November 10, 1975

[roadman]

Not road related, but 40 years later, let us take a moment to remember the 29 who lost their lives on that fateful night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A

http://www.ssedmundfitzgerald.org/

[Mr_Northside]

For all the times I heard the song - and I knew it was based off a true story, but never researched it or anything - I had always pictured it in my head as happening a lot longer ago... 1920-30's, or something like that.

It wasn't till I read a column about it earlier today that I learned that it happened a mere 4 years before I was born.

[roadman]

For all the times I heard the song - and I knew it was based off a true story, but never researched it or anything - I had always pictured it in my head as happening a lot longer ago... 1920-30's, or something like that.

It wasn't till I read a column about it earlier today that I learned that it happened a mere 4 years before I was born.

The song was first released on Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 album Summertime Dream.  In the original liner notes with the first run of the album, Gordon Lightfoot stated that he was inspired to write the song after reading about the sinking in Newsweek:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85568639/The-Cruelest-Month-Edmund-Fitzgerald-Newsweek-November-24-1975#scribd

[jp the roadgeek]

For all the times I heard the song - and I knew it was based off a true story, but never researched it or anything - I had always pictured it in my head as happening a lot longer ago... 1920-30's, or something like that.

It wasn't till I read a column about it earlier today that I learned that it happened a mere 4 years before I was born.

The song was first released on Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 album Summertime Dream.  In the original liner notes with the first run of the album, Gordon Lightfoot stated that he was inspired to write the song after reading about the sinking in Newsweek:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85568639/The-Cruelest-Month-Edmund-Fitzgerald-Newsweek-November-24-1975#scribd

I was 9 days old.  Didn't hear the song though until the 70's themed stations started playing it 20 years later.

[GaryV]

I was in my first year of college.  Didn't hear about it at all - we kind of ignored any news.

[jwolfer]

For all the times I heard the song - and I knew it was based off a true story, but never researched it or anything - I had always pictured it in my head as happening a lot longer ago... 1920-30's, or something like that.

It wasn't till I read a column about it earlier today that I learned that it happened a mere 4 years before I was born.

I was the same.. I remember when I first heard it was in 1975 I was surprised... I like the song

[nexus73]

At age 8 I read my first adult book.  It was the Reader's Digest condensed version of "A Night To Remember", which dealt with the sinking of the Titanic.  Ships at sea or ships in space, like Apollo 13, are always in harm's way even during peacetime.  That makes those stories compelling to me.  Getting a great song by Gordon Lightfoot, who I enjoyed as a singer back in the day, was just gravy although it is sad to me that it took the sinking of a ship and the loss of life to set it up so that song would be written.

Rick

[triplemultiplex]

It's got a such great riff for a ballad.  I've always enjoyed the song ever since my mother first played it for me when I was really young.  And the mini-geography lesson in the lyrics hooked me even at age 6.

The sinking was such an outlier for the time.  With all the radar and radios and Coast Guard rescue assets, a large ship going down with all hands was unthinkable.  The song, however, missed what is generally considered the cause of The 'Fitz's demise.  The vessel likely bottomed out on a reef near Caribou Island and took on water until it was too heavy to break through the high seas.  She plummeted bow first into the bottom and snapped in half.

[froggie]

^  That is but one of several theories on what happened.  I'd also like to point out that divers scouted the reef you mentioned shortly after the sinking, and there was no evidence that the Fitz had scraped bottom...

[PHLBOS]

The song was first released on Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 album Summertime Dream.  In the original liner notes with the first run of the album, Gordon Lightfoot stated that he was inspired to write the song after reading about the sinking in Newsweek:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85568639/The-Cruelest-Month-Edmund-Fitzgerald-Newsweek-November-24-1975#scribd

My mother still has that album (she bought it sometime during the 1980s when she became a Gordon Lightfoot fan).  I was 11 at the time the ballad was released and remember it getting plenty of airplay back then.

The song serves as both a tribute to those 29 lives lost as well as a timeless ballad.

[roadman]

^  That is but one of several theories on what happened.  I'd also like to point out that divers scouted the reef you mentioned shortly after the sinking, and there was no evidence that the Fitz had scraped bottom...

Like the other theories about the sinking, the "bottomed out" theory was neither conclusively proven nor disproven.  Due to how the wreckage landed on the bottom of Lake Superior, neither the Navy's equipment that initially located the wreck nor the divers who examined the wreck later were actually able to examine the portions of the ship that were believed to have struck bottom based on the events (missing vent covers and broken fence rail) that occurred prior to the sinking.

The A&E Network did a special on the Fitzgerald sinking some years back that strongly supported the bottoming out theory.  Besides containing obvious inaccuracies (like falsely claiming that the A&E documentary was the first time that Captain Cooper (the Andersen's captain) went on camera to discuss the sinking since it occurred - he had also discussed his role in the wreck some years prior during an -IMO - much more objective Discovery Channel documentary on the sinking), I still recall when they showed a navigation chart of the area around Six Fathom Shoal where some people speculate the Fitzgerald struck bottom.  Looking at the TV image of the chart, one could make a case that the map had been altered to show a bunch of sixes beyond the area of the actual six foot depth off of Caribou Island.

[hbelkins]

I don't have any memory of the event, when it happened, being big news.

I was surprised to learn that it only happened 40 years ago and that the song only came out in 1976, when I was a sophomore in high school. It seems to me that the song had been around a lot longer and it's hard to believe that it wasn't on the radio when I was in elementary school or junior high, because it sure seemed like it.

[jwolfer]

I don't have any memory of the event, when it happened, being big news.

