Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Was on the Ranger from Houghton to Isle Royale. We didn’t leave at the scheduled time. 6-9 foot seas and building they said. Many sick passengers. The dude who was scarfing down his chili when we were in the canal was wearing it on his shirt next time I saw him.

No. Grand Forks. Would shoot a lot of touch & goes at KI,

In the 1980's I served on the Port Washington WI <lake michigan> water safety patrol crew for one summer. Main job was to assist boaters in distress with engine trouble, etc. Tow them in.

Vessel was an old steel 40-foot ex coast guard boat, twin screw diesel. Got a call for a boat ~7 miles out ese of Sheboygan without power. Weather was a nasty north east with 17 foot waves according to skipper.

Out we went ne for several miles. Crew getting beat up pretty good. Skipper decided to abort the attempt as Milwaukee Coast Guard was called to send one their boats.

Skipper assigned me to post next to him and watch our stern for breaking wave that would swamp us. Skipper did a good job riding the back of wave towards port, didn't want to go over and pitch pole, or slide into trough and get swamped.

Even a 40 foot boat on Michigans 17 foot seas seemed tiny. Got into port, storm kept on stormin', an hour or so later The Milwaukee CG boat pulled into port. Guys had a rough ride. The Sheboygan boat fixed their power issue and made it into port there.

Even though the Fitz was a huge boat, the big storms on the Great lakes couldn't have been fun for the crews.

Not until you showed up.

That is one cold body of water.

Grand Marais, mid-August, 94 sunny degrees ambient.

Ankle foot deep, was ice water.

And I love the cold.

Love the rhyme scheme of the song.

Do we have any type of song for Chernobyl that we could annoyingly post every year on the anniversary?



Nugget….get to work on it

Maybe a Barney n Friends nuclear meltdown song? Or The Wiggles?

Yup.....hey hey chernobal,,,gimme some slobbin on my knobbin,
ok everyone now one more time...gimme some slobbin on my knobbin..

Oh great. Now I've got that drunk druggy's song stuck in my head at bedtime.

Wabi is a sadomasochist.

When I lived in Minnesota, I've been out in my own SeaRay on Lake Superior, but no far out, because you learn real quick, you are a minnow on a Big LAKE.

I've also driven around Lake Superior in November, all 1200 miles or so... from Duluth, up hwy 61, on the 417 around to the Soo, and back on US 2 to Duluth Again....Think I sang the song to myself, all 1200 miles around it.

Also have taken that trip on my motorcycle I use to have back there, but that was in summertime when the weather wasn't so intimidating.

Its a wonderful trip to make... for those who never have, I'd highly recommend it.

Superior is ONE big Friggin Lake.

It's a miserable story song.

Boxcar Willie bad...

In Wisconsin back in 1975/76, My 7th grade Homeroom teacher was Miss Shelly Fitzgerald... She was a beautiful blond about 21... It was her grandfather the ship was named after... None of us realized it until she told us... The story and the song meant a lot more to us after that... Us boys were all bummed out when she got married and moved away... The girls cried...

I’m a northerner and have seen first hand what Superior, Michigan, and Huron can do. I have family and friends in the commercial fisheries and on the boats.


For my money…Lk St. Clair is far and away the most treacherous. [bleep] that lake

I just spent another week up in the UP and down to Traverse City, St Clair, all around Fishland and everywhere inbetween, hitting the vineries .... every time I go up there someone is playing that song and using Lake Gitche Gumee in one way or another.

I like the edibles and smoked fish I always bring back but ... that damn song, which I've heard a 1000 times since my college days in the 70s, sometimes gets old. It's always been catchy I guess, to some degree, but only-to cucks, drunks, homosexuals and druggies.

We stayed in St Clair this year, downtown AirBnB. Love that place fwiw. Took the cruise.

a buddy I worked with down in Minneapolis, was from Two Harbors. His dad was an exec with one of the Ore companies out of up there.
Arvid worked on those boats as a crewman after High School, before heading to college at the age of 21... ( 1971 ) He had done a few trips on the Fitzgerald. He showed me a lot of pictures he took working on those big ore boats. He was a cook's assistant, but made a lot of money doing it.

He had some pictures that were of interest, of large bull moose swimming out in Lake Superior toward Isle Royale. Moose from the Canadian side, will drop into Lake Superior and swim the 45 miles out to the Island. They spend the summers there and then swim back in the fall to the Ontario Side.
I've been out to Isle Royal hiking and campfire several times, but that was from the Minnesota shore. Its only like 15 miles or so out there from Minnesota... yet like 45 miles from Michigan's UP or the Ontario Side.

The waters on the Great Lakes are both awesome and intimidating., especially Superior, and that is when its just calm. To think of the French Canadian trappers who use to come out that way working for the Hudson's Bay Company. Crossing in those long canoes, made it out there from Montreal. The St Lawrence Seaway from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic is another awesome body of water, for having land on the shores. Its a big river.. much bigger across than the Mississippi. Like 70 plus miles across up on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. Spent a lot of time up there in my younger days, during college and just after, before I went on Active Duty. Another trip that is just awesome.

In the summer of 2021 I spent a great deal of time in downtown Duluth. Used to watch the big ore ships come in, you could get a schedule on arrival times. The new ones are just huge, 1200 feet if my memory serves me right. Beautiful huge lake and beautiful country surrounding it.

I just checked, the biggest ones are 1000 feet.

1000 ft maximum will fit thru the locks.
Seafire—whole lot of Canada closer than 45 miles to Isle Royale.

Probably because LSC is shallow and can get worked up pretty quick.