SS Edmond Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior 46 years ago today
In the words of Gordon light foot, it’s entombed in an “ice water mansion”….
by Anonymous | reply 147 | November 11, 2022 5:25 AM |
[quote]Edmond Fitzgerald
Was he the poor country relation of Edmund Fitzgerald?
by Anonymous | reply 2 | November 10, 2021 9:01 PM |
Lindsey Graham goes down faster than the Edmund Fitzgerald
by Anonymous | reply 4 | November 10, 2021 9:09 PM |
That song is haunting, OP, but I love it.
An amazing accomplishment from Lightfoot when you consider all the actual facts he crammed in there and made it a song you’d want to listen to.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | November 10, 2021 9:13 PM |
Next spring, I’m taking a road trip and going to the museum at Whitefish Point to see the recovered bell.
A replica of the bell was carved with names of all 29 men and lowered into Lake Superior and it now rests where the original bell was.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | November 10, 2021 9:22 PM |
It wasn't until some time after the song was published I learned the wreck had been an actual and fairly recent event and not something from the previous century. Lightfoot imbued the song with such an old time-y feel, I assumed(presumed?) it was a homage to sailing days in the 1800's. I wonder what Roger Whittaker or Vaughn Monroe could've done with the song?
by Anonymous | reply 7 | November 10, 2021 9:52 PM |
Of the estimated 10,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes region about 350 of them are located in Lake Superior and an estimated 10,000 people have died.
But they didn't get cool songs written about them.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 8 | November 10, 2021 10:01 PM |
What's the deal with that lake? Why so may shipwrecks?
by Anonymous | reply 10 | November 10, 2021 10:04 PM |
Interesting statistics, r8.
Thanks.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | November 10, 2021 10:09 PM |
R10, because the gales of November remember.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | November 10, 2021 10:10 PM |
I doan recall zinging dat...
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 14 | November 10, 2021 10:17 PM |
"What's the deal with that lake? Why so may shipwrecks? "
Storms on the Great Lakes are very unpredictable, sporadic and very focused to a small area. Where a hurricane gives you lots of warning lake storms don't and catch boaters off guard. water spouts (tornadoes over water) are common and will destroy anything in their path
by Anonymous | reply 15 | November 10, 2021 10:32 PM |
My mom used to love Roger Whittaker. The frauen of that era all swooned over his voice.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | November 10, 2021 11:24 PM |
Hey, I swooned over his voice as well, r17. Then I saw a picture. Mismatch of voice and face similar to Vaughn Monroe.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | November 10, 2021 11:40 PM |
It was all Conrad's fault.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | November 10, 2021 11:56 PM |
Terrifying
According to the captain of the Anderson, another ship that was caught in the storm about 15 miles from, and that in contact with, the EF, two massive waves, one after the other and larger than any others they had seen, almost wiped them out.
According to their radar, those same waves were headed directly towards the EF. and the captain believes that those two waves finished off the Edmund Fitzgerald.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | November 11, 2021 12:18 AM |
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
by Anonymous | reply 21 | November 11, 2021 12:26 AM |
I read that Gordon Lightfoot was inspired to write this song after reading a brief article about the Edmond Fitzgerald in Newsweek magazine...
by Anonymous | reply 22 | November 11, 2021 12:28 AM |
Superior they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | November 11, 2021 12:32 AM |
While the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes,
in pictures I've seen, it looks very much like a freighter or barge....big and flat with a low profile in the water
Having seen those pictures, it easy to imagine how a rogue wave (or several rogue waves, such as were reported on that day) could have take the ship down
by Anonymous | reply 24 | November 11, 2021 12:44 AM |
I heard that in one of the last radio broadcast...
"The captain wired in he had water comin' in"
by Anonymous | reply 25 | November 11, 2021 12:54 AM |
Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
Just to get it FULLY said.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | November 11, 2021 12:56 AM |
Buck would never have been in Lake Superior.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | November 11, 2021 1:07 AM |
There was a very informative documentary on him on one of the streaming platforms that I found very interesting despite only having a a passing interest in him. This song was a central part of it along with If You Could Read My Mind.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | November 11, 2021 1:08 AM |
R28 I looked it up, it’s Amazon Prime and it’s from 2020, so recent.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 30 | November 11, 2021 1:21 AM |
r20 IIRC, the Andersen is still on the Lakes, or was recently decommissioned. What likely happened was a seiche-a high wave resulting from a confined space (lake as opposed to ocean) and an underground shoal.
