45 years ago?

For those interested, Frederick Stonehouse's The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald is a very good read.

I'm going to say that there were not many songs ever written, that more people know the words to every verse .

It is one of the greatest songs ever about one of the saddest tales of our great lakes.

I will drink a glass tonight in remembrance of the 29 men that still rest on the dark cold bottem of the great lake .

That's a killer song! Thanks for posting that.

I grew up between Ontario & Erie... mostly spent time on Ontario.

They can be as calm and look like glass... or all hell can break loose.

Lake Superior contains as much water as all the other Great Lakes combined, plus three extra Lake Eries. There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America with water one foot deep.Apr 15, 2020

Are the winds of November coming early?

I am from Down South. Our biggest lake is Lake Lanier. It is man made and it is about 20 miles long.

But I have spent a lot of time driving along Lake Superior, from Duluth and north on the coast road on my way to Ely. Good God that lake is fantastic. You can't see the other side.

Love to stop at those smoked lake trout stores there on the shores, that lake trout is fantastic.

Everyone deserves at least one ride across the Saginaw bridge. It's not as pretty as the Tampa Bay bridge, but Saginaw has the butt pucker factor the whole way across !

Good song but to bad he changed the name to rhyme in the song. I guess it came from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow getting it wrong in Hiawatha. Now everyone says it and spells it wrong.
In the Ojibwe language it's Kitchi- Gami meaning Great Sea

Several days ago we had a commercial fishing tug break loose in the Harbour at Macdiarmid on Lake Nipigon. Boat was tied up too close and in a 50mph wind from the north she broke her lines in the swell. A bunch of us got some lines on her -got her secured and got tire bumpers and extra lines on all the boats. Swell was jumping 5 and 6 feet in the harbour behind 2 break walls.
After the excitement was over we were drinking coffee in my shop when one of the young guys asked me if I had seen it any rougher out.
Yep I have—I was tied up in Caribou Cove on the North side of St Ignace Island in Nipigon Bay the night the ‘Big Fitz’ went down.—Some prairie kid wrote a song about it.

Something else seldom mentioned was the the captians and other crews that were safley in the harbor that went back out into the storm searching for the ship and her crew.

Sadly no sign of them was ever found.

Every year I mention the Fitz . It'll be a 7:20 tonight when she sank .CST . I'm just an old farm boy from Western Missouri and I remember in 3rd grade seeing the news the next day I guess . I want to go up to Duluth , Mn someday and see the iron ships .Especially the Arthur Anderson and the James R Barker . You boys up that way wanna tell me the best time of year to see them ?

I've seen Superior in 1956. and Lake Michigan on the way to a Cubs game in 2018.

Fascinating. Thanks, kkahmann.

ps - Thanks for the earworm, wabi. That song will play in my head for days.

Folks, when Karl posts kkaffman, he knows his stuff, good man!

Severe winter storm warnings today for Bayfield, WI on the West end of Lake Superior by the Apostle Islands. Looks like the Gales are blowing there today! I've lived on/by Lake Michigan all my life and have seen some storms on it and they say Lake Superior storms get worse because the winds out of the West can tear it up! I raise my glass to the memory of the crew!

That's interesting - I was teaching 3rd grade when she went down.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/anchor-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/view/google/%23:~:text%3DOn%2520November%252010%252C%25201975%252C%2520the,docked%2520on%2520the%2520Detroit%2520River.&ved=2ahUKEwi4yZbj8fjsAhXaXc0KHVlcCy4QFjANegQIBRAE&usg=AOvVaw22SBSdMYsWSw_HLBXHynDE


Im on my phone, if someone cares to fix the link above.
Thank you.

Not that day but its kind of cool they found the wreck eventually.

Even more intriguing is the body on the bottom near the wreck that very likely isn't anyone from the Fitzgerald.

My mother was from Stoney Point , New York and she just thought it was a horrible disaster . We watched channel 9 out of Kansas City back then , Larry Moore ! Those iron ships have kinda become a sub-hobby watching YouTube stuff on them . I really want to drive up and see them someday .

Intrigued I surely am. Do you have a link?



