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  1. #1

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    Default Edmund Fitzgerald

    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.

  2. #2
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    Default

    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.

  3. #3
    Machine Gunner ronaldrwl's Avatar
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    Default

    Is today the anniversary or something?
    http://www.denverresearch.com/Charger/Badge%20Sml.jpgGrandpa's Sheriff Badge, Littleton 1920's

  4. #4
    Gong Shooter steveopia's Avatar
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    Lakewood - Roughly Kipling & 6th
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    Default

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

    Do what you've always done and get what you've always gotten.

  5. #5
    Varmiteer
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    Glenwood Springs,,CO,,Western slope
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    Default

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

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuoSu...eature=related

    RIP Bobby Sands,,Armhag H Block

  6. #6
    Dances with Foxes
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elhuero View Post
    "...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."

  7. #7
    Machine Gunner SAnd's Avatar
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    Default 1975

    Quote Originally Posted by ronaldrwl View Post
    Is today the anniversary or something?
    Sank on November 10, 1975.

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

    RIP

  8. #8
    QUITTER Irving's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by cebeu View Post
    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."
    "There are no finger prints under water."

  9. #9
    Machine Gunner SAnd's Avatar
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    Default You ever heard it in the winter?

    Quote Originally Posted by cebeu View Post
    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.

  10. #10
    Dances with Foxes
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    Quote Originally Posted by SAnd View Post
    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.

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