The ship was a death trap, though. Not well maintained, and a lot of lakers didn't want to work on it b/c of its bad rep.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | November 11, 2021 1:51 AM |
" "According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55 pm, he and the men in the Anderson’s pilothouse felt a “bump”, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. The wave worked its way along the deck, crashing on the back of the pilothouse, driving the bow of the Anderson down into the sea.
“Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water – barrooff – just like a big dog. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent him under.” "
I copied that from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum website
Again, terrifying.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | November 11, 2021 1:57 AM |
A picture of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 33 | November 11, 2021 10:55 AM |
"Lightfoot sings that "Superior, they said, never gives up her dead".
This is because of the unusually cold water, under 36 °F (2 °C) on average around 1970.[31] Normally, bacteria decaying a sunken body will bloat it with gas, causing it to float to the surface after a few days. But Lake Superior's water is cold enough year-round to inhibit bacterial growth, and bodies tend to sink and never resurface.[44] Joe Maciniss reported that in July 1994 explorer Frederick Shannon's Expedition 94 to the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald discovered a man's body near the port side of her pilothouse, not far from the open door, "fully clothed, wearing an orange life jacket, and lying face down in the sediment"
- Wikipedia
by Anonymous | reply 35 | November 11, 2021 1:28 PM |
R35 But have they checked the cabins on the shore of Lake Superior, they could be there!!!
by Anonymous | reply 36 | November 11, 2021 1:35 PM |
I've always loved those "sea" songs. I wish someone would make a playlist.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 37 | November 11, 2021 1:45 PM |
Climate change is raising the temps of the GLs. According to scientists they don't create the ice to the extent they used to.
Which is bad because (if I understand it correctly) warmer water creates a bad guy: Algae that raises hell with water being potable and biological forms within it and out of it.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | November 11, 2021 2:01 PM |
Wait, so does the fact these lakes are so cold indicate that there could be hundreds or thousands of intact bodies down there? (Or mostly intact, I know nobody's down there looking funeral-fresh. But how horrific would it be if the lakes begin to warm to the point that all these poor bloated bodies start bobbing-up? How horrible. I really hope that isn't possible.)
by Anonymous | reply 42 | November 11, 2021 2:07 PM |
I remember as kids we would try to swim in Lake Superior during the hottest part of the summer. It was so fucking cold we could barely wade in it.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | November 11, 2021 2:10 PM |
Me, too, r43.
And Lake Superior really does have an intimidating, almost eerie, atmosphere and power to it. I felt it as a child even before the Gordon Lightfoot's song TWOTEF came out.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | November 11, 2021 2:16 PM |
if r8's statistics are accurate, and there were 10,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, but only 350 of those were in Superior, then Superior isn't so Superior when it comes to shipwrecks... over 9,600 shipwrecks happened elsewhere.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | November 11, 2021 2:17 PM |
To this day I still remember “She makes Harry eat onions” which is the mnemonic device for remembering the names in descending size order of the Great Lakes. Maybe not as elegant as “Katie, please come over for ginger snaps,” but it still might help me win on a game show some day.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | November 11, 2021 2:23 PM |
[quote]Next spring, I’m taking a road trip and going to the museum at Whitefish Point to see the recovered bell.
R6, I visited that museum many years ago. It's small (unless they've expanded since), but IMO worth the visit.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 47 | November 11, 2021 3:13 PM |
"And Lake Superior really does have an intimidating, almost eerie, atmosphere and power to it"
All the Great Lakes do. I grew up near Lake Michigan and it always gave me the creeps, especially at night. Something about the Great Lakes being a total freak of nature the result of the Northern Hemisphere going into a deep freeze for eons and these are there to remind us the Mother Nature holds all the cards and to not mess with her, because she'll win
by Anonymous | reply 48 | November 11, 2021 3:29 PM |
R46
It was "Sally Made Henry Eat Oreos" for us...