I was surprised to learn that it only happened 40 years ago and that the song only came out in 1976, when I was a sophomore in high school. It seems to me that the song had been around a lot longer and it's hard to believe that it wasn't on the radio when I was in elementary school or junior high, because it sure seemed like it.

The opening line of the song makes it seem like its retelling an old story...

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...."

[bulldog1979]

The loss of SS Edmund Fitzgerald is woven into the local lore here, but I also live in the Central UP near Lake Superior. People around here talk about where they where that night like other people mention what they were doing when they found out about the Kennedy assassination or the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point holds a service every year on the anniversary. Since they recovered the ship's bell, they toll it 30 times, one for each man aboard the Fitzgerald, and an extra for all of the others lost on the Great Lakes since. Those ceremonies, and other events like the production of a play about the tragedy typically make the news each year here in Michigan.

Frankly, it's surprising to me that we haven't had another major loss in the last 40 years.

[renegade]

I remember this like it was yesterday.  My dad knew eleven of the crew members.  It was the only time I ever saw him cry.

[triplemultiplex]

Frankly, it's surprising to me that we haven't had another major loss in the last 40 years.

GPS.
And weather forecasts are way more reliable compared to 1975.

[jwolfer]

Frankly, it's surprising to me that we haven't had another major loss in the last 40 years.

GPS.
And weather forecasts are way more reliable compared to 1975.

Not in the Great Lakes, but there was recently a cargo ship the El Faro that went down in the Bahamas in a hurricane... 33 people died

[hm insulators]

Frankly, it's surprising to me that we haven't had another major loss in the last 40 years.

GPS.
And weather forecasts are way more reliable compared to 1975.

And still, recently a big cargo ship went down in Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas with all hands on deck (the El Favo or something like that, it was called). If I'm not mistaken, the engines crapped out--not what you want to happen to a ship with a major hurricane on the way.

We may have all the great weather forecasting stuff now they didn't have in the seventies, but sometimes, the weather can still pull a fast one on you. Here's a saying I sometimes like to use: "Nature holds all the aces."

[roadman]

And still, recently a big cargo ship went down in Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas with all hands on deck (the El Favo or something like that, it was called). If I'm not mistaken, the engines crapped out--not what you want to happen to a ship with a major hurricane on the way.

We may have all the great weather forecasting stuff now they didn't have in the seventies, but sometimes, the weather can still pull a fast one on you. Here's a saying I sometimes like to use: "Nature holds all the aces."

Especially when you know a very powerful hurricane is out there, that said hurricane is likely to cross your path as you traverse the Atlantic (which was apparently the case with the El Favo), and you decide to travel anyway.  In that case, the captain rolled the dice and lost.

[kkt]

The cause of the wreck remains uncertain, in spite of investigations by both the Coast Guard and the NTSB.  One investigation showed one of the hatch covers found intact, not on its hatch.  If the hatch covers weren't fully latched down and waves were washing over the deck, they might have taken on enough water to sink.

[Pete from Boston]

Frankly, it's surprising to me that we haven't had another major loss in the last 40 years.

GPS.
And weather forecasts are way more reliable compared to 1975.

And still, recently a big cargo ship went down in Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas with all hands on deck (the El Favo or something like that, it was called). If I'm not mistaken, the engines crapped out--not what you want to happen to a ship with a major hurricane on the way.

Yes.  As was said in the post from last week immediately preceding yours, it was the El Faro, which ironically means (in a nautical context) "the lighthouse."

[jwolfer]

And still, recently a big cargo ship went down in Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas with all hands on deck (the El Favo or something like that, it was called). If I'm not mistaken, the engines crapped out--not what you want to happen to a ship with a major hurricane on the way.

We may have all the great weather forecasting stuff now they didn't have in the seventies, but sometimes, the weather can still pull a fast one on you. Here's a saying I sometimes like to use: "Nature holds all the aces."

Especially when you know a very powerful hurricane is out there, that said hurricane is likely to cross your path as you traverse the Atlantic (which was apparently the case with the El Favo), and you decide to travel anyway.  In that case, the captain rolled the dice and lost.

And many families are suing the company that owned the ship. It's a local story here in Jacksonville since it left from here and much of the crew was local , a few were students from a school in Maine. Sad for all of families

Sailing the seas was in the past a very dangerous. Imaging going  out to sea without radar, weather reports etc. Under the power  of sails only

[RoadWarrior56]

I always liked Gordon Lightfoot and much of his music, but I got so sick of his song about the Edmound Fitzgerald.  I was in college at the time the song came out, and my "neighbors" in the adjacenent dorm room played that song to death, right through the walls.  I think that is the type of song that you either love or your hate.  There is no neutral ground.

[triplemultiplex]

I always liked Gordon Lightfoot and much of his music, but I got so sick of his song about the Edmound Fitzgerald.  I was in college at the time the song came out, and my "neighbors" in the adjacenent dorm room played that song to death, right through the walls.  I think that is the type of song that you either love or your hate.  There is no neutral ground.

That is surprising.  It doesn't strike me as the kind of song the college kids would crank up.
Different time, I suppose.

[jwolfer]

I always liked Gordon Lightfoot and much of his music, but I got so sick of his song about the Edmound Fitzgerald.  I was in college at the time the song came out, and my "neighbors" in the adjacenent dorm room played that song to death, right through the walls.  I think that is the type of song that you either love or your hate.  There is no neutral ground.

That is surprising.  It doesn't strike me as the kind of song the college kids would crank up.
Different time, I suppose.

If was the mid 70s.. James Taylor, the Carpenters