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Monday marks 39 years since Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior
Clevland.com ^ | Nov. 10 2014 | Cliff Pinckard

Posted on 11/10/2014 6:15:41 AM PST by Cincinatus

It was Nov. 10, 1975, when the Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared in the waters of Lake Superior during a severe storm, taking 29 lives with it.

After nearly 40 years the story of the ship continues to intrigue, with some saying its legend is second only to the Titanic. Several books have been written about it and it famously was memorialized by Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 hit "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

When the ship was christened on June 8, 1958, it was the largest freighter on the Great Lakes at 729 feet long. It was named after Edmund Fitzgerald, president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: edmundfitzgerald; lake; lakesuperior; michigan; sink; ssedmundfitzgerald
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To: Cincinatus

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?


21 posted on 11/10/2014 6:35:42 AM PST by PTBAA
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To: jneesy
that song came out when i was but a lad and creeped me out every time it came on

Yes! It was an odd, dark song for pop radio of the 1970's. I was a young kid too, and would immediately change the dial on my neon-blue AM radio looking instead for ABBA or Stevie Wonder!

22 posted on 11/10/2014 6:38:44 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Cincinatus

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

I came across the Mackinac Bridge around 1400 on 11/10/74. A few hours later the bridge was closed because the wind was making it swing too much for safe passage. When I got to Deetroit about 2000 the storm had followed me. It raged all night long and the next morning there were reports that a large ore carrier had gone missing on Lake Superior.

May God have mercy on the souls of all mariners who have been lost in such storms.


23 posted on 11/10/2014 6:39:22 AM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: Crazieman

24 posted on 11/10/2014 6:39:47 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: 43north

Oops. 11/10/1975! Not enough caffeine yet.


25 posted on 11/10/2014 6:40:18 AM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: PTBAA
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Even after all these years, those words still bring tears to my eyes.

I was a student at Michigan Tech in those days, and witnessed the passage of the Edmund Fitzgerald through the Portage River (separating Houghton from Hancock) while I was there.

26 posted on 11/10/2014 6:41:28 AM PST by Quality_Not_Quantity (Liars use facts when the truth doesn't suit their purposes.)
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To: Cincinatus; Gamecock; F15Eagle

And then the Gordon Lightfoot sank. Andrea Doria wrote a song about it.


27 posted on 11/10/2014 6:44:26 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Cincinatus

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

“The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Sayin’ “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya”
At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ 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

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ‘til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early


28 posted on 11/10/2014 6:46:30 AM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: glock rocks
The fiddle solo in that song is the quintessence of a melancholy to be savored. It's humanizing and redeeming, and we all know the words.

What song are you talking about?

29 posted on 11/10/2014 6:47:32 AM PST by kjam22 (my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
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To: kjam22

Thank you. I detest that song and I have since I was a kid when it was on the radio all the time.


30 posted on 11/10/2014 6:49:49 AM PST by Constitution Day
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To: Alex Murphy

The song was on last night and the only words in my head were Tim Hawkins’!


31 posted on 11/10/2014 6:51:57 AM PST by NorthstarMom
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41 Days
48%

Donate

32 posted on 11/10/2014 6:52:37 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: kjam22

We had an 8 track on the boat I worked on and it played over and over and... Well I still love that song because I am a mariner. I didn’t appreciate the song in my youth, but since I make my living over the water I can relate to this song.


33 posted on 11/10/2014 6:54:48 AM PST by US_MilitaryRules (The last suit you wear has no pockets!)
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To: 2banana
All I know it is a bad sign when the old cook says it is too rough to feed you...

At seven PM the main hatchway gave in.
He said 'fellas it's been good to know ya!'

34 posted on 11/10/2014 6:55:01 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: Cincinatus

During a friend’s bachelor party someone slipped that song into the boom box while the entertainment was entertaining us. It didn’t go over well.


35 posted on 11/10/2014 6:56:59 AM PST by BillyBonebrake
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To: mplsconservative

There was a good museum display in Duluth back in the 80s.


36 posted on 11/10/2014 6:59:08 AM PST by Mercat ("The sisters did not want to save the world. Someone already had.")
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To: Red Badger
I was general manager of a marine fueling operation in Duluth-Superior for 16 years. We operated an 8,000 bbl fueling tanker in the harbor and our tanker captain had put the last N6 oil aboard the Ed Fitz the day before she sailed.
The regular cook on the Fitz turned up ill and a replacement cook was ordered aboard for the final trip prior to layup.
This cook was a spooky guy. He told our captain that he had a foreboding that the trip to Cleveland would be his last.
37 posted on 11/10/2014 6:59:16 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: NorthstarMom
The song was on last night and the only words in my head were Tim Hawkins’!

For those who don't know what we're talking about (kudos for getting the reference), here's Tim Hawkins' condensed rewrite of the Gordon Lightfoot song:

The story lives on
how the boat, she went down
and the people all died
bummer

38 posted on 11/10/2014 6:59:51 AM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: kjam22

You’re right, it’s a steel guitar at 2:26 and 4:08. Haven’t heard the song in 35 years. Okay, no more posting without coffee.


39 posted on 11/10/2014 7:00:35 AM PST by glock rocks (Whenever I find myself in a conundrum, I ask myself: What would Elvis do?)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

An old neighbor of ours, passed away in the early 90’s, was a retired tug captain on the Great Lakes and told us he was probably the last person to see them alive........................


40 posted on 11/10/2014 7:02:07 AM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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