by Anonymous | reply 49 | November 11, 2021 3:32 PM |
Does anyone remember watching this as a kid? I never forgot it, and how it made me feel about growing up on Lake Superior.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 50 | November 11, 2021 3:32 PM |
As there are 16 foot waves on Lake Superior today all of the ships have sought shelter. I’m a mariner on the lakes and am awaiting assignment to another ship to go out in this.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 51 | November 11, 2021 3:46 PM |
Whoa, r51. Thanks for posting and be safe!
by Anonymous | reply 52 | November 11, 2021 3:52 PM |
R50 Before it was a movie it was a book with stunningly beautiful illustrations by the fabulously named Holling Clancy Holling. According to Wikipedia there’s not a water park named after it.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 55 | November 11, 2021 3:59 PM |
r50, thanks for posting that. I'd never seen it before. It's a better film than what's currently produced.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | November 11, 2021 4:06 PM |
"As there are 16 foot waves on Lake Superior today all of the ships have sought shelter."
See, I told you the Great Lakes are spooky
"When the gales of November come early. "
Just like the song
by Anonymous | reply 57 | November 11, 2021 4:09 PM |
Those Canadians are like a cancer. They can't do anything right. Even their syrup tastes off.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | November 11, 2021 4:31 PM |
r48, totally agree. I once had dinner in the restaurant at the top of the Hancock building in Chicago in the winter; we were next to the window facing south -- so looking south was all tall buildings, while looking west were lighted streets stretching out miles and miles, but to the east was Lake Michigan -- and it appeared as a pitch black void. I'd lived in Florida all my life and in looking out over the ocean at night, you saw ships on the horizon, but not on Lake Michigan, so it reminded me of a black hole and I found it very disturbing.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 60 | November 11, 2021 4:38 PM |
Now 20+ feet on Superior. I’ve been in 12-18 and it was no fun.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 61 | November 11, 2021 5:12 PM |
^ you got it. Even the oceans have somewhat of a natural luminescence due to phosphorous etc. but the Great Lakes are dark and foreboding and just feel out of place in the flat midwestern breadbasket of farms. They only formed 10,000 years ago and just took their present shoreline about a 1000 years ago. Basically a receding flood of glacial melt water
by Anonymous | reply 62 | November 11, 2021 5:12 PM |
I grew up on the east coast so oceans, tides, wind direction, islands, and storms are all second nature but I know absolutely nothing about the Great Lakes. Never seen them. Don’t even think about them except maybe Lake Michigan because you hear about it in connection with Chicago. But something like Lake Ontario or Huron are the forgotten lakes.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | November 11, 2021 6:42 PM |
And it rammed by the Cat Stevens....
by Anonymous | reply 64 | November 11, 2021 6:45 PM |
[quote] But something like Lake Ontario or Huron are the forgotten lakes.
You’re not kidding. I’m from the east coast also and am still trying to remember them using the above mentioned mnemonic devices, but I can’t remember them all.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | November 11, 2021 10:27 PM |
"The Wreck of The Edmund Fitgerald" is on the 1976 Ideal in-store playlist!
by Anonymous | reply 66 | November 11, 2021 10:38 PM |
Has anyone actually provided a brief biography of who Edmund was yet?
by Anonymous | reply 68 | November 12, 2021 12:46 AM |
r68 insurance executive, I believe. IIRC, it was common to have business/industry leaders have a ship named after them in those days.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | November 12, 2021 12:51 AM |
And I remember reading Edmund Fitzgerald, not surprisingly, was in deep despair over the wreck and never got over it.
That's understandable.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | November 12, 2021 12:54 AM |
R70 Because he was the insurer on it and had to give a big pay out?
by Anonymous | reply 71 | November 12, 2021 1:00 AM |
[quote]“Katie, please come over for ginger snaps,”
That's much better than "kindly pay cash or furnish good substitute."
by Anonymous | reply 72 | November 12, 2021 1:09 AM |
I was on the Canadian side of Lake Huron at the weekend. It was unusually rough. Big waves. I can't estimate height but noisy and rough.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | November 12, 2021 2:34 AM |
R73 Just like I like my sex, noisy and rough.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | November 12, 2021 2:41 AM |
A mnemonic for the Great Lakes-HOMES: Huron Ontario Michigan Erie Superior. I think this was just a way to remember all five names, and doesn't have have any special significance otherwise.
