Posted on 11/10/2005 1:43:45 PM PST by apackof2
DETROIT (AP) — It has been described in many ways: Haunting. Comforting. Powerful. Educational.
But one thing is certain. Gordon Lightfoot's song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," has kept alive the memory of 29 men who lost their lives on Nov. 10, 1975 when the ore carrier plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior during a nasty storm.
"In large measure, his song is the reason we remember the Edmund Fitzgerald," said maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. "That single ballad has made such a powerful contribution to the legend of the Great Lakes."
Three decades after the tragedy, the Fitzgerald remains the most famous of the 6,000 ships that have gone down on the Great Lakes.
Many owe their awareness of the Fitzgerald's fate to Lightfoot, whose own initial knowledge of the sinking came from a magazine.
Lightfoot read about the Fitzgerald in a Newsweek article and used it as the inspiration to pen what would become one of his signature songs.
Clocking in at 6 1/2 minutes, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" appeared on the 1976 album "Summertime Dream" and eventually made it to No. 2 on the pop charts.
The song remained on the charts for 21 weeks and has never really gone away. Lightfoot still performs it at concerts, including a show at Detroit's Fox Theatre over the summer.
Meeting him backstage that day was Ruth Hudson, whose son Bruce was working as a deckhand on the Fitzgerald when it went down. Lightfoot and Hudson have become friends over the years.
Hudson, who lives in North Ridgeville, Ohio, and saw Lightfoot perform near Cleveland the year the song was released, said the song has been therapeutic to the families of the crew.
"It's meant a lot. It's kept the men and the memorial to the men alive," she said. "I think it's been good for the families. They have felt comfort in it. I have talked to just about all of them, and I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like the song."
Lightfoot declined to be interviewed for this story, but he told The Associated Press in 2000 that "Wreck" is "a song you can't walk away from."
"You can't walk away from the people (victims), either," he said. "The song has a sound and total feel all of its own."
The structure of the song is simple: 14 verses, each four lines long, and the 450-plus words are carefully chosen and accompanied by a haunting melody.
The song tells the story of the Fitzgerald's fatal voyage, which began Nov. 9 in Superior, Wis., where it was loaded with 26,116 tons of iron ore and ready to set sail for Detroit.
A day later it was being pounded by 90-mph wind gusts and 30-foot waves.
Ernest McSorley, the ship's captain, radioed a trailing freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson, and said that the Fitzgerald had sustained topside damage and was listing. At 7:10 p.m., he told the Anderson: "We are holding our own."
A short time later, the ship disappeared from radar without issuing an SOS. After a few days, a vessel with sonar was able to locate the Fitzgerald only 15 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Bay.
But Lightfoot's song does more than tell the story, it transports the listener on board the Fitzgerald that fateful night:
"The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait/When the gales of November came slashing/When afternoon came it was freezing rain/In the face of a hurricane west wind."
And then the crescendo:
"The captain wired in he had water coming 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."
Several memorial events are planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the sinking, including a ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point and a service at the Mariners' Church of Detroit.
And undoubtedly "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" will be heard and discussed.
"Any bit of literature, prose or poetry that magnifies the loss of loved ones is so dramatic. That is comforting to those people. That means that someone else is sharing your grief. We bear one another's burdens, so that helps," said Bishop Richard W. Ingalls of the Mariners' Church. Ingalls tolled the church bell 29 times the morning after the sinking.
"Gordon Lightfoot's song definitely has given it a life that seems not to end."
If only the young lady at the rental counter had rebuffed him.
"Gordon must not have been a member of Mensa, when he attacked Mrs. Clemenza"
... and he came o'er the Hertz counter shakin'.
LOL!
I hear ya.
Its not a "gotcha" thing...I just point it out for cross referenced interest to all
my thread was from the local MN board
Lee refers to the side the wind is blowing towards (the opposite of windward), while starboard means right-hand (the opposite of port).
LOL! I'll heed your advice. :)
Is it possible that your mother mistook O.J. for Gordon?
"Is it possible that your mother mistook O.J. for Gordon?"
Now, that's what you call colorblind.
I was talking to my mom, who still lives up in the Detroit area. She said they don't ring the bells anymore at the Old Mariner's Church. Does anyone know if that's true or not? We used to go down there every November 10th when I was younger to hear the bell chime 29 times. It would be a shame if that was the case.
"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...."
Remembering from Texas.
The funny thing was that Hertz executives were worried about running the ad because it has "a black man running through the airport."
Just reading this sent a chill down my spine..........just as the song always does.
The most commonly held theory today is that do to the storm the crew had to use maps that were decades old and not updated. They went over a shoal and the ship bottomed out and slowly began to take on water. Then one last wave came and it plunged them down to the bottom.
One theory that can be put to rest is that it broke up on the surface because both parts of the ship are found in the same location.
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During my active duty days (1981-85), on a rather small Navy Frigate, I went through four Typoons/Hurricains, two in or near port, and two at sea. One went directly over us (e.g. "eye of the storm"), but had "skipped" off an island before it hit us, so we didn't get a direct hit. We also went to "general quarters" for fire or flooding casualties at least four times.
There were times when I couldn't stay in my rack - the ship was listing at nearly 40 degrees. My roommate came off the bridge one night after his OOD watch white as a sheet - and he was a black guy! I've been on the bridge watching while the ship "surfed" waves that where twice as tall as the ship.
Yeah .. eerie, scary, and totally understandable. After you've been in severe storms at sea, nothing surprises you. Having observed the architecture of the Fitzgerald (long, narrow), it did not appear odd that such a ship could break apart in a severe storm. I don't think that ship was designed to be "ocean going", and it definitely hit severe seas that night.
God Bless the men and families of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
SFS
A stable, normal life is an artistic endeavor.
".... when the gales of November blow early ..."
Sabotage?
Blame Bush
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