S.S. EDMUND FITZGERALD
I just saw on the weather channel that a life bouy from the Edmund washed ashore on lake Superior. It looked real, gave me the goosebumps!
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The crew's still out there .... releasing the buoys and
waiting for help to arrive ... still.
Take a look at the video and you can use the words below to sing along.
Video & song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99rOzMVtcx4
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind
When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.
The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
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Thanks for the words - I can sing at it now !!
I remember the tragedy well. I lived in (near) Cleveland in my yout, and used to watch the ships on Lake Erie.
A good place for me to grow up - then.
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Here's proof, not BS you!
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1186574710138350.xml&coll=60 -
quote:Originally posted by Zebra
Here's proof, not BS you!
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1186574710138350.xml&coll=6
hmmmm. I didn't hear anybody call BS.
Anyway, thanks for the post!
The Fitzgerald wreck is familiar to me (family lives in MN) so this was cool to see. It was also nice to read in the article that the guy who found it is just ready to turn it over to the museum, rather than to try and make it a profit piece.0 -
Here's a "Fitz" trivia question for you.
How many members of the Fitz's crew survived the sinking?0 -
The ones that didn't go on that trip. 0 -
Probably my favorite Gordon Lightfoot song. I think I'll have to watch and listen to his "Live in Reno" DVD tonight! 0 -
That song is on continous play when you go to the EF museum in Michigan. Great museum, but I walked out of there whistling that song for a week. 0 -
I used to live down by the docks in Toledo and sometimes the EF would be docked there. Got kinda spooky when it went down. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by GUNFUNCO
The ones that didn't go on that trip.
What's the actual number?0 -
I still to this day do not use the expression "We are holding our own" as those words were the last radio transmission from the Fitzgerald before she went down. 0 -
Nor do I say, "Take no prisoners!" Geo. Armstrong Custer 0 -
On the internet, I noted there was 1 man who was on ship to take the place of a crewmember who was absent with a bleeding ulcer.
Is that correct?0 -
Guns: Here's a link you'd find MOST interesting.
http://www.europa.com/~random7/fitz.htm0 -
My Fathers buddy, who's name was Fuzzy Hart, sailed on the Edmond Fitzgerald a few years before she went down. 0 -
I had a picture that FL humidity had destroyed of the EF I took off the Boblo boat...
Don0
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