our own.”
Less than two hours later, the Edmund Fitzgerald had disappeared from radar. No distress calls were ever received. Rescuers found a few empty lifeboats, buoys, and other bits of debris on the lake. Several days later, the remains of the ship were discovered in two pieces on the bottom of Lake Superior, only 17 miles from the safety of Whitefish Bay. All 29 crew members were lost. Every November 10, the bell at the Mariner’s Church in Detroit, Michigan, rings 29 times in their memory.
The Fitzgerald was designed to float.
On the fateful day, the swells were so large and so widely spaced that the bow and the stern were raised exposing the center to be raised off the water below. The bending forces thus applied placed the center keel in tension it lacked the structural strength to resist.
The keel failed and the vessel center lacking the support from floating on the water below was thereby doomed.
It was a big surprise that this could even happen on a "mere lake."
Ditto the Maritime Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. There’s a diorama of the EF on the lake bed, among other things. The EF had left out of the port of Duluth/Superior.
That was a hauntingly beautiful song. As a side note, my best friend’s father died on that day.......
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