Fast forward two years. I had moved to Minneapolis, got a better job, and the girlfriend was gone. I was living with a bunch of guys I had gone to school with and their good friends. We were single, adventurous guys with a few extra bucks to go and play. We often went backpacking and camping and regularly to the North Shore of Lake Superior which I thought was a rugged and beautiful place. Well it is. However, the seasonal changes bring with them some impressive shows of force from Mother Nature.
Back on November 9th of 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald left the Port of Superior which is right next to the Port of Duluth at the Westernmost point of Lake Superior. If it had been heading for the Atlantic Ocean it would be a trip of 2340 miles (3770km), but it was only headed to Zug Island in the Detroit River. When built the ship it was the largest on the Great Lakes at 729 feet. I believe there are about 13 "thousand footers" now plying the lakes.
There was a nasty storm brewing up the day the Fitz sank, the 10th of November. They were listing and had both radars broken and while the storm was bad there was an additional squall that kicked up at the wrong time. The record winds on this lake are 81 knots and record wave height is 51 feet. It may have been approaching those numbers during the squall that hit the ship, but no one will ever know. She now lies in 535 feet of water in two pieces. The stern half is lying upside down and the bow half right side up nearby.
Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. GLSHS' three expeditions to the wreck revealed that it is likely she "submarined" bow first into an enormous sea, as damage forward is indicative of a powerful, quick force to the superstructure. But what caused the ship to take on water, enough to lose buoyancy and dive to the bottom so quickly, without a single cry for help, cannot be determined.
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank with all 29 crew. They are added to the known 350 shipwrecks and 1000 lives lost on this lake. Those are just the known and recorded ones from more recent history. And that is just this lake. The losses on all the lakes are estimated in the thousands over the course of history.
I was 21, senior year of college, living at home. hated my life and my situation. college sucked, my part-time job sucked. would I want to go back? HELL NO!
ReplyDeleteI was 16, living at home, doing a lot of school work during the week, a lot of dancing in the disco on the weekend...
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the Edmund Fitzgerald sank 40 years ago...but I've got the Gordon Lightfoot song in my head now.
I was 8 months old in November of 1975!
ReplyDeleteanne marie in philly, There are only a few things about the past that I could stand to live through again. I just chalk it all up to my education.
ReplyDeletePixel Peeper, Sweet sixteen and dancing at the disco. I'll bet you were just as cute then. Gord's song is pretty catchy, isn't it?
Jennifer, You make me feel a bit old, but also a bit young. Did Gregg like the cupcakes?
ReplyDeleteI was 11, and I haven't a clue what I was doing. (Some things never change - I still haven't a clue what I'm doing most of the time...)
Now I've got this stuck in my head: https://youtu.be/9vST6hVRj2A
Water the life-giver, water the destroyer. We take it too lightly. In both cases.
ReplyDeleteForty years ago I had just moved away from home and was revelling in new found independence. Something I am trying desperately to hang on to now.
I was 25 and was busy extricating myself from a very bad relationship, which probably explains why I don't remember hearing about the shipwreck.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post ... I only knew about the ship from the song. In 1975 I was young, newly married and living and working in NYC. No one's going to write song about my boring but not-too-tragic life.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I'm right there with you on clueless. A lot of good music has come from your side of the border.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child, I remember having some independence, but it has been a long time. My great grandfather died at sea in a big storm that killed many fishermen off the Icelandic coast back about 1897.
Professor, Everything else gets muddled into background noise during those kind of extrications.
Tom Sightings, Maybe someone SHOULD write a song that reflects how most of us get through life.
What a tragedy. Thanks for reminding us. 40 years ago? Incredible.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that most people have only heard of the ship tragedy through Lightfoot's song.
ReplyDelete40 years ago I was just turning 30, with a one year old, working on a GE research project in an ICU in Alaska. Probably makes me the geezer in the room, eh?
Take care,
Mike
I had just made myself a widow.
ReplyDeleteDonna, Time flies, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteShould Fish More, I'm not far behind you and the wife says I've been geezering up for a few years now.
JACKISUE, You were a bit young to go through that type of trauma. I like the way you are now.
I was living just north of Toronto, and I remember the news reports very well, about the huge ship disappearing without a trace in the storm. I was a new mum, OlderSon was just 4, YoungerSon had not arrived yet. I saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert singing his song about the Edmund FitzGerald about 7 years ago. Now I'm humming the song.
ReplyDeleteI was in the first semester of my second year at university. I don't remember hearing about the actual sinking, yet I remember Gordon Lightfoot's song about it as being during my university years. Campus culture and the degree I was taking didn't really lead me to be very interested in current events, but you'd think I'd have been aware, wouldn't you? I hang my head in shame.
ReplyDeleteI was 11 and pretty clueless about most things in life, including that Gordon Lightfoot song I sang along to a few years later. Terrific post!
ReplyDeleteShould Fish More is not the only geezer in the room. I am his senior by a year. Too right most people know of this tragedy via the song only. Thank you for posting the history, a tribute to those who risk their lives to ply the waters.
ReplyDeleteForty years ago I was graduating from high school and starting university. What an exciting time of life it was! "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was a HUGE hit for Gordon Lightfoot and is still one of his best known classic songs.
ReplyDeleteWe all remember it from the song. As time moves on the new generations will forget - a footnote in history.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
40 years ago, I was a new driver. Speeding too much and doing other reckless things.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the history lesson. I love the Gordon Lightfoot song, but you gave so much more background.
40 years ago I had was beginning my second year of college in Davis, CA. I do not remember hearing about the sinking. I never imagined that I would leave California, live in Iowa for 5 years, and eventually consider Virginia home. I always wondered how you came to live where you are, Jono
ReplyDeleteDarien, Thanks for stopping by! I don't remember you living in Iowa. Maybe a lot of us pass through Iowa on the way to somewhere else. I hope you and your family are well.
ReplyDelete