Song keeps alive story of doomed ship
Associated PressPublished November 10, 2005
DETROIT - It's been 30 years since the event that inspired one of the most unlikely Top 40 smashes ever. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was among Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits, a haunting ballad about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier that plunged to the floor of Lake Superior during a nasty storm on Nov. 10, 1975.
Three decades after the tragedy, the Fitzgerald remains the most famous of the 6,000 ships that disappeared on the Great Lakes.
Lightfoot's initial knowledge of the sinking came from an article in Newsweek. Clocking in at 61/2 minutes, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald appeared on the 1976 album Summertime Dream. It spent 21 straight weeks on the charts, reaching No. 2.
"It's kept the men and the memorial to the men alive," said Ruth Hudson, whose son was a deckhand on the Fitzgerald. "I think it's been good for the families," the Ohio woman said. "They have felt comfort in it. I have talked to just about all of them, and I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like the song."
The 14-verse song tells the story of the Fitzgerald's fatal voyage, which began Nov. 9 in Superior, Wis., where it was loaded with 26,116 tons of iron ore for a trip to Detroit.
A day later it was being pounded by 90 mph wind gusts and 30-foot waves.
Ernest McSorley, the ship's captain, radioed a trailing freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson, and said that the Fitzgerald had sustained topside damage and was listing. At 7:10 p.m., he announced, "We are holding our own."
But the ship soon disappeared from radar without issuing an SOS. After a few days, a vessel with sonar was able to locate the Fitzgerald only 15 miles from the safe haven of Whitefish Bay.
Several memorial events are planned to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the sinking, including a ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point and a service at the Mariners' Church of Detroit.
Undoubtedly, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald will be heard and discussed, said Bishop Richard W. Ingalls of the Mariners' Church. "Gordon Lightfoot's song definitely has given it a life that seems not to end."