# It's Edmund Fitzgerald Day **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205 "2015-11-10T16:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/21 "2015-11-10T21:47:54Z")
[Gordon Lightfoot on the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck: ‘I didn’t want it to be forgotten’](http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/gordon-lightfoot-on-the-edmund-fitzgerald-wreck-i-didnt-want-it-to-be-forgotten-b99610549z1-343055572.html) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/22 "2015-11-10T21:49:11Z")
Stay [thirsty](https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/sites/default/files/Ed%20Fitz%20Sell%20Sheet.pdf) my friends. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/23 "2015-11-10T22:04:18Z")
I was in a meeting room room in the Ren Center this morning with an great view of the Freighters on the Detroit river and the Mariner’s church. Took a couple minutes to watch, but I wish I had remembered about this today :(. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/24 "2015-11-10T22:16:36Z")
The first time I heard the song I didn’t know it was about a real ship. I thought it was a folk song about the dangers of sailing. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/25 "2015-11-10T22:25:46Z")
This is another Youtube version of the song. It has photos and video of the Edmund Fitzgerald itself, underwater film of the wreck, and photos and names of all the crew. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hgI8bta-7aw/hqdefault.jpg "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/26 "2015-11-11T00:33:21Z")
It was somewhere around this moment now, 40 years ago today, that Edmund Fitzgerald sank. I did not know any of those men, nor do I have any personal connection to them, but their memories live in all of us who have heard their story, and it is through us that their memory shall be immortal. We can only imagine what your final moments must have been like, gentlemen. We salute you for the bravery you must have exhibited in the face of a fear we hope we shall never know. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/27 "2015-11-11T01:17:20Z")
Wasn’t one body found near the wreck in 2012? Was any effort made to recover it or identify it as a crew member (or not)? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/28 "2015-11-11T01:22:40Z")
The bell has been rung. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/29 "2015-11-11T02:31:02Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I’ll be ringing my old schoolhouse bell on the shore of Lake Michigan this evening to mark the occasion. 29 times for the Edmund Fitz. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I ring the bell for her too. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The bell has been rung. Is this something you do on your own or is this a formal ceremony? If the former, how’d you end up with your old schoolhouse bell? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/30 "2015-11-11T04:17:34Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > The Cleveland Science Museum down on the Lakefront has a Iron boat docked and avaialble for tours. Trivia: The song says Cleveland, but the ship’s actual destination was Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/31 "2015-11-11T05:33:49Z")
There is, in the local history museum, a display devoted to the Edmund Fitzgerald. The display contains a letter or report or maybe a newspaper article (sorry, I don’t remember which) that indicated the Fitz had been banned from sailing until certain repairs were made. She was, however, allowed to finish out the season, and we all know how that ended. I need to go back to the museum and get the details. My initial reaction to the info was to wonder who made the decision to gamble the crew’s lives against the profit from one more trip. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/32 "2015-11-11T08:41:30Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#): > > Thank you for that. > Little realized how dangerous these Great Lakes can be. Yes. I well remember many adventures with my buddy on his 26-foot sailboat on Lake Ontario. We could leave the harbour in calm weather, and return that afternoon in six-foot waves. Nothing that would bother the Lakers like the _Fitzgerald_ of course, but to us in a sailboat, it was a little hair-raising. The Lakes are dangerous, no doubt. If you’re heading out on them, you take heed of the weather forecast. Unpleasant things can happen fast. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/33 "2015-11-11T08:48:13Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Trivia: The song says Cleveland, but the ship’s actual destination was Detroit. Yes, she was heading for Detroit, to deliver her cargo of iron ore, then on to Cleveland for the winter. So although the cargo was for Detroit, the final destination was to be Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/34 "2015-11-11T12:07:06Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > [Gordon Lightfoot on the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck: ‘I didn’t want it to be forgotten’](http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/gordon-lightfoot-on-the-edmund-fitzgerald-wreck-i-didnt-want-it-to-be-forgotten-b99610549z1-343055572.html) It is a great thing Gordon Lightfoot did, so that we all may remember the twenty-nine men of the Edmund Fitzgerald. > [@Spiderman](#): > > Stay [thirsty](https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/sites/default/files/Ed%20Fitz%20Sell%20Sheet.pdf) my friends. I initially thought this to be in poor taste. Not your post, **Spiderman** , but the brewery’s putting an image of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the bottle and calling it Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Yes their website says they brew this with great respect for the memory of the twenty nine men. I then found this article which says they got permission from their families, whatever that means: > **[Great Lakes Brewing reflects on the excellent Edmund Fitzgerald Porter](https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/beer-of-the-month/great-lakes-brewing-talks-about-the-edmund-fitzgerald-porter/)** > > Luke Purcell, brewer