P

I have seen the Author Anderson in Conneaut harbor more than once. The speed of those big ships is very deceptive, once they leave a harbor and get direction they can really cover some water.

That crew was hauling iron ore. Ore to make all kinds of things for all of us.

Yep, it ‘is’ a great song. Here’s an alternative version also by Gordon Lightfoot.

Quite a bit of information here from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum...(and don't worry, I'm NOT Kingbutt)

Edmund Fitzgerald

29 glasses?

I've thought about taking a year off and working for free just to be a crew member on one of the iron ships .I realize the legal hassles would be a bit . I could be the housekeeper I reckon .

This is the best Youtube recording, it includes news accounts/recordings/footage from the day, hits home a little more...

Nice weather tonight Grand Marais to Whitefish Point:

N wind 15 to 20 kt becoming SSW 25 to 30 kt after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 40 kt. Showers, mainly before 1am. Waves 3 ft building to 6 ft.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point is worth your time.

405wcf

That's pretty cool from someone that close ! Thank You Sir .

I grew up on the St. Lawrence where the big dry bulkers are common and it’s tricky business indeed to thread a boat that size up or down the River. I can recall as a kid, a couple of occasions seeing thousands of tons of soybeans or taconite pellets unloaded into the River to lighten up a boat to free it from a shoal. I don’t think they’d do that today.

Many from our area worked the boats. My wife’s grandfather had sailed with Earnest McSorley and spoke well of him. One of my close friends was McSorley’s nephew, McSorley being originally from the Ogdensburg area.

Ummmmm, I think you mean the Mackinac bridge?

I'd like to take a cruse through the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River.

Check out American Cruise Lines. They have both.

I've read that you can get someone to drive your vehicle across that bridge . I couldn't do it . I cant drive across the dam at Pomme de Terre down by one of my farms .

I don't. I'd refer back to the Stonehouse book that I mentioned earlier.

The big lake it's said never gives up her dead.

Sooooooooo......................................................................... we need to feed her a WHOLE LOT of Dem./Comms?

I grew up in a port town watching these giant ships, we would fish right next to them as they came in the narrow channel, it was pretty awesome being 20 feet away from them as they went by. I was fascinated with these boats. I remember when My dad told me the Mighty Fitz went down, I was crushed.

My best friends brother was on one of these Great Lakes Freighters (I don't remember the name of it) and lost a life long friend on that ship.

It was a genuinely sad day.

Thanks Wabi.
A good one for sure.

Yes, interesting. I live 100 miles due south of the Lake. We travel to Marquette often in the summer. A Historical Marker on Presque Isle indicates the Lake as being 1300 feet deep, 45 degrees median water temp, and takes a drop of water that enters the Lake on the western side 200 years to exit on the eastern. Some of the oldest rock found in the world is located on the south shore.
I was running electrical wire in our then new home when I heard the news on the radio.

This may tide you over till you get there in person

https://www.duluthharborcam.com/

I was teaching down in the Detroit , remember it well.
16 years ago we went to White Fish Bay point in Feb, temps were around -6 with a strong North wind coming off Superior.
It was very sobering, we were there by our selves, waves crashing on the shore, and knowing just a few miles away lie the wreck.
Love the song.

Happened right about now!

Very sad, i was 20 when it happened, the song Lightfoot wrote is very poignant.

If you've got some time to kill, this is a fantastic documentary on it. 48 minutes

We sometimes live on the St Clair river on Harsens island. The ships pass by very close to our seawall. we can feel and hear the rumbling coming up through the floor shaking enough wake me sometimes when a tug and barge come by at night. The Lakers are so well lit that they light up the whole house at night even with the drapes shut. The river is about 1500-2000 feet wide between our seawall and the Walpole Indian reservation on the Canadian side. The ships usually pass about 250 to 500 feet out. Sometimes they are two wide in that space. Then they'e even closer. The dredged drop off is only about 120 feet out where we are. Its amazing how close they look. Yesterday the old lady of the fleet came by for her first upbound daylight pass aince a rehab this summer. The 1948 built Lee Tragurtha Still cutting a low wake and looking good. I tried to put a picture of her up but its too big. appropriate.

