Edmund Fitzgerald

[Elhuero]

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 Wisconsin
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 waves turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put 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.

[CrufflerSteve]

As long as you have the tune, you can sing these lyrics written by a rather controversial Irishman, Bobby Sands. A local band, based in Golden, The Indulgers, has been known to perform this. (You should check them out.)

Back Home In Derry

n 1803 we sailed out to sea
Out from the sweet town of Derry
For Australia bound if we didn’t all drown
And the marks of our fetters we carried.

In the rusty iron chains we sighed for our wains
As our good wives we left in sorrow.
As the mainsails unfurled our curses we hurled
On the English and thoughts of tomorrow.

Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.
Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.

I cursed them to hell as our bow fought the swell.
Our ship danced like a moth in the firelights.
White horses rode high as the devil passed by
Taking souls to Hades by twilight.

Five weeks out to sea we were now forty-three
Our comrades we buried each morning.
In our own slime we were lost in a time.
Endless night without dawning.

Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.
Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.

Van Dieman’s land is a hell for a man
To live out his life in slavery.
When the climate is raw and the gun makes the law.
Neither wind nor rain cares for bravery.

Twenty years have gone by and I’ve ended me bond
And comrades’ ghosts are behind me.
A rebel I came and I’ll die the same.
On the cold winds of night you will find me

Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.
Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.

[ronaldrwl]

Is today the anniversary or something?

[steveopia]

I'm at work so I can't see if this video is a good one or not.

lvKGz4s3kuU

[SNAFU]

While not having gone down at sea,this has gone down in history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuoSuo-7wL0&feature=related

RIP Bobby Sands,,Armhag H Block

[cebeu]

"...The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead...."

Most folks have no base-line to understand how hard-core Lake Superior really is, phenomenal geography but...she'll "rip your tits off."

[SAnd]

Is today the anniversary or something?
Sank on November 10, 1975.

I saw it when they were loading it for that last voyage.

RIP

[Irving]

Most folks have no base-line to understand how hard-core Lake Superior really is, phenomenal geography but...she'll "rip your tits off."

That's what I was thinking, "Must be one wicked lake."

[SAnd]

Most folks have no base-line to understand how hard-core Lake Superior really is, phenomenal geography but...she'll "rip your tits off."
Under the right conditions the ice heaves and cracks. It makes a truly awesome sound that is hard to describe.

[cebeu]

Under the right conditions the ice heaves and cracks. It makes a truly awesome sound that is hard to describe.

I have heard that on Superior, and I spent a lot of years living 2 blocks off the Lake Michigan shore-line. Not as much ice of course but...still "plenty-o-crackin'". ;)

I don't even know how to describe this and I can't do it justice in the time I have at the moment but in brief, I rented a remote cabin ~5-6 years ago off-the-beaten path far up the North Shore. The cabin was maybe 15' away from the shore-line and maybe 15' - 20' above the water, a very narrow band of physical distance between the lake surface and the human being (me and a chic).

Dead of night and a storm flares-up, or maybe "materializes out of nowhere" is a better way to say it, it just sort of "morphed and evolved" and swallowed-up everything in its enormity and violence in a seconds time but...it was above the lake and below my body position, a massive, violent, Hellish storm maybe only 10' - 12' thick. The deafening sound and volume of electrical discharge is not even something I can translate in-writing (ya' had to be there) and the brutality of the lake water churn and wave action was mind-bending in magnitude. All this chaos, yet below me, and sandwiched in this narrow, compressed space, just breath-taking, I was in awe. And amidst all this, barely a wisp of wind hit me where I was perched on the cliff watching all this this unfold, literally just feet away, as if a glass barrier was in-place.

I've been through OK & TX tornado's, FL hurricanes, cyclones in the Far East etc. but damn...this was one of the most violent, strange and in-my-face experiences I've ever had with momma nature...doubt I'll ever see anything like it again in my life-time.

Anyway, I toss that out there because during all this I remember seeing lights on a few great lakes freighters out on the dark horizon, off in the distance, just doing their thing and all I could think of was holy f***, these cats literally live-n-die with this shit, you couldn't pay me enough to do that more than once (I couldn't afford to keep buying underwear) and yeah...the Edmund Fitzgerald rattled thru my brain. To even think about what that ship and crew must have endured on that fateful night to take her down...man…my head would have exploded.

Lake Superior...yup...she’s one tough, deep and really cold bitch but...just fucking beautiful to sail if you have skipper worth his salt.

[Lochinver]

I've always had an affinity for the Edmund Fitzgerald. I was 3 and in Minnesota when she went down. Lightfoot's song was one of the first songs I remember from back then.


Fair winds and following seas.......

[Anton]

Really good tune. I enjoy songs that tell stories.

[Paladin]

I have heard that on Superior, and I spent a lot of years living 2 blocks off the Lake Michigan shore-line. Not as much ice of course but...still "plenty-o-crackin'". ;)

I don't even know how to describe this and I can't do it justice in the time I have at the moment but in brief, I rented a remote cabin ~5-6 years ago off-the-beaten path far up the North Shore. The cabin was maybe 15' away from the shore-line and maybe 15' - 20' above the water, a very narrow band of physical distance between the lake surface and the human being (me and a chic).

