[Alberta's Child]

Ironically, that line contains one of a number of patently false bits of information in the song. The ship's official cook had come down with some kind of illness in Wisconsin just before it was scheduled to depart, so he was left behind. He's often called "the only survivor of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

[MozartLover]

I never knew that.

Here's a nice article about a man whose father was the 2nd cook on the Fitzgerald.