There were a lot of up-bound ships making runs in the good weather the last few days. Chicago has 70 mph gusts winds tonight we were told. Its going to get nasty out on the lakes. But it would take a lot more to cause one to sink these days. For one thing, the Fitz would have ducked in with todays satellite weather forecasting. I don't see proof of some mystery corpse which doesn't belong. As I understood it only 1 body was located unintentionally and he appeared dressed to be a crewman and therefore belonged there. Families got upset so no more pics of deceased crew allowed.

Lifelong coastal residents know that the Great Lakes, at least the upper 3 are not to be scoffed at. While my experience is far from a seasoned freighter captain I can say without a doubt that sometimes you will look back on your time on these waters and be thankful that you are home safe with your family. As with anything, there are risks but for sure Huron and especially Superior will undoubtedly reveal your insignificance if you drop your guard if even for a moment.

nice news piece from 5 yrs ago...

"It's islands, and bays are for sportsmens".

Sad day that day. We lost a couple of surfers here trying to catch some truly big waves here on Lake Michigan. Windchills alone should've killed em. Seas here were 20+ feet.

The Big Fitz had it rough. Tough way to die, drowning in cold dark seas, in a blizzard gale. She was a big 700+ footer downbound after picking up a load of ore in Duluth/Superior. The storm came up fast and she was making full steam. She tried heading for the lee of the north shore, even trying to duck behind Isle Royale, but the winds shifted and she was caught in the fetch of the lake. 20' seas up to 35 footers in an 85mph wind. Lost a couple hatch covers, railing, and both radars. She was sailing blind. She asked the Anderson to be her "eyes". The Anderson was ahead of her about 10 miles, but lost the Fitz on radar about 7pm. The Anderson couldn't raise the USCG for an hour and the Fitz wasn't reported missing for 2 hours because they thought it just lost comms. The Soo locks were closed because the storm, many nav lights were out because of the storm, and radio was sketchy at best. A USCG plane was dispatched from USCG Station Traverse City followed by one of their SAR Seaguard helos, but they didn't get there until 3 hours after they lost contact with the Fitz. No one can survive in that water that long.

Most likely she went down fast with all hands. There was no distress signal. The hero's are the crew of the Anderson. They had made safe harbor when the USCG asked them to turn around and go back out, directly into the gale. Captain Cooper didn't hesitate. The winds came down the full fetch of the lake from NW to SE and it was in the SE part that she went down in 500fow. The waves had the whole lake, 200+ miles to build. Anderson's crew knew this and knew most likely that the Fitz went down. Damn fine men who will do that.

And sadly, that's not the deadliest day on the Great Lakes in November.

In the Fall of 1999 two buddies and I were camped on one of the islands off the north shore of Superior, moose hunting. One day while sitting on a ridge above one of the lakes on the island I would occasionally hear a big boom. Wind was fron the south west that day and when I got back to camp there were 18 to 20 foot whitecaps hitting the Rocky shore and making the boom.

Pictured Rocks on the South shore is worth the visit. The beach East of the cliffs is littered with old wooden ship wrecks. The reef at the lighthouse runs a mile off shore and is no deeper than six feet causing the wrecks.

Walking across it is even more cooler.

Forgot to hit qoute...the Macinac bridge.

Really weird as I recall that day, though at the time we could not have known about the EF on Lake Superior. I was a sophomore at a prep school in Wi. We were playing a football game that night in galeforce winds. Our punter had some record punts that night with the wind. It was a brutal game for a bunch of high schoolers. Rest in Peace to those who gave their lives with their ships providing our sustenance.

This is cool, last night in Duluth.

Thanks for posting - very interesting clip.

One Summer years ago we were camping on the north shore. There had been a steady 20-30 knot SW wind kicking up for a few days. Stopped at one place along the route, hearing a tremendous roar. Went around to have a look at the shoreline and there were huge waves crashing on the beach. Grew up on Lake Michigan but never saw anything like that.