Want to remember the order of lakes from East to West? Only Elephants Have Massive Snouts
Here's one to recall the states that border the lakes, I'M NO WIMP: Indiana Michigan New York Ohio Wisconsin Illinois Minnesota Pennsylvania.
These three devices came from a book(one of my faves) entitled: "WASPLEG and Other Mnemonics" by Bart Benne, with a forward by Isaac Asimov.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | November 12, 2021 5:42 AM |
I've now lived near three Great Lakes but it still surprises me, I guess, that those lakes have waves big enough to sink ships.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | November 12, 2021 5:51 AM |
R76 With modern weather forecasting, the lakes have gotten much much safer. Far less well known were the 1966 wreck of the Daniel Morrell and 1958 of the Carl Bradley in bad storms. A 1940 storm sunk 3 big ships and the worst storm was 1913 when 19 ships were sunk.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | November 12, 2021 6:24 AM |
Not a good comparison, but confusing or not remembering each Great Lake is understandable. When I visited Chicago, I made it a point to dip my foot in one of those lakes - just to honor the dead and the lives taken. It was such a cold, barren/lifeless and bleak, like, deadened ocean. (Mind you, I live in Hawaii so I’ve never seen such a sight before in my life). It was summer and there were some people trying to swim. I remember some kind of sloping concrete slab or jetty for boats, I guess it was.
Another chilling sea disaster was the book and movie adaptation of THE PERFECT STORM (Sebastian Junger 1991).. I was still confused because I originally thought the fishing boat (Andrea Gail was off of Cape Cod, but it wasn’t. Turns out it was the Flemish Cap off of Newfoundland.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | November 12, 2021 10:32 AM |
r77 the Daniel Morrell was terrifying. There was one survivor (now dead), and his account was harrowing.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | November 12, 2021 12:12 PM |
I'm sorry, is this song about a song, or a shipwreck? If it's about a song, then can we start a thread about the shipwreck because I really don't care about the song.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | November 12, 2021 12:33 PM |
"I'm sorry, is this song about a song, or a shipwreck?"
Why can't it be both? The song and the event are forever intertwined, so talking of both is only natural
by Anonymous | reply 82 | November 12, 2021 2:05 PM |
What kind of fish do the lakes have?
by Anonymous | reply 83 | November 12, 2021 2:09 PM |
I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie which is the shallowest of the great lakes. We had several people die on the lake behind our house as a result of undertows and drownings. That said, we swam in the summer and it was a lovely experience. Fish species include Walleye, Perch, Blue Gill, and Bass (large and small mouths).
by Anonymous | reply 84 | November 12, 2021 2:22 PM |
[quote]What kind of fish do the lakes have?
Sturgeon, for one -- they grow up to 8 feet and 300 pounds, and they can live for 150 years.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 85 | November 12, 2021 2:26 PM |
"What kind of fish do the lakes have? "
Most any freshwater fish, because freshwater
by Anonymous | reply 86 | November 12, 2021 2:29 PM |
Everyone knows the HOMES mnemonic to remember the names of the Great Lakes, but can you name them in order west to east quickly?
by Anonymous | reply 87 | November 12, 2021 2:32 PM |
I grew up in Pennsylvania and remember learning that Lake Erie has these horrific invasive species called Lamprey Eels, which were like a tube with teeth ( think Dune sandworms by much, much smaller) and they would latch on to a fish and just suck its insides out. Supposedly, within my lifetime, this was the 70s, it was to kill all the fish in the lake. What happened with that I ask you?
by Anonymous | reply 88 | November 12, 2021 2:40 PM |
You would think lamprey eels would be a DL icon by now.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 89 | November 12, 2021 2:43 PM |
Sea lamprey populations have been reduced to a fraction of what they were before a series of controls -- including lampricides, barriers and traps -- were introduced.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 90 | November 12, 2021 2:44 PM |
Is it fresh water? I'd always assumed it was brackish or maybe that is Erie? I know at some points sharks have been spotted in one of them. Maybe one closer to the coastline.