and field sales quality specialist for Great Lakes Brewing Company, discusses the elaborate taste of the Edmund Fitzgerald porter. > [@](#): > > "With permission from their families, we honored the deceased and the ship’s memory with the name,” explained Luke Purcell, brewer and field sales quality specialist. Maybe that makes me feel a little better about it, but still it isn’t in good taste (although from the article the porter apparently is quite good). Maybe I’m being too sensitive. **Spiderman** , what are your thoughts? What do others think? > [@Whatever4](#): > > There is, in the local history museum, a display devoted to the Edmund Fitzgerald. The display contains a letter or report or maybe a newspaper article (sorry, I don’t remember which) that indicated the Fitz had been banned from sailing until certain repairs were made. She was, however, allowed to finish out the season, and we all know how that ended. What is that museum? > [@Baker](#): > > This is another Youtube version of the song. It has photos and video of the Edmund Fitzgerald itself, underwater film of the wreck, and photos and names of all the crew. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw) This was powerful. Thanks for sharing this link, **Baker**. _**The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called “Gitche Gumee.” “Superior,” they said, “never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early!”.**_ ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/35 "2015-11-11T13:18:27Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Is this something you do on your own or is this a formal ceremony? > If the former, how’d you end up with your old schoolhouse bell? It was just me, the Mrs, our cat and dog. As for the bell: When one’s family has been on the same property for well over a century, a lot of stuff accumulates. It was my dad’s schoolhouse bell, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/36 "2015-11-11T14:46:37Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I initially thought this to be in poor taste. Not your post, **Spiderman** , but the brewery’s putting an image of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the bottle and calling it Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. \ > Maybe I’m being too sensitive. **Spiderman** , what are your thoughts? Offhand, I know the name of three wrecks, Titanic, Edmund Fitzgerald, & El Faro, probably only because it was so recent - & the deplorable actions of the owners, which probably deserves it’s own Pit thread (they sued the grieving families less than one month after it was lost to preemptively prevent having possible payouts if thes were sued) The Titanic - between the number or people lost, & who many of the first class passengers were, coupled with it’s ‘unsinkable’ claims is obvious why we remember it. As for the Edmund Fitzgerald, I’m not so sure why it’s so famous. It wasn’t even the worst wreck on that lake. Is it because Gordon Lightfoot sang a song about it? No matter what, the Great Lakes Brewery, for whatever their reason (probably because it’s a famous event tied to their name) wanted to remember the Edmund Fitzgerald. I could see where some would say that’s in bad taste, but if they got permission from the surviving family members & it promotes some others learning about it’s fate I don’t think it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/37 "2015-11-11T15:00:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **The Stainless Steel Rat** : > > The Cleveland Science Museum down on the Lakefront has a Iron boat docked and avaialble for tours. Unfortunately, the Mather closes for the season at the end of October. Though for next year, I might be able to talk some people into opening it for one day on the Fitzgerald anniversary, especially with the way our falls have been getting warmer and winter later. And as a nitpick, the Mather carried all sorts of bulk cargoes, not just iron ore: It could also be coal, or grain, or limestone, or a variety of other possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/38 "2015-11-11T15:11:45Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > As for the Edmund Fitzgerald, I’m not so sure why it’s so famous. It wasn’t even the worst wreck on that lake. Wiki articles says the Fitzgerald was the largest ship ever wrecked on the Great Lakes. > **[SS Edmund Fitzgerald](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald)** > > SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there. She was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces. > For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried ... > [@](#): > > Is it because Gordon Lightfoot sang a song about it? I think so, yes. It’s such a great song and captures the event so well, both in the lyrics and the amazing guitar riffs. I doubt that anyone but marine buffs would know about the Fitz forty years on, if it weren’t for Lightfoot. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/39 "2015-11-11T16:00:15Z")
El Faro’s flag port was San Juan, though her home base was Jacksonville. Lightfoot’s song and the line that starts this thread ran through my head when we first got the news that she was missing for more than a day… (BTW the local reaction was pitiful, people were more worried about store shelf stock :mad: ) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205/40 "2015-11-11T16:12:57Z")
As an aside, Paul Gross wanted to use the song for an episode of _Due South_ that took place on a Great Lakes freighter, but Gordon Lightfoot wouldn’t license the song for him to use unless he got permission from all of the families of the sailors first. Paul spoke to a mother of one of the sailors, and after that decided he didn’t want to put the rest of the families through undue stress by bringing up the topic. Instead he wrote a song based on a fictionalized Great Lakes shipwreck called [32 Down On The Robert Mackenzie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLEr-agYEdA) and used that instead. Sort of interesting how you can end up with one-or-two steps removed fictionalized works based on or inspired by real events and tragedies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-edmund-fitzgerald-day/737205.md?page=3)