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I don’t know if you remember what happened on November 10, 1975. I was a 7th grader and had a daily afternoon paper route. I spent the early afternoon that day riding my bike, delivering papers with my eyes glued to the story on the front of the Patriot Ledger newspaper published in Quincy MA.
I don’t know what attracted me to the story that day. Maybe it was my family’s history and stories of service in the navy, or that I was always fascinated with boats and large ships, but I remember being drawn to the story that day like a magnet.
I had nearly forgotten about the sinking when about a year or so later a Gordon Lightfoot song came out and I heard it for the first time. I remember liking something about the song but didn’t pay too much to the lyrics. In later years, I figured out that the song was about the Edmund Fitzgerald, I recalled delivering newspapers and being captivated by the story that fall day.
Years past and I forgot all about the wreck. About three years ago, I was reading books and telling stories with my children, when my son asked me to tell him a story about a big boat. They were tired of all those Grady White boat and fishing stories and I needed to come up with something fast. I’ll never know how the story came back so vividly and I told what I remembered that night. The two boys and my youngest daughter were unusually quiet and attentive and asked a lot of questions before going to bed.
The next night, after coming home from work, I grabbed the three of them and we searched the net together. We found some great sites, the lyrics and the music to the song and we got to explore the story of the iron boat named the Edmund Fitzgerald all over again.
This is the best site that I’ve located regarding the building of the ship. It seems unbelievable that one of the largest freighters, built 50 years ago this year by the way, could be almost 730 feet long, over 75 feet abeam and drew 39 feet of water at a cost of $8.5M. She would be a dingy as well as a bargain by the standards of today….
http://www.glmi.org/fitz/
This is a nice little film. Fast forward to 3 minutes into it and watch the next minute or so. It shows the Fitz being side launched. Notice the people on the deck of the ship at launch, it must have been quite an experience when it bobbed like a cork until she settling in the water.
http://www.glmi.org/webcast/archive/fitzvidnoaud.htm
This film details the ships history from launch to wreck and has audio between a ship that was following her and shore just after she was lost. There is also video of her sitting on the lake bed. It is believed that several of the iron ore hatches were breached during the storm and water flooded in on top of the 26,200 tons of iron bound for Detroit for the automobile industry. From what I have read, the ship likely filled quickly with water and the crew never had a chance to abandon ship. It likely sank like a brick in the seas that had built from 10 feet to over 25 feet with wind reaching 90mph by evening. It sank so fast some believe the engines were still running and the prop still rotating – possibly explaining how the prop blades were sheared off the hub by the lake bed.
The only recovered items were a six foot bow section of a lifeboat, a second lifeboat and one PVD. On 7/4/99, the ships bell was retrieved from the wreck site in about 530 feet of water and is currently on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Edmund Fitzgerald now lays split in two on the lake bed about 170 feet apart, with the bow section upright and the aft end of the ship upside down. No dives are permitted at the site. The ship will never be raised nor its crew recovered.
http://www.glmi.org/webcast/archive/fitzaudvid.htm
This is a decent site dedicated to the 29 sailors who lost their life that day on Lake Superior.
http://www.ssefo.com/info/timeline.html
The final link is youtube video that is pretty cool, set to the Gordon Lightfoot song, edited by Joseph Fulton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquCHSkmUek
Every year I look forward to early November to tell the story and the children listen like it is being told for the first time. I still get goose bumps thinking of that day, riding my stingray carrying my paper bag over my shoulder and stopping to read a little more of the story with every paper I delivered. I remember thinking that 29 fathers wouldn’t be coming home to their families and how glad I was that mine was. It is strange how a distant event, where I knew nobody can leave such a mark.
Say a prayer for the crew and their families and hug your kids. You never know when you won’t be coming home.
I don’t know what attracted me to the story that day. Maybe it was my family’s history and stories of service in the navy, or that I was always fascinated with boats and large ships, but I remember being drawn to the story that day like a magnet.
I had nearly forgotten about the sinking when about a year or so later a Gordon Lightfoot song came out and I heard it for the first time. I remember liking something about the song but didn’t pay too much to the lyrics. In later years, I figured out that the song was about the Edmund Fitzgerald, I recalled delivering newspapers and being captivated by the story that fall day.
Years past and I forgot all about the wreck. About three years ago, I was reading books and telling stories with my children, when my son asked me to tell him a story about a big boat. They were tired of all those Grady White boat and fishing stories and I needed to come up with something fast. I’ll never know how the story came back so vividly and I told what I remembered that night. The two boys and my youngest daughter were unusually quiet and attentive and asked a lot of questions before going to bed.
The next night, after coming home from work, I grabbed the three of them and we searched the net together. We found some great sites, the lyrics and the music to the song and we got to explore the story of the iron boat named the Edmund Fitzgerald all over again.
This is the best site that I’ve located regarding the building of the ship. It seems unbelievable that one of the largest freighters, built 50 years ago this year by the way, could be almost 730 feet long, over 75 feet abeam and drew 39 feet of water at a cost of $8.5M. She would be a dingy as well as a bargain by the standards of today….
http://www.glmi.org/fitz/
This is a nice little film. Fast forward to 3 minutes into it and watch the next minute or so. It shows the Fitz being side launched. Notice the people on the deck of the ship at launch, it must have been quite an experience when it bobbed like a cork until she settling in the water.
http://www.glmi.org/webcast/archive/fitzvidnoaud.htm
This film details the ships history from launch to wreck and has audio between a ship that was following her and shore just after she was lost. There is also video of her sitting on the lake bed. It is believed that several of the iron ore hatches were breached during the storm and water flooded in on top of the 26,200 tons of iron bound for Detroit for the automobile industry. From what I have read, the ship likely filled quickly with water and the crew never had a chance to abandon ship. It likely sank like a brick in the seas that had built from 10 feet to over 25 feet with wind reaching 90mph by evening. It sank so fast some believe the engines were still running and the prop still rotating – possibly explaining how the prop blades were sheared off the hub by the lake bed.
The only recovered items were a six foot bow section of a lifeboat, a second lifeboat and one PVD. On 7/4/99, the ships bell was retrieved from the wreck site in about 530 feet of water and is currently on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Edmund Fitzgerald now lays split in two on the lake bed about 170 feet apart, with the bow section upright and the aft end of the ship upside down. No dives are permitted at the site. The ship will never be raised nor its crew recovered.
http://www.glmi.org/webcast/archive/fitzaudvid.htm
This is a decent site dedicated to the 29 sailors who lost their life that day on Lake Superior.
http://www.ssefo.com/info/timeline.html
The final link is youtube video that is pretty cool, set to the Gordon Lightfoot song, edited by Joseph Fulton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquCHSkmUek
Every year I look forward to early November to tell the story and the children listen like it is being told for the first time. I still get goose bumps thinking of that day, riding my stingray carrying my paper bag over my shoulder and stopping to read a little more of the story with every paper I delivered. I remember thinking that 29 fathers wouldn’t be coming home to their families and how glad I was that mine was. It is strange how a distant event, where I knew nobody can leave such a mark.
Say a prayer for the crew and their families and hug your kids. You never know when you won’t be coming home.
