The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - 10 Nov 1975

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Official Audio) - YouTube

In reply to jharry3 :

Ah memories...my 7th grade history teacher started class every single day for the entire school year with the "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". 

"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"   Always gave me goosebumps.

In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :

For me, it was always this part:

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

In reply to Kubotai :

Such an incredible line, in such an incredible song. 

When I worked in radio, this is what we called a poop song.

In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :

My favorite line from the song. 

In reply to jimbob_racing :

Since most folks liked the song at the time, and I know a lot that still do, whould you be inclined to share more on that? Or just gonna put that out there, and leave it?

In reply to 03Panther :

It has nothing to do with the actual song, just that it's long enough to leave the broadcast studio to visit the restroom for a lengthy visit.

Classic Gordie - and there are quite a few other memorable tunes.  He is still around, BTW and toured up to Covid. He released a solo album called 'Solo' in 2020.  He is 83 years old.

Thanks for the reminder - I'll add a couple of his albums to my vinyl play pile.

My grandfather's first job was running the mail room on a Great Lakes steamer. Another ancestor was Captain of the last wooden hulled sailing ship on the Great Lakes.

This song has always given me chills, still today.

In reply to jimbob_racing :

Ah! Definitely would not have caught that from the quip! That's funny (and quite true)

Gordie is from Orillia Ontario,about 45 min from me.....great folk artist to be sure.

Always really like that song since the first time I heard it late at night on AM skipping in and out.

Then years later a girl at a bar from Michigan or thereabouts jokingly said that she doubted I could name all the lakes being as I wasn't from anywhere near there.  And it came to me just like that:

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
 

I did OK that night.

jimbob_racing said:

When I worked in radio, this is what we called a poop song.

You could queue that up back to back with Don McLean's American Pie if you wanted to grab lunch.

My wife and I visited the Whitefish Point lighthouse and shipwreck museum a few years back.

Very much worth the drive if you're anywhere close. We made it a destination, and would do it again.

We were there on July, 5th and the water was too cold to even stick your toes in. Can't begin to imagine what it must have been like in November.

SaltyDog said:

My wife and I visited the Whitefish Point lighthouse and shipwreck museum a few years back.

Very much worth the drive if you're anywhere close. We made it a destination, and would do it again.

We were there on July, 5th and the water was too cold to even stick your toes in. Can't begin to imagine what it must have been like in November.

If I'm allowed to steal a story from my uncle... 

He took my cousins up to Lake Superior. Not sure where exactly, but somewhere in the UP, and it was nasty out. Cold, drizzling, winds howling. The waves were easily over 15 feet, likely closer to 20 or more. 

They're standing on the lookout, just marvelling at it. An old grizzled dude, white beard before it was trendy, walks up, pulls out a pack of cigarettes, and turns his back to the wind to light one up. He says in a gruff voice with a yooper accent "Remember the Edmund Fitzgerald?" My uncle goes... "Yeah"... The yooper looks out, takes a long, slow drag from his cigarette, and says "Day like todayyyyy". 

Even hearing that story second hand gave me goosebumps. And it wasn't even about the Edmund Fitzgerald itself.

In reply to SaltyDog :

We too have been to the museum.  My 8 year old daughter took to this story and was fascinated.  She made a book when she got home. She felt bad for the crew.  

I used to sell rubber seals to Central Marine near Gary, IN and they were the engineers overseeing the Wilfred Sykes ship that runs the same route.  They oversee two other ships.

They park them all winter in Sturgeon Bay, WI and oversee the maintenance until spring.  They invited me up to measure hatch seals one cold winter day and they gave me a sweet tour.  There might be a tour on YouTube.

In the end they bought these 2"x2" rubber seals and I was a bit rattled by it all - hoping all would go well. 
 

 Interesting thread.  Always loved the song....

props to anyone who can rhyme with "Gitche Gumee"

  -- Pete

A 401 CJ said:

jimbob_racing said:

When I worked in radio, this is what we called a poop song.

You could queue that up back to back with Don McLean's American Pie if you wanted to grab lunch.

James Brown live at the Apollo, take a nap. 

You know, I only know OF the song. Can't say I've ever listened to the lyrics. I know its melody and changes from a jazz cover by the Shuffle Demons. 

I think thanks to the song, the story of the Fitz comes up pretty often- it's one of the things that brings tale searchers to the UP.  And it's mostly the song, as the Fitz was one of at least 350 ships at the bottom of Lake Superior.  The Fitz was the most recent by a long way, but two were lost in the spring of '53- one of which they've never found.

Weather in the Great Lakes is really weird sometimes- and oddly, some of the scariest (apparently) happen in Lake Eire, because it's so shallow.

One of the terrifying theories of the Fitz is that it basically nosed into the ground, and then broke in half.  The ship is so long, where it went down, the rear of the ship could have been out of the water.   The other is that the waves were so big that mid ship was out of the water far enough to break in half.  Either way, it happened so fast there was no reaction from the ship before just disappearing.