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Posted on 11/14/2025 4:47:56 PM PST by nickcarraway
For those that live or have lived around the American Great Lakes region, the story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is likely familiar. It was, to date, the largest ship to ever sink in those waters, claiming the lives of 29 crew members whose bodies were never recovered.
On the afternoon of Nov. 9, 1975, the boat set sail from Superior, Wisconsin, carrying a full load of iron ore pellets, bound for a steel plant on Zug Island near Detroit, Michigan. But by the next day, a severe storm had hit the lake and the ship sunk in Canadian waters at approximately 7 p.m. on Nov. 10.
Despite multiple investigations, it is still not known exactly what caused the sinking, apart from the storm. There are theories that improperly latched hatches may have contributed to the accident, as well as preexisting structural damage to the boat. One thing is certain: boats the size of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald do not often sink as swiftly as this one did.
As serious as the event was, it likely would not have been remembered by as many were it not for Gordon Lightfoot, who learned of the incident via a newspaper article and decided to write a song about what happened. Recorded in December of 1975, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was released in August of 1976.
"The story of the sinking of the Fitzgerald stayed with me in a funny kind of a way, all by itself," Ligtfoot later recalled to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2015. "I wasn't forgetting about it. I knew everyone had forgotten about it, but I knew I hadn't forgotten it."
Lightfoot set out to recount the story of the sinking ship in song form, trying to be "as accurate as possible." There are a few details Lightfoot changed — the ship, as noted, was not bound for Cleveland, for example — but for the most part, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" correctly portrays what happened on that blustery November day.
The Success of 'Edmund Fitzgerald'
One might not think that a nearly six-minute folk ballad with no chorus, only verses, about a sunken boat would be a chart success. But it was. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" went to No. 1 in Lightfoot's native Canada and No. 2 in the U.S.
But making a hit wasn't Lightfoot's intention – even as the song's success grew, his priority was honoring the lives lost. In 1976, Lightfoot established a scholarship for cadets at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. At one point, Lightfoot was offered a starring role in a movie based on the sinking, which he firmly declined.
In the original song, Lightfoot sang that "a main hatchway caved in," but the implication that crew members were directly at fault for the accident was not something Lightfoot, who got to know many of the affected families over the years, could continue to sing at his concerts.
"'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,' that's one I always treat with respect," Lightfoot recalled to Broadview in 2013. "There is a ladies' committee in Madison, Wisconsin, that I've stayed in touch with for years and years. [It includes] the captain's wife and daughter, the daughter of a deckhand, the mother of a 21-year-old boy who was the youngest person in the crew to go down with the boat.
"The part in the song about the hatch covers giving way as one of the possibilities [for the shipwreck], well, that was the job of Cheryl's father and Ruth's son who were deckhands. They were supposed to be the guys who were looking after the hatch covers. I felt a cringe, I felt something in my soul, because they knew that wasn’t what happened and I had no business assuming what happened. In concert, I change the line of the song to say, 'At 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then he said, 'Fellas, it’s been good to know you.'' No more hatch covers."
The Legacy of Lightfoot's Song
"At 17, I couldn't listen to it, to be honest," Debbie Champeau, the daughter of Oliver "Buck" Champeau said to Fox 11 News in November of 2025, 50 years since the boat's sinking. Her father was a third assistant engineer on the ship. "And it took me a while. In fact, I was in a grocery store when they played it and I'm like, 'I think I'm out of here."
But she later met Lightfoot in person: "And I asked him, 'Why did you write the song? What was the reason? The words? Because it's kind of eerie? And he said, 'I did it to bring noticeability to the fact that ships are going out un-seaworthy.' And the ship was unseaworthy. It wasn't up to code. There were violations."
Lightfoot's song brought a tremendous amount of attention to the accident, and in the years that followed, changes were made in Great Lakes shipping practices, including mandatory survival suits on board, new positioning systems and navigational charts.
"It is a very good piece of work, I do believe," Lightfoot said in 2015. "It's just one of those songs that just stands the test of time and it's about something that, of course, would be forgotten very shortly thereafter, which is one of the reasons I wrote the song in the first place. I didn't want it to be forgotten. There is a responsibility."