I’ve fished Lake Superior some and you are on your own up there with a rock strewn unforgiving shoreline. Way different than Lake Michigan and a whole bunch colder. A buddy and I scuba dove Superior in August and my temperature gauge was reading 37 degrees down at 90’. Really clear water though. It is kind of spooky remembering that the Titanic sank on my dad’s birthday and the Fitzgerald went down on mine.

They found the ship in 2 pieces, broken at almost the center. It's possible that some of them died from injuries from that instead of drowning. Either way, they sadly died.

LMAO at the guy 'holding' the tent. 😂

LOL, been known to happen, especially when camping right on the beach, since the stakes don't hold in the sand very well. My bro had to get out once in the middle of the night and pound in stakes that were coming loose.

For as big as that lake is, I am surprised at how fast it will whip up. Two of us were trolling up there a few miles off shore when we both felt the wind change. My buddy was raised in Duluth and understood that lake better than I did. He took out his fillet knife and cut off all four of our lines and said that we are going in...NOW!!! I didn’t understand it at the time, but by the time we got in to shore, that lake was wild. Not the place to be in a fishing boat.

I've never seen this documented, but have heard the big lake is navigable by small craft only 17% of the time. Inspite of that I've done plenty of canoeing on Superior, guess we timed it right.

My dad went on vacation to superior last month. Didn't catch much so they headed in. Went to the shipwreck museum and then back to the cabin. Took a shower and walked outside to the dock to see his boat underwater. 16 foot starcraft...pump failed and took less than an hour for superior to drag it under.

Sounds like a dare I am not interested in taking.

There's a website devoted to the Lakes boats (that's what they call them). Here is a link to their AIS map. You can see where any ship is at any time. They also have a list of ETAs for various locations. A nice little factoid is that every Great Lakes captain is also a licensed pilot. Because they go into port or congested waterways every day or so, they don't have to wait to take on a pilot. Only the ocean freighters on the Lakes need pilots.
https://ais.boatnerd.com/
PS--Anytime from April to October is fine. Earlier or later is fine if you don't mind colder weather.

I had forgotten about that. I remember dad bitching about having to go after a bunch of dumb asses that were trying to surf by the pier.

If I recall correctly Butch R. was one of the surfers.I don't remember the names of the ones that drowned, do you?

I grew up on the Keweenaw Peninsula ,Lake Linden.A beautiful place spring ,summer and fall.Then we moved to Milwaukee which was when I was young a wonderful place.So I have spent my life near one of the Great Lakes and could not imagine living any where else.Now I live in NE Wi only a 20 mile drive from The bay of Green Bay.Me and the wife love to go to the lake when the winds are kicking.The waves are enormous.I spent 6 years in the Navy and can say that the only place at sea that gets close to that wild is Cape Hatteras.The power and strength of the Great Lakes is awesome.I have fished on almost all of them and they produce fish like no other lakes.From Great Lakes Musky to Coho and King Salmon.Yowsah!!!

Spent almost my entire life within a mile of two of Lake Ontario. Currently live a few hundred yards from the shoreline. Although in 1975 when that storm hit I was down in the Finger lakes, having just returned from California. Lots of wind but no major damage and I heard about the Fitz next day. The lakes can indeed be fickle and change rapidly. Been several miles out on a 35' Trojan charter fishing and if it wasn't for modern communications, radar, and enhanced weather forecasts aided by satellite we could have been caught in some nasty stuff. It can come out of nowhere. The size and power of the big lakes is something most Americans have no concept of. Years ago I walked the dog down to the lake and struck up a conversation with some folks standing on shore. They were from the midwest, Kansas IIRC, and they couldn't believe that they couldn't see the other side of the lake, even with binoculars.. I told them if you go out 15-20 miles you won't see either side. They began to realize the scale of it all right about then.

LOL

Guys drinking beer on an air mattress going "WTF, man!"

Next time let go ya dumbsh!t... 🤣

There are guys that surf lake waves on a north wind...

They were from GR. Wanted to see the big waves and got swept off the pier. Not surfers as I remember now, hell it's been 45 years,...the surfers actually saved 2 of them. One of the surfers was Bob Beaton and another was an Eastling..Burl I think his name was.