Edmund Fitzgerald

[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:

[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?