Edmond Fitzgerald

[Atsa1]

33 year memorial of the Edmond Fitzgerald was 11/10. TV 9&10 news (Cadillac/Traverse City MI) morning edition featured a video segment complete with the maritime radio traffic as the events unfolded. Pretty sobering.
Our prayers continue for the Families & Crew of the Edmond Fitzgerald.

[Navycop]

I grew up in the 70's and 80's and always liked this song. It is just too bad it had to end the way it did. Alot of people didn't even know it was a real ship. To echo what OP said. It is a sad outcome. All those children growing up without fathers and wives without husbands.

[SAR2401]

The ship's name was actually the Edmund Fitzgerald. I served a summer as a deckhand in 1964 on the SS William Clay Ford, one of the first ships on the scene of the sinking, that assisted in the search. The "Fitz" was known by all Great Lakes sailors as an unlucky ship from the day she was launched. It took three trys to break the champagne bottle on her bow for the launch in 1957, always a bad sign for sailors. She was involved in five collisons before her sinking, including running aground in the Detroit River and striking the same lock three times. Some guys refused to serve on her because they thought she was doomed, a premonition that turned out to be accurate on that November 10. The Great Lakes have never been forgiving.

[bcd396t]

very interesting !!!

[snjct2000]

Wish they could post that traffic on You tube!

[Unitrunker]

Originally Posted by snjct2000

Wish they could post that traffic on You tube!

Here's some radio traffic shortly after the ship disappeared.

[eorange]

That is a fantastic find. How did you find it? I went to that site, but there's no text/documentation about any of the mp3s in that directory.

[trace1]

I was living in Walled Lake Michigan when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, I was 12 years old.

Every time I hear Gordon Lightfoot's song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald it takes me back to when this happened and it was on the news. It also reminds me of a simpler time back when I was just a kid with no worries.

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.

[Piston52Heavy]

I was just up at Whitefish Point a month ago and saw the Arthur Anderson.

[JASII]

I was 15 years old at the time and I also recall this. I grew up south of Duluth MN and I assume it frequented the Duluth Harbor.

[DiGiTaLD]

Originally Posted by eorange

That is a fantastic find. How did you find it? I went to that site, but there's no text/documentation about any of the mp3s in that directory.

http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingai...mundFitzgerald

[snjct2000]

That traffic is so chilling. You can sure sense the "Oh Sh.t" tone from that captain when the official asks him to turn his ship around and go look for survivors.

[chrismol1]

Truely amazing that BOTH radars went OUT and the lighthouse that had additional navigation radar equipment lost power that day

[trace1]

Originally Posted by chrismoll

Truely amazing that BOTH radars went OUT and the lighthouse that had additional navigation radar equipment lost power that day

My Dad was on a trip to the UP (Upper Peninsula) during the stormy weather that took the Edmund Fitzgerald down. He was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and he said it was very rough weather and the bridge itself was swaying in the wind, it was actually closed later that day.

So it is no wonder that there may have been several different equipment failures that day...

[Navycop]

Have they ever found the wreakage? I mean they found the Titanic.

[MPSCS]

Originally Posted by Navycop

Have they ever found the wreakage? I mean they found the Titanic.

Yes it was found. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

[chrismol1]

Originally Posted by Navycop

Have they ever found the wreakage? I mean they found the Titanic.

I think it was found something like 6 months later by a controlled Navy submersible, it was the 1970's, the world was movin up in technology

[WA1CRZ]

Gordons birthday was 11/17. He just turned 70.

[nslt204]

There is a great museum at Whitefish Point MI that has been instrumental in preserving the memory of the "Fitz"
http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/
Well worth the trip. I have taken the family a number of times over the years.
They have a large display on how the wreck was found and they have the original ships bell that the families had brought up and then replaced with an inscribed bell that serves as a grave marker. The Canadian Govt has declared it a grave site and divers and submersibles are not allowed near it. The last dive was the bell replacement in 1995.

Here is a link to the frq for the museum grounds operations.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=5434

[ka5lqj]

Yep,

I've loved the song for years, but hated the tragedy that was the cause for it to be written. May GOD rest the souls of those crewman and families.

I took to watching Discovery Channel's "Dangerous Catch", about Alaskan crab fishermen. Seems they have it tough as well out there and it's always sad when a boat goes down and the crew is "lost" in the Bearing Sea. You can see how it affects the different boat crews as they are like "brothers" & "family" out there.

Mariner's are special folks.

It's a bit cold today here, to me at least, it was 30 degrees and it will only get to 51 and be cloudy and depressing all day. Think I'll keep the coffee pot full, find a warm soft spot to rest and play Gordon Lightfoot all day long.

Respectfully,
73,

Don/KA5LQJ