Posted on 11/10/2016 7:33:32 AM PST by Ciaphas Cain
"We are holding our own.
-- Last transmission by Captain Ernest McSorley of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald
Forty-one years ago tonight came the worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes. The largest ship plying its waters, the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, sank in a horrific November storm. On her ride to the bottom she took all 29 of her crew with her.
The following year, Gordon Lightfoot released his haunting ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
In memory of the twenty-nine men of the Great Lakes's most legendary vessel, and in memory of all who have taken to the waters to make an honest living, only to perish in their labors.
Great song by Lightfoot.
Except I misspelled “Fitzgerald” in the title, D’oh!! Anyone able to fix that?
Oh no, now I won’t be able to get this song (earworm) out of my head all day! ;)
Thanks for giving this mention and sharing. I can remember watching a documentary on the tragedy and in it was an interview with the US Coast Guard official who went out to search for the Fitz on that awful night and he had (even after serving many years previously on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico) never, ever seen seas as rough and violent as what he saw on Lake Superior in that 1975 storm.
Was my fathers favorite song ... He was humming it to my mother as he passed .... Very touching and emotional.
It’s not that bad. All day yesterday I had Vince Vance and the Valiants in my head. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes when you make a typo in the title?
Agreed.
It’s fixed now. Thanks moderators!
One of my all time favorite songs. I make a living on the ocean and this song has a lot of meaning to me. RIP fellow mariners.
The cook on the boat had taken ill and a replacement cook was brought aboard from the local union hall. This cook had a foreboding about the trip and told Dick he thought this might be his final journey...
Thanks for that story.
The fueling tanker was sold to a company in Veracruz, Mexico in ‘98. She was done in by the Oil Pollution Act (she was a single hull boat.) She was named the MV Reiss Marine and had been built by the C. Reiss Coal Company when they were an independent coal and fueling biz.
Reiss also owned a fleet of steamships that carried iron ore and coal. I think one of the steamers is still sailing for American Steamship Co.
Aren’t there like, 41 verses to the song?
The song itself was simply the news report put to music.
I always felt so sorry for the men on that ship. Their last moments must have been terrifying.
That sounds like a very interesting job!
I work in shipping, and am the librarian of my company. We have reams of info on this mishap.
Lots of other mishaps are more colorful, though. "The only survivors were the cook and his oil-soaked dog", stuff like that.
‘Aren’t there like, 41 verses to the song?’
Close. There’s actually an even fifty.
I don’t know, but it’s been good to know ya.
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