All I know it is a bad sign when the old cook says it is too rough to feed you...
think we loaded up enough iron ore, there Butch?
I hope we don’t have to hear that stupid song about it....
I always pictured Lightfoot swinging a cat and using a gong for that song.
This is a good documentary we watched awhile ago. It has lots of historical footage and explains one theory of why the boat split in two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uOnnIv5Qs
“....bummer.”
They’re coming early this year too
I was in Duluth this past summer and visited all the local tourist spots. Saw many a freighter pass under the aerial lift bridge. Those boats are the size of a football field! It was impressive. I learned a lot about the Fitzgerald on the trip.
Now, today we are expected to get a foot of snow and the gales are blowing in the Twin Cities metro. It reminds me of the Fitzgerald and how cruel November can be in this part of the world.
Welcome to S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online
http://www.ssefo.com/
The Arthur Anderson was not far behind the Fitzgerald during the entire storm. They were in radio contact through the point where the Fitz went down. Captain Cooper, of the Anderson, gave quite a long talk about it for the Wisconsin Maritime Society. It’s difficult to get a copy of the presentation these days.
There is a very, very short version of his analysis online. It’s interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXY6tuZ5eU
[The biggest piece of info this abbreviated version leaves out is Cooper’s opinion of when the Fitz bottomed out. They sailed overly close to a known/marked shoal, and Cooper’s first-mate remarked on the fact. Cooper’s reply was, ‘They went a lot closer than we’re going to go.’
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
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.
And then the Gordon Lightfoot sank. Andrea Doria wrote a song about it.
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
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.
Here is the actual chatter between the Anderson and the Coast Guard from the fateful night. The ‘unknown voice’ is Capt. Don Erickson Of the William Clay Ford [i.e.: the only other ship to leave harbor that night in search of survivors]. The rest is Cooper, his first-mate, Soo Control and a Coast Guard pilot.
bfl