I live in a coastal area and we have a lot of brackish inland lakes and the sea life often makes forays way inland. Dolphins have been spotted and alligators (fresh water) have been spotted near the beaches here so there is some intrawaterway traveling going on.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | November 12, 2021 2:45 PM |
R89 that looks like something out of a horror movie.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | November 12, 2021 2:46 PM |
Despite being the master of wonky, weird, made up names, Dr. Seuss in his environmental parable, The Lorax, decided it was was timely and fitting to use the extreme pollution issues of Lake Erie as a warning example and a comparison to poisoning of water and the plight of the Humming fish in his story. The miraculous cleanup of the lake earned it a reprieve, and in later editions it was switch with the rhyming word “smeary” instead. Lake Erie and Weehawken were some of the few actual real places he named in his fantastical books, of course outside of New Jersey few kids believe that Weehawken exists.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 94 | November 12, 2021 2:55 PM |
[quote]Why can't it be both? The song and the event are forever intertwined, so talking of both is only natural
I don't think that's what R80 wants though.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | November 12, 2021 4:02 PM |
Where I grew up in Lake Erie the water was very clear unless it was churned up after a storm. I later learned that a huge zebra mussel invasion was mostly to blame. I also caught a fish with a lamprey attached to it and almost died.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | November 12, 2021 4:31 PM |
@r91, "Is it fresh water? I'd always assumed it was brackish or maybe that is Erie? "
The Great Lakes are the largest supply of freshwater in the world
by Anonymous | reply 97 | November 12, 2021 5:14 PM |
[quote]The Great Lakes are the largest supply of freshwater in the world
Which will make the Great Lakes region very attractive real estate in the near future. A new book, “Move: The Forces Uprooting Us," predicts that Michigan will be the best place to live on the planet by 2050, while Popular Science says it will take until 2100 for it to happen.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | November 12, 2021 5:23 PM |
The Edmund Fitzgerald probably had bad-fitting hatch covers which allowed water to get into the hold, de-stabilizing it. The captain was also well-known for making decisions that were, to be perfectly honest, not very bright.
The only commercial sinking (that I can recall) that has occurred since the Fitzgerald event is the Linda E. disappearance.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | November 12, 2021 5:46 PM |
She didn't disappear. She just sued CoolScultping the other day.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | November 12, 2021 6:26 PM |
Thank you OP for this thread.
I was in college then and remember seeing the news in the newspaper. It seemed unimaginable that a huge ship could sink in a Great Lake. It was just impossible what with all of the new weather stations.
Gordon Lightfoot’s iconic and haunting 1976 song explained it well.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | November 12, 2021 7:15 PM |
Shall we move on to the Great Salt Lake after this?
by Anonymous | reply 103 | November 12, 2021 7:27 PM |
The Great Lakes has had its share of notable disasters:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 104 | November 12, 2021 7:32 PM |
Things can get pretty rough at the south end of Lake Michigan as well...
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 106 | November 12, 2021 8:15 PM |
R78 Andrea Gail was out of Gloucester MA, hence the shitty, shitty, shitty accents in the movie.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | November 12, 2021 8:22 PM |
[quote] “Katie, please come over for ginger snaps,”
It’s easier for DLers to remember “Kevin, please come over for gay sex.”
by Anonymous | reply 108 | November 12, 2021 8:25 PM |
R60 On very clear nights in the winter, you can see some lights from Michigan across the lake.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | November 12, 2021 8:27 PM |
r87 "Silly Man, He Eventually Ovulates."
Superior
Michigan
Huron
Erie
Ontario
How's that?
by Anonymous | reply 110 | November 12, 2021 8:30 PM |
Like R7 from Gordon's song, I thought the Edmund Fitzgerald was a historical boat not a modern-day oil freighter.
