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At the time it was launched in 1958, the 729-foot long, 75-foot wide freighter S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship to ply the Great Lakes. On November 10, 1975 the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore pellets, bound for Detroit. Though the day was bright, in her path lay a terrible storm with 60 MPH winds and waves in excess of 15 feet. As the storm built, her experienced Captain Ernest McSorley bore north across Lake Superior, seeking the relative shelter of the Canadian shore and Whitefish Bay.
Luck was not with the ship or the crew. The radar system and its backup failed. The storm took out the power to Whitefish Point's light and radio beacon. Though the light was brought back on line, the radio beacon was not. The Arthur M. Anderson, another ship within 10 miles of the Fitzgerald, received reports that the ship was listing to the starboard and of other structural damages to the vessel. At 7:10 PM, Captain McSorley delivered what was to be his final message:
"We're holding our own."
The Arthur M. Anderson lost the Fitzgerald's image on its radar screens at 7:25 PM. The ship and crew of 29 men, sank to the bottom of Lake Superior. The tragic story of the Edmund Fitzgerald is remembered through Gordon Lightfoot's ballad "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".
Tags:
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disasters
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Added: 6th October 2007
Views: 639
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Posted By: Guido |
 
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I thought Lava posted this. For some reason odd trivia gets stuck in my head and I know Gordon Lightfoot is Canadian.
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Nope, not guilty! Actually, I've grown to hate this song--even though I once sat five feet from Gordon Lightfoot in Shopsy's Deli in Toronto.
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This might be in bad taste, but there's a funny parody of this song called The Rectum of Edmund Fitzgerald. (The singer does an excellent impression of Gordon Lightfoot.)
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Posted by: Naomi on 2007-10-06
Let me put it this way, any parody that was created from a real life disaster that took people's lives and left their families grief stricken will always be considered being in bad taste.
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I told you it might be in bad taste. In fairness to the guy who does the parody, he doesn't refer to the maritime disaster at all. He just makes fun of Gordon Lightfoot's manner of singing.
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Every year on the 10th of November The Bell at the Maritime church here in Detroit the Bell is rung 29 times in memorie of the sailors who died that day Very moving The anchor of the fitz was lost a year earlier in the detroit River it was recovered afew years ago and is now on display at the Dossins great lake Museum located on Belle isle on the Detroit River That song still gives me chills when I here it Is still a mystery to exactly what happened that Cold Stormy day on Lake Superior just short of the safe harbor of Whitefish point
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and I spose there's never been another storm since.
I would love to hear those bells peel
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Posted by: Kbug on 2008-07-11
I remember back in grade school we sang this for some assembly. It was probably in combination with the Remembrance Day stuff. I live near Detroit (in Canada) and it was interesting to hear the story.
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