Dead of night and a storm flares-up, or maybe "materializes out of nowhere" is a better way to say it, it just sort of "morphed and evolved" and swallowed-up everything in its enormity and violence in a seconds time but...it was above the lake and below my body position, a massive, violent, Hellish storm maybe only 10' - 12' thick. The deafening sound and volume of electrical discharge is not even something I can translate in-writing (ya' had to be there) and the brutality of the lake water churn and wave action was mind-bending in magnitude. All this chaos, yet below me, and sandwiched in this narrow, compressed space, just breath-taking, I was in awe. And amidst all this, barely a wisp of wind hit me where I was perched on the cliff watching all this this unfold, literally just feet away, as if a glass barrier was in-place.

I've been through OK & TX tornado's, FL hurricanes, cyclones in the Far East etc. but damn...this was one of the most violent, strange and in-my-face experiences I've ever had with momma nature...doubt I'll ever see anything like it again in my life-time.

Anyway, I toss that out there because during all this I remember seeing lights on a few great lakes freighters out on the dark horizon, off in the distance, just doing their thing and all I could think of was holy f***, these cats literally live-n-die with this shit, you couldn't pay me enough to do that more than once (I couldn't afford to keep buying underwear) and yeah...the Edmund Fitzgerald rattled thru my brain. To even think about what that ship and crew must have endured on that fateful night to take her down...man…my head would have exploded.

Lake Superior...yup...she’s one tough, deep and really cold bitch but...just fucking beautiful to sail if you have skipper worth his salt.

So, how was the fishin'?

Dave

[Elhuero]

I can't find it now, but when I was reading about the fitz yesterday I saw something that basically said that the storms on Superior had humbled seasoned blue water captains.

To me that is amazing, having heard some of the stories told by my father from his days in the navy.

[Irving]

Man, no wonder people from other states come here and make fun of our lakes. I want to see that lake storm.

[Troublco]

Most folks have no base-line to understand how hard-core Lake Superior really is, phenomenal geography but...she'll "rip your tits off."


That's what I was thinking, "Must be one wicked lake."

I've heard that folks that have dealt with some of those famous (infamous?) North Atlantic storms prefer the North Atlantic storms to those on Lake Superior. That's pretty hardcore.

[BPTactical]

I recall watching a show about the Fitz and they theorized that her radar went out and got off course and she went over a shoal that only gave 5' of draft in calm waters. She bottomed out on it in the rough and down she went. They also had a theory on the cargo hatches coming loose or something similar.

[SNAFU]

I recall watching a show about the Fitz and they theorized that her radar went out and got off course and she went over a shoal that only gave 5' of draft in calm waters. She bottomed out on it in the rough and down she went. They also had a theory on the cargo hatches coming loose or something similar.

Theories,,,then there is the one she got caught in a trough. Between to rouge waves,being loaded with ore,it broke her keel.

We'll never know,what we do know she died on the USMC birthday,,10 November.
As for Noreaster storms,,they can be brutal. Just like the storms around Buffalo,or Ft Drum.

[Zundfolge]

Heh ... I feel a little dumb now ... for some reason I expected this thread to be about the creator of this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_abaJ0xbRju4/SwLIZDToZjI/AAAAAAAACEI/5gL2eFfI160/s400/FITZ+Special.jpg

[Anton]

Heh ... I feel a little dumb now ... for some reason I expected this thread to be about the creator of this:



The inventor of the trigger guard that doesn't guard the trigger?

[Bailey Guns]

While not having gone down at sea,this has gone down in history

For a minute there I thought you were referring to Monica Lewinsky.

[cebeu]

The EDMUND FITZGERALD, Beyond the MYSTERY, a STRENGTHENING FAITH (http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/12/the-edmund-fitzgerald-beyond-the-mystery-a-strengthening-faith/?test=latestnews)

November 12, 2010 - 11:21 AM | by: Lauren Green (http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/author/lgreen/)

[MichiganMilitia]

Well, growing up in Michigan, I do know a bit of history here...

The real difference between the Great Lakes and the oceans is the wavelength: Ocean waves can easily be 60 feet high, but are commonly hundreds of feet long, sometimes as much as 1000 feet long. The Lakes can produce waves 35 feet high in rough seas, but they are almost never any longer than 200 feet.

As for the Edmund Fitzgerald, I was taught that the ship (which was over 700 feet long) got caught with a large wave at each end as SNAFU said and the keel could not support the full load of iron ore and promptly broke in half and sank in over 500 feet of water in less than 10 minutes.

I lived about 25 minutes from Lake Michigan (and I loved it) but Lake Superior is a very different animal. I swam in Lake superior when I was a kid in early April and it was so cold that my dad had to pull me out because I was losing muscle control due to the very cold water. A lot of people don't realize how big the Great Lakes are, especially Lake Superior..

[Bongo Boy]

Under the right conditions the ice heaves and cracks. It makes a truly awesome sound that is hard to describe.I've heard this on Lake Huron many times. It's either 'cool' 'eerie' or 'sickening', depending on how close you are, I guess.