The song has several inaccuracies.
But he brought a great deal of honor to the ships and the men who sail them to keep the machinery of the country running and preserve civilization. So much that the day after he died The Mariners Church in Detroit honored him by ringing it's bell 30 times. 29 for the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and one for Gordon.
Well, that was sweet of them. The song is great as a song. Poets and historians have separate lanes.
Shakespear’s histories are also inaccurate, flattering the monarch in power and calumnising the monarch who was recently deposed.
The song has 29 verses. FWIW.
So much that the day after he died The Mariners Church in Detroit honored him by ringing it’s bell 30 times. 29 for the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and one for Gordon.
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True story of total serendipity… I was at the AIST steel show in Detroit May 8-11, 2023. Lightfoot died on May 1. The Old Mariners’ Church is just a couple of blocks from the Huntington Place convention center so about ¼ mile away on W Jefferson Ave. On the last day there, I was attending a hospitality reception and was chatting with someone who happened to mention that she heard that Lightfoot had died. I asked her if she knew the song about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. She said yes. I asked if she remembered the verse about tolling the bell 29 times. She said yes… I said, “well.. if you take a 5 minute walk down Jefferson, you’ll see a church on the right side and the other day they rang the bell there 29 times and then they added one ring… the last ring was for Lightfoot.” She was blown away…