Remembering Edmund
For our nautically-oriented readers. This wouldn’t have been as apropos yesterday, but IMO it works today.
It happened forty-two years and two days ago – 10 November 1975.
Rest in peace, men.
Category: Politics
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That song became a ballad for every ship that has sunk since the beginning of seafaring.
Great tune.
He still performs it and is available on YouTube all over the place live.
GL turns 79 in a few days. The dude cheated the reaper for sure several yrs ago.
He indeed cheated the Grim One – bigtime. Not many people survive a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot#Illness_and_return_to_performing
Holy SHIT! Really? That is absolutely amazing.
I saw him a couple of years ago and his formerly rich voice is a shadow of what it once was, but given what he went through it’s a wonder he can perform at all.
I didn’t think ANYONE survived those. You can be in surgery, ready to repair one and still not survive.
I’ve seen him several times. Most recently, he didn’t perform this song. His voice isn’t what it once was and he can’t hit it like he once did. He’s still better than the vast majority of what is available. He is a true legend.
Every time I hear that song, it really hits me hard. Unfortunately, just a few years ago, it happened again with the cargo ship El Faro taking a crew of 33 to Davey Jones’ locker.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/el-faro-sinking-bahamas-cargo-ship-coast-guard-joaquin/408964/
I know that the ships bell was recovered a few years ago and I think it now is a memorial. Those lakes can be a real bitch. Amazing that a land locked lake can be that rough. RIP crew members.
The sea is a harsh mistress, including navigable inland freshwater.
I remember the plaque my CO had in his stateroom. Found out later that Admiral Rickover gave it to all of the Captains of submarines.
Thy sea, O God, so great,
My boat so small.
Says it all.
There were times when the aircraft carrier I was on felt “so small”! When waves crash over the bow of an aircraft carrier and send a mist over the bridge…you are in ROUGH waters lol
Having grown up in Michigan, I am well familiar with the Great Lakes and the Ore Carriers that sail them. In one season, several years ago, The Great Lakes claimed more tons of shipping than did the Atlantic Ocean in the same time period. I have seen 12 foot waves on Lake Huron, and 10 footers on Lake Erie. They were tall and very close together. The Edmond J. Fitzgerald may have taken a 37 foot wave, broad side during the storm. At launch this was the largest carrier on the lakes. I saw her once, as she went downriver past Marysville, MI.
Lake Michigan got all stirred up by Hurricane Sandy, as did the rest of the Great Lakes. This is one nice video of wave action near the breakwater on Lake Michigan.
I remember seeing the ore boats docking in my hometown from the secluded beach where we would go to drink beer and build bonfires. The Edmund Fitzgerald was before my time and never docked in my area since the local mills had their own fleets of boats, but we all knew the story.
Rest in Piece, sailors.
It’s no secret that the Great lakes can be just as vicious and temperamental as the Oceans and Seas.
I grew up in Michigan and remember the sinking of the Fitz very well.
Calling Lake Superior a ”lake” is a giant misnomer. It’s really a sea. It’s deep and cold. And rough.
Fresh water is not as buoyant as salt water either. By that I mean it is harder to float in fresh water than it is to float in salt water. Lake Champlain is no where near as large as the great lakes but can also be very dangerous to small craft in a storm. Storms come up very fast and you better be prepared to get off the water asap. I have seen some of the great lakes from shore and it blows my mind that you can not see the other side from the USA.
That song brings back an incident from my pre-teen years.
For a while my family was big on churchin’ and we weren’t allowed top cuss. My older sister was sort of a rebel. Any time that song came on she would turn it up so everyone could hear it and walk around with a look on her face like she was challenging my parents.
It turns out she that the song was ”
The wreck of the F’ing Fitzgerald” I I guess she was heartbroken when she found out there was never a ship named Fucking Fitzgerald that sank in the great lakes.