great lakes

Chris Knight's avatar

Those were the last words radioed out by the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.

It was fifty years ago tonight, November 10th, 1975, that the Edmund Fitzgerald  – at one time the largest vessel plying the Great Lakes – vanished off of the radar of the other ships in the area.  She went down in the storm, taking twenty-nine men with her to the bottom of Lake Superior.

I’ve written about “The Fitz” on a few other occasions, like for the thirtieth anniversary (has it really been twenty years ago tonight that I posted that?).  There’s really not much more that I could write this afternoon that hasn’t been said already.

I can share this though, as I have a few other times before.  The year after the tragedy, Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot recorded and released his moving and haunting ballad about the ship and her crew.  “The Wreck Of ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Forty years ago tonight. Here’s the post that I composed on this evening in 2005.  But YouTube wasn’t as pervasive as it is today.

So here is Gordon Lightfoot’s forever haunting ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.

The tradition will continue today.  The church bell at Mariner’s Church will ring thirty times: one for each man on the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, and once more in memory of all who have perished on the Great Lakes.

As I wrote ten years ago tonight: Here’s to a good ship and crew....

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Chris Knight's avatar

It was on November 10th, 1975 that the Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship on the Great Lakes, sank into the depths of Superior. She carried twenty-nine men down with her.

The following year, Gordon Lightfoot recorded what is almost certainly his best-known song. It’s also one of my personal favorites, and when I found this on YouTube I had to post it here too.

Accompanied by video and photos from her construction on through her tragic end and beyond, here is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”…

You can read more about the Edmund Fitzgerald at its Wikipedia entry.

And some years ago, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the disater, I wrote a retrospective about the ship and its good crew....

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