Any thoughts on the Edmund Fitzgerald?
Asked by
zenvelo (
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November 9th, 2015
40 years ago on November 10, the Edmund Fitzgerald set out on its last trip. As we know from the song , it never quite made it.
Were you aware of this when it happened? I never did until Gordon Lightfoot sang about it. But it gave me respect for the storms of the Great Lakes.
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9 Answers
Yes. It was in the news quite a bit.
Of course, the Lightfoot song increased the awareness and created its legend.
I remember when the ship was lost, as well as the Lightfoot tune. In fact the incident set me to reading up on ships presumed to be at the bottom of the lakes and there are a LOT of them. There’s tens of millions of treasure beneath the lakes, and a dedicated bunch of folks busy salvaging some of it. I remember reading some 20 years ago about a thriving business in recovering huge logs trapped on sunken lumber ships. The timber is extremely valuable, because trees of such girth are no longer around.
I only know it from the Gordon Lightfoot song.
The Great Lakes is full of sunken ships – the remarkable thing about this one is that it became a legend.
Had Pandora on just now and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” came on. Coincidence – or not?
Gord was very accurate in the song except that the ship was really bound for Detroit. But Cleveland rhymed better.
I grew up on the Great Lakes so this story was told often as an example of just how like the ocean waves and storms we could get on the water and how deep lake Superior is. I was very young when it happened and don’t remember that incident itself.
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