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It was definitely an anomaly. There hasn’t been another incident like that in the 50 years since.
For some reason I don’t understand, I’ve acquired a very recent appreciation for “Race Among The Ruins.”
That’s a good one too.
I've spent time around Duluth, also Michigan's UP and Lake Superior. It is really lonely and
haunting. Can't put by finger on it, but it's rough country. No place for a Southern boy like me.
Failure to maintain bouyancy
ive always been fascinated by this ship wreck. The power generated by a storm on a fresh water Lake to have sunk a ship of that size is remarkable. That was one vicious storm..
A lot of people thought this gomer was a little over the top, maybe smoking some loco weed in his peace pipe.
Here is a short extract from the real “Song of Hiawatha:”
He had mittens, Minjekahwun,
Magic mittens made of deer-skin;
When upon his hands he wore them,
He could smite the rocks asunder,
He could grind them into powder.
He had moccasins enchanted,
Magic moccasins of deer-skin;
When he bound them round his ankles,
When upon his feet he tied them,
At each stride a mile he measured!
Gitchee Goomi water must have been powerful stuff.
Of course this has nothing to do with the boat sinking.
I’ve taken the Trans-Canada route from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay at least a dozen times over the years. The U.S. side of the lake feels like New York City compared to that desolate stretch of road. Driving north out of Sault Ste. Marie up to Montreal River always gave me a sense of dreary foreboding — and even in the summer months I could tell that it must be miserable there through the winters.
I don’t think navigation was a big challenge over the last hundred years. Improved radar technology and weather forecasting capabilities have probably played the biggest role in improving safety on the Great Lakes.
Ships making the “downhill” (eastbound) run across Lake Superior would literally race against each other because of the vessel schedule implications at choke points along the Great Lakes system. An eastbound ship that arrived at Whitefish Point 20 minutes ahead of its competitor would be the first to pass through the Soo Locks. The transit through the locks and the St. Mary’s River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron takes about nine hours. Arriving first would mean many hours saved further downstream, including terminal docking and unloading time at the destination port in Detroit, or Cleveland, or Buffalo. Arriving first at the Soo Locks could mean starting the return (westbound) trip a full day ahead of the ship that was right behind you.
Thanks. That helps explain why a captain pressed to be efficient would short on hatch closings and race to Whitefish Point.
.
“Sundown” played on a Spotify playlist this afternoon when I was driving. It was a downer song and it reminded me how Lightfoot has the most boring two note register. And I’m being gracious saying “two.”
I think his sings are popular in part because of his voice. He can back himself up and knows how to write lyrics and melodies that play straight to that. I don’t care much for the lyrics of “Sundown.” But the refrain is the best part. Simple melody and words, and when he harmonizes with his own voice, it rings and that’s what people remember about it.
Sundown is the name of the guy who the singer fears might be messin’ with the girl(love object) of the singer.
The song was generated because Lightfoot had a girl who he is completely enthralled with (but doesn’t understand), but he has doubts she is completely faithful to him. He thinks she might be flirtin’ with other guys.So he has to get drunk(feeling no pain) to ease his fears about her fidelity, and even if he gets lucky with her, he still thinks he could be losing.(think I’m winning when I’m losing again)
So he warns “Sundown”... don’t be sneaking around “my back stairs”...
Very complex emotions and fears...not your typical “ have some brews with some blond honey in her daisy dukes in the bed of my pickup truck” or “let’s get it on, hot mama, cause you knows what’ya do to me” crapola.
My late father, a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point with years of sea duty as a Merchant Marine deck officer, thought that badly fastened hatch covers and clamps were the cause of the sinking. In addition, he blamed the captain for risk-taking and poor seamanship in that such a basic task was not properly performed.
Great song. Thanks for posting and thanks to Gordon Lightfoot for writing and remembering. Lake Superior and the Keweenaw Peninsula was our summer vacation for 25+ years when I was growing up. Mom RIP was born and raised on a farm outside Calumet/Kearsarge. Dad RIP built a house on Lac LaBelle lake. The lake flows into Superior. Terrific childhood memories on and around the U.P.
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