I watched about 4 documentaries on Youtube that showed various theories about how it sank. It was a perfect storm of calamities/failures. One of the most haunting things is footage of the crew still frozen at their posts. The water is so cold that the bodies didn't decay. The captain looks like a waxwork in his uniform. I think you can see his wristwatch.
by Anonymous | reply 112 | November 12, 2021 9:06 PM |
typo: ore freighter not oil
by Anonymous | reply 113 | November 12, 2021 9:12 PM |
The Great Lakes are dangerous. Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron all have fast-developing weather conditions that cause dangerous waves. Ted Turner is infamous for always making light of the danger of Lake Michigan until he almost died in a yacht race on it. He retracted every quote he had made about the danger of Lake Michigan having been overstated.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | November 12, 2021 9:17 PM |
r112 TMK, there are no docs w/actual footage of bodies.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | November 12, 2021 9:46 PM |
There are always microbes and bacteria even in the cold depths that will consume human remains, aren't there? Nobody ever found any bones when they scoped the Titanic, to the best of my knowledge.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | November 12, 2021 9:53 PM |
^ You would think so otherwise the bottom of the Great Lakes would be littered with dead marine life totally intact
by Anonymous | reply 117 | November 12, 2021 10:17 PM |
[quote] Nobody ever found any bones when they scoped the Titanic, to the best of my knowledge.
True, but Titanic was found 73 years after she sank, and that was only its discovery. Even when the technology came along to go down to those depths, the pressure is so tremendous had there been any bodies, even on the night of the sinking, they would’ve been pulverized into dust.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | November 12, 2021 10:29 PM |
R115 The footage of bodies may have been removed from Youtube due to legal reasons, but I definitely saw the captain. No doubt.
I just looked quickly through the listings on Youtbe and they more recent uploads of diving talkingabout seeing the bodies.
I watched 4 or 5 documentary videos of the sinking, so it would take a while to find the footage.
Within the past year or so, a survivor of the tragedy passed away. He wanted his ashes taken done to the wreck so that he could be with his shipmates. His family honored his request.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | November 12, 2021 10:55 PM |
typo: they are more recent uploads of divers talking about seeing the bodies.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | November 12, 2021 10:56 PM |
There were no survivors of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
by Anonymous | reply 121 | November 12, 2021 10:58 PM |
[quote] Within the past year or so, a survivor of the tragedy passed away. He wanted his ashes taken done to the wreck so that he could be with his shipmates. His family honored his request.
You’re mixing up things. I don’t know to what you’re referring but, as r121 said, there were no survivors.
by Anonymous | reply 122 | November 12, 2021 11:02 PM |
R122 You're right. All 29 crew members died. It must have been a crewman who wasn't on that trip.
I haven't seen this video before. The host is a bit over the top. She is a mortician. There are good shots that show the power of Lake Superior storms and the ferocious waves. She interviews her friend, Jon Huybrecht, whose great uncle John D. Simmons, went down on the Edmund Fitzgerald. He may have been at the wheel at the end. It's sad. This voyage was to be the last trip for his great uncle and Captain McSorley as they were going to retire.
Start listening at 14:50, the great-nephew says that the families don't want anymore dives to the wreck as it is a graveyard. Dives have to be part of scientific investigations and he thinks that they have to be sanctioned by the Canadian government. He mentions that in the last public dive in 1994 a body was photographed and the families were upset (at 15:43). So, I imagine the footage that I saw in a Youtube documentary has been removed.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 123 | November 12, 2021 11:23 PM |
Well, I don't know what to think now. Maybe the underwater wreckage shot of the captain in his uniform was a hoax.
Here is the newspaper article from 1994 that is shown in the Mortician's YT video. It says that the diver saw the body of what appeared to be a crewman dressed in overalls. The body wasn't in the wreckage but near the ship's bow section.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 124 | November 12, 2021 11:34 PM |
I went down on an Edmund Fitzgerald. Nice guy. We didn't stay in touch.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | November 12, 2021 11:53 PM |
My grandpa was a lighthouse keeper on the Lake superior and Lake Michigan. Coasties from the oceans would come visit for training and think it'd be an easy couple of weeks on a lake and they left with a new found respect of how dangerous they really were.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | November 13, 2021 12:17 AM |
By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By yhr shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. Dark behind it rose the forest, Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, Rose the firs with cones upon them; Bright before it beat the water, Beat the clear and sunny water, Beat the shingin Big-Set-Water.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | November 13, 2021 12:27 AM |
Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, where still the mighty moose wanders at will.
Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more...
then there's what's supposed to be an Indian chant but, you know, 2021 and I'm awake so...
by Anonymous | reply 129 | November 13, 2021 12:36 AM |
You all are drunk posting now.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | November 13, 2021 2:02 AM |
That song came out only two weeks after the ship sunk. I was 25 when the ship went down and have no memory at all of the ship going down. I also thought the song was about a ship in the 1800s until years later when I got curious about it after hearing the song for the umpteenth time.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | November 13, 2021 3:16 AM |
I love the Anna Pigeon Park Ranger mysteries by Nevada Barr. The very first one I read was A Superior Death. Someone’s dead body was stashed in the Fitzgerald, dressed as an old-timely sailor.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | November 13, 2021 6:35 AM |
I recently discovered the YouTube channel Maritime Horrors hosted by a former Coast Guardsman. He covers shipwrecks of all types. He did one a few months ago on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 133 | November 13, 2021 7:21 AM |
[quote] That song came out only two weeks after the ship sunk.
Not quite. While it was recorded in December of ‘75, it wasn’t released until August of ‘76.
Still, an amazing achievement to have a song like that a month after the disaster.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | November 13, 2021 2:57 PM |
Would it be shocking to find he went by Eddie?
by Anonymous | reply 135 | November 13, 2021 3:01 PM |
^ Perhaps you missed the joke...
"eddy • EDD-ee • noun. 1 a : a current of water or air running contrary to the main current; especially : a circular current : whirlpool b : something moving similarly 2 : a contrary or circular current (as of thought or policy) Examples: The strong gusts whipped up eddies of fallen leaves. "
- r126
by Anonymous | reply 136 | November 13, 2021 4:47 PM |
R109, you cannot see across the lake. The Great Lakes are virtually inland seas. You were probably seeing the lights of ships out on the water. The look like little floating cities, all lit up.
I live in Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Michigan. On moonless nights it's like standing on the edge of world, looking out into black nothingness. Full moon nights are the best, with the moon rising at dusk and spilling its light over the water. So beautiful.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | November 13, 2021 5:24 PM |
[quote] into black nothingness.
Oh, yeah, you’ve done it. I’ve got my eye on you now.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | November 13, 2021 5:34 PM |
For the nautical playlist.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 139 | November 13, 2021 6:02 PM |
r137, I've traveled many times on 43 between Green Bay and Milwaukee.
I live on river frontage and wouldn't ever live anywhere else, but still, If I have the time, I always travel on a road closest to the shore of Lake Michigan and taken those "dead end" access roads that go to the shore. I've often wondered what it's like to live right on the lake.
I despise hot, humid, sunny weather so the much cooler air temps on the lake wouldn't bother me a bit.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | November 13, 2021 6:29 PM |
^ Lakefront living is ideal, always 10 degrees cooler in the summer and 10 degrees warmer in the winter
by Anonymous | reply 141 | November 13, 2021 6:33 PM |
I saw a still of one of the bodies on the web awhile back. Did find this:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 142 | November 13, 2021 7:45 PM |
[quote]you cannot see across the lake. The Great Lakes are virtually inland seas. You were probably seeing the lights of ships out on the water. The look like little floating cities, all lit up.
A rare optical phenomenon called the fata morgana – caused by light being bent due to changes in air temps over the water -- can provide views of the opposing shores of Lake Michigan. I've seen the lights of Milwaukee from Muskegon, Michigan, an 80-mile distance.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 143 | November 13, 2021 9:49 PM |
R46 R49 It was HOMES for me - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
by Anonymous | reply 144 | November 14, 2021 3:05 AM |
The gales of November are a real thing on Superior.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 146 | November 11, 2022 5:16 AM |
[quote] It wasn't until some time after the song was published I learned the wreck had been an actual and fairly recent event and not something from the previous century. Lightfoot imbued the song with such an old time-y feel, I assumed(presumed?) it was a homage to sailing days in the 1800's. I wonder what Roger Whittaker or Vaughn Monroe could've done with the song?
Or Wing!
by Anonymous | reply 147 | November 11, 2022 5:25 AM |
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