R.I.P. Edmund Fitzgerald
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43 years ago today in 35 knot winds and waves as high as 30 feet on Lake Superior..... The Fitz went down killing all 29 men aboard. The Legend Lives On.....
How time flies. When it happened I was working in Dearborn Htgs. MI and it was big local news. I was glad to get out of the MI state 4 months latter and did a company transfer to SW Ohio. and here to remain.
I was only 9 years old when it happened but Gordon Lightfoot made it a Michigan Legend. My 95 year old neighbor worked on turbines on the big ships for Westinghouse...... He worked on the Fitz and many other of the ships on Superior. He even sailed across Superior on one while he was working on it he said.
That was cool BB. I’ve heard that song a thousand times and until now, never really listened to the words close enough to understand the meaning. Thanks
The shipwreck museum is about a half hour drive north of my property in the U.P. ,, At Whitefish Point. The wreck is off shore from there. The bell pictured in your video Jeff was recovered from the ship and is in the museum. I’ve been there to see it.
The ship rests in about 500 feet of water...... And she was just over 700 feet long...... Imagine that if she took a nose dive and broke in half when she hit the bottom....... 200 hundred feet of her aft would have been sticking out of the water when she slammed in to the bottom of the lake in 500 feet of water.
"The lake it is said never gives up her dead."
Her sister ship the Arthur Anderson is still in service today. The Captain at the time of the Anderson was that last to have communication with the Fitzgerald. You can google those coms and listen to them for yourself. It’s eerie.
This is what they look like when you’re walleye fishing.... Get the hell out of the way !!! This one is Canadian...
My grandparents were at their resort in the U.P. the night she went down. Their place was on Culhane lake west of Whitefish Point. That afternoon they took CR412 out to Crisp Point lighthouse to observe the big lake. My grandparents had been going to the U.P. since the early 40's and my grandfather said that was the worst he had ever seen the lake
When I was stationed at USCG HQ in DC, I was in our Historian's Office and briefly looked at the EF files they have there. As I recall, it was a pretty good sized box. I did read a few of the actual messages that went out from the local CG station(s). Pretty eerie.
I have that on a 8 track. I was commercial fishing on the west coast back then. I played it for my boss and he didn’t care for it. Too real. I always remembered the part about the wind in the wires. You could Tell wind speed by the noise the wind made in the rigging. Been in 60 mph wind offshore and it just makes a moaning sound. It always seems bad things happen at sea when it’s dark. I had a hard time watching the end of the perfect storm. I can’t imagine what people go through when you know the ships going down during rough sea and high winds. You know you’re going to die it’s just a matter of how long will it take. This is the boat I fished on. We were making a 12 hour run to our home port once. We pulled anchor and headed south at midnight after the wind died down to 55 mph gusts. Seas were building and so strap that my boss had to be at the wheel stearing for 10 hours. Waves would break over the stearn and bury the back half of the boat. It would be underwater. The swells were so high and steep that the boat would broach sliding. Down the face. He’d have to turn the boat like you would a car in a slide. The other worry is going down the face that’s too steep is burying the bow and pitch poling. You have no lights on the boat to see what’s going on outside either. I guess sometimes that’s better. In 71 or 72 a huge southerly storm came up on the fishing grounds offshore (250 miles). There were lots of boats in the area within sight. My boss said he shut down near a live bait boat at night, had a crew of 13. Next morning it was gone. Entire crew with it. I was Onshore at the time and the ocean there was like a lake. I was listening on the radio and there were 5 mayday calls going out to the Coast guard offshore.
_____ They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Takes a special kind of person to dedicate their life to making a living on the "Big Lake". Hard to believe it's been that long ago...and to this day is still my favorite song, so haunting you can only imagine what it must have been like for those 29 poor souls.
for sure one of the greatest ballads of all time....
"I have that on a 8 track."
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DL, you may have to explain to some of our younger folks what an 8 Track is.
LOL !
"DL, you may have to explain to some of our younger folks what an 8 Track is."
And what the folded matchbook cover is for.
Coast Guard talking to Captain Cooper of the Anderson.....”Think there’s any possibility that you could turn around and do any searching,, over ??? (The Anderson safely made it to Whitefish Bay after Captain Cooper lost the Fitzgerald on his radar screen). The last communication Captain Cooper had with Captain Mcsorley of the Fitzgerald..... Mcsorley said that the Fitz had a list but she was holding her own...
Cooper responds ..... “Oh God I don’t know..... That sea out there is tremendously large.... If you want me to I will”........
You can hear in Captain Cooper’s voice that he’s scared as hell to go back out there.... But he did..... And there were 3 ocean tankers in the area as well. The Coast Guard launched a vessel out of Duluth, but it took over 20 hours to get to the area of the wreck because of the seas.......
"Cooper responds ..... “Oh God I don’t know..... That sea out there is tremendously large.... If you want me to I will”........ "
Balls so big you need a wheelbarrow just to move around right there......
