Sail On...Always an eerie anniversary

One of the events in history that has always fascinated me more than most others, has its 35th Anniversary today.....the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. In addition to being one of the best, and most haunting, songs ever written-----it is one of the strangest, saddest, and most mysterious shipwrecks and newsworthy events in general over last the 100 years. I will not go into detail about it here, plenty to find on Wikipedia alone....but if anyone wants to talk or comment feel free.

Growing up on the Great Lakes, its funny how this ship and story and crew will never be forgotten and it appears the way the sinking took place will never truly be solved. Take time to read about it if your not aware, and maybe listen to Gordon Lightfoots (somewhat)historial account of the accident. Sail on Fitz....sail on crew.

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Comments

BStayer

I was thinking of this last night. It is indeed a very sad story, yet some how, still very mysterious and enveloping. Gordon Lightfoot's song fits the mood flawlessly and is a very nice tribute to the men. Here's his song with some actual footage of the Edmund Fitzgerald including a news brief about the sinking of the ship.

I've grown up in Ohio, and I never heard of this story still I had a beer (I know, everything I do is beer). The beer is brewed by the Great Lakes Brewing Co. and they named it in honor of this ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald. I was thinking of stopping and picking up a six pack of it on the way home in remembrance of this sobering event. May the crew Rest In Peace at the bottom of Lake Superior.

kuzi16

ive been to the lighthouse, museum and surrounding beach on whitefish point many times. very interesting stuff

Hays

(completely unrelated) Hey Brian! You're NOT dead! What's goin on???

JohnnySlickster

I just wiki'd the fitz and have to say its a cool story...also heard the song by Gordon Lightfoot.

question though: what is exactly the "mystery" that surrounds its sinking? was there weird going's on or something? or was it just a storm...doesn't seem that mysterious

laker1963

JohnnySlickster:
I just wiki'd the fitz and have to say its a cool story...also heard the song by Gordon Lightfoot.

question though: what is exactly the "mystery" that surrounds its sinking? was there weird going's on or something? or was it just a storm...doesn't seem that mysterious

The Great Lakes are famous for having Ocean size storms that can whip up from nowhere with almost no notice. The speculation is that the Fitz. got caught in one of these storms and the hatches were either not secured or got ripped off during one of these storms. They were never able to confirm which.

I believe it was carrying iron balls if I'm not mistaken.

I lived in Ontario at the time this happened. It was a big story for a ling time. The Gordon Lightfoots song immortilized this event.

Vulchor

Laker is right. There are a few mysteries of oddities to the sinking. As Laker stated, the weather was reportedly average for the time of year and (I dont think) any other ships near had any issues that night. Additionally, (unlike the songs says) there was never any distress calls or any notice of bad weather. Everything appeared ordinary...until it wasnt. The sinking itself is also a mystery because of the distance and different placement on the lakes floor. No way to know if it broke apart (most likely), of took and water and sunk and snapped in the process or what. Crazy places for ships as Laker said as well....the SS Cypress is another story kind of forgotten about up there, but about interesting.

Dustin1981

Crazy that this was brought up. I was just reading an article about the crewman Bruce Hudson, from about 10 minutes from me in North Olmsted Ohio, and his 1974 Challenger that was waiting on the dock for him to drive to California when they docked.

BStayer

Actually, the weather that night was terrible. In fact, the weather that day is still considered some of the worst that area has seen. There were reports of wind gusts up to 90 mph that day with 25 ft. swells on the lake. While that day started out perfectly calm, it quickly turned sour once the ship left port. You can read about it here, here, and here. You can also read about it here. While it's wiki, it contains similar facts as the other sources.

It's known that the storm caused the difficulties, but no one knows with certainty exactly what caused the ship to sink. There are several theories including the leaking hatchways; some think (since the ship is in 2 pieces on the lake floor) that it was caught up on 2 swells, one on each end of the ship, causing too much stress for the middle of the ship to support and then causing it to break up. There are other theories as well, but I can't recall them off the top of my head. Either way, adding to the mysteries is that the last transmission from the Mighty Fitz was from the capt. when he said, "We're holding our own."

BStayer

Hays:
(completely unrelated) Hey Brian! You're NOT dead! What's goin on???

PM Sent

Vulchor

Thanks Stayer, I stand corrected as to the change in weather. Still quite a mystery is right, but I also wanted to remind people that while the song is great----there are several historically added events as well ]......ie the Capt talking to the crew about going down. Still great song and story, but just a disclaimer that not evertything in the words of the tune is accurate historically. Good day all.

Vulchor

So I regretfully missed this by a week or so this year, but figured I would bump it back to everyone again on here. Some new people who may want to read or learn, or some others of us who may just want to remember. I think Ill just leave it at that.

wwestern

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A