The SS
Edmund Fitzgerald, nicknamed the “Mighty Fitz” by many, was an American Great
Lakes freighter that became legendary after sinking in a Lake Superior storm on
November 10, 1975; all was lost, including the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 8, 1958, she became the
largest ship on North America’s Great Lakes, and sadly she remains the largest
boat to have sunk in those “ice water mansions”.
Also known as the “Fitz”, or “Big Fitz”,
the ship suffered a series of mishaps during her initial launch into the lake:
it took three tries to break the champagne bottle used to christen her, and she
collided with a nearby pier when she entered the water.
Fitz was
carrying a full cargo of ore pellets when she embarked on her final voyage from
Superior, Wisconsin (near Duluth, Minnesota), on the afternoon of November 9,
1975. Her planned route was charted for
a steel mill near Detroit, Michigan. The
next day she was caught in the midst of a massive winter storm on Lake
Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves peaking at 35 feet (11 m) or
more. Just after 7:10 p.m. the Mighty
Fitz suddenly sank 530 feet (160 m) beneath the Canadian waters, approximately
17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay.
The Fitz had reported being in difficulty earlier that day but no distress
signals were sent before she sank.
Theories and studies abound
offering explanations or causes for the sinking. It’s been theorized that the Edmund
Fitzgerald could have fallen victim to the high waves of the storm, suffered
structural failure, been swamped with water entering through her cargo hatches
or deck, experienced topside damage, or shoaled in a shallow part of the Lake.
A May 4,
1978 report by the U.S. Coast Guard blamed the crew for the disaster of 1975,
concluding they failed to fasten the hatches properly.
On the
other hand it’s important to be aware that the maritime community has always
struggled with the notion that the Fitzgerald’s seasoned crew would be that careless even-though they were well aware of the fierce weather conditions noted for Lake
Superior and the other Great Lakes; that fact being doubly so in November.
In any
event, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains one of the best-known
disasters in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Singer / Song Writer Gordon
Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” after reading a Newsweek
Magazine article about the tragedy.
Lightfoot wrote the ballad
as a tribute to the ship, the sea, and the men who lost their lives that night.
When recently asked what he thought his most significant contribution to music
was, he said it was this song, which he often refers to as “The Wreck”. Regardless
of its unlikely subject matter, the song climbed to #2 on the Billboard pop
charts and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
remains one the most moving contemporary ballads ever written and is the highlight
of nearly every Lightfoot concert.
The 2010 episode
“Edmund Fitzgerald” of the television
series Dive Detectives, which is easily the most popular historically based
events TV show in Canada, featured the results of a wave-generating tank’s
simulation of the effect of a theoretical “rogue wave” and how it would have affected
the Mighty Fitz when imputing the known weather conditions of that tragic 1975 November
evening; a scale model of the Mighty Fitz was used in the simulation.
The results
indicated that such a rogue wave would most definitely be ‘formed’ with a height
of as much as 56 feet (17 meters); further it nearly submerged the bow or stern
of the ship with water, at least temporarily.
The long and short of the simulation appears to be that if the Dive Detectives story is right, the ship
was in fact sunk by a rogue wave which is best described as a massive wall of water that can
reach up to 10 stories’s high; however until recently such events were dismissed as a
sailors’ myth and once thought to only occur in turbulent oceans.
Further,
the simulation suggested the ship was particularly susceptible to the impact of
large waves due to the 26,000 tons of iron ore it was carrying; the ship was
known to be in less than pristine condition, in fact it was due to go into dry-dock
for repairs.
Admittedly Lightfoot used his “poetic License” when writing the
legendary song but in 2010 when Lightfoot was approached by Dive Detectives requesting permission to
use the song as the episode’s soundtrack; he became convinced by the evidence
presented that he should remove the implication that human error played a part
in the 1975 Lake Superior shipwreck.
One spokesperson reported that “He’s
not re-recording the song, but he has already changed a line for live
performances,” further the spokesperson
said “He was pretty impressed by what he saw in the film, new evidence that
unsecured hatch covers didn't cause the ship to sink.”
The traditional verse goes: “When
supper time came the old cook came on deck /Saying ‘Fellows it’s too rough to
feed ya’ / at 7 p.m. a main hatchway caved in /He said, ‘Fellas it’s been good
to know ya.”
Lightfoot changed to the lyrics to:
“When supper time came the old cook came on deck /Saying ‘Fellows it’s too
rough to feed ya’ / at 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then/He said, ‘Fellas it's
been good to know ya’.”
In an attempt to provide you with the ability to listen to and view both versions for free (made possible by You-Tube) click on these 2 links:s:
Sources: http://www.gordonlightfoot.com/wreckoftheedmundfitzgerald.shtml
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1024910/pg1
http://www.uscg.mil/history/WEBSHIPWRECKS/EdmundFitzgeraldNTSBReport.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1024910/pg1
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/article/785274--gordon-lightfoot-changes-edmund-fitzgerald-lyrics
file:///C:/Users/Eyetech-3/Pictures/bell.htm
I liked that song.
ReplyDeleteDo you like it still?
ReplyDeleteStill do.
ReplyDelete