The Edmund Fitzgerald sank November 10, 1975. Gordon saw the various newspaper results, He did not like the reporting of the event. Some papers even misspelled the name of the ship. He wrote the song getting as close as he could to what actually happened. All the proceeds from sales went to the surviving families of the sailors. Gordon also attended every single memorial service for years. At the service they ring the ships bell ( the only thing recovered from the wreck ) 29 times. When Gordon died they rang it 30 times. No bodies were ever recovered as Lake Superior is so cold, bodies can’t resurface. The area where the ship went down is officially considered sacred ground and no diving is allowed in that area. Gordon was a true Canadian treasure. His music catalogue is huge, many famous singers have covered his songs. Bob Dylan considered Gordon one of his favourite song writers. R.I.P. Gordon.
The 'Fitz' is the ONLY ship u can't dive on out of all 5 Great Lakes, because they don't want the ship's logbook recovered. They screwed the families of the crew out more substantial financial monies, due to negligence by the shipping company and outdated nautical maps. Thank you Gordon for your generosity towards the families.
Also the size of the ship was good bit larger than a ww2 aircraft carrier. Lake superior I believe is the largest freshwater lake on the planet. I once heard it's 8s about the same area as 1/3 of Australia. I don't know how accurate that us, but I don't think it's too far off
@@craigplatel813 The 'proof' is that the 'Fitz' is the ONLY ship on the Great Lakes you can't dive on. Thousands of shipwrecks and it's the ONLY one! I just proved my so-called conspiracy is true.
The line "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours" is one of the greatest lines from any song, from any time.
That’s cool. I went to the mass in ‘92 because of the song. Even though I knew the 29 chimes were coming, I still was caught off guard by how powerful it was.
The day Gordon Lightfoot died our local radio station played The Edmund Fitzgerald 30 times throughout the day, 29 times for the men who lost their lives & 1 more time for Gordon.
I remember when this song came out and, in Canada, it was in about the heaviest rotation possible. Not a bad thing, and if it wasn't for this song the 29 would have been as forgotten as the hundreds of sailors lost on the Great Lakes over the centuries.
To help you out a little, Lake Superior, in which the "Big Fitz" sank, is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. It covers 82,100 sq. km (31,700 sq. mi.). The Fitz was an iron ore carrier, the largest plying the Great Lakes till 1971. She was 222 m (729 ft.) long, & weighed 13,632 tons empty. The Great Lakes can swallow an aircraft carrier, like an elephant swallows a peanut. The final image in the video is an artist's rendering of the Fitz, broken in 2 on the bottom of the Lake. This is Gordon's haunting tribute to the 29 sailors who lost their lives that night, & all who perish sailing the waters of the world. Thanks for your reaction.
@cdfdesantis699 Since you brought up a carrier in this size comparison, for those who didn't know, we operated two training aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan during World War II so pilots could get experience without taking any from the combat fleets: the U.S.S. Sable and U.S.S. Wolverine.
" fellas, it's been good to know ya's " . That line still sends shivers. Gordon Lightfoot didn't write songs, he crafted them like an artist. He is legend in Canada, and well respected by many top artists. May he rest in peace, with thanks .
@@garrymoore2161Perhaps the most poignant, heartbreakingly artistic description of Fear & Despair. This song rips my heart out (and the tears out of my tear ducts) every time!
Not everyone can write a song that takes me there. I was on that ship. I witnessed the cook saying that. I heard the wind in the wires making that tattle-tale sound. Kicks me in the gut every time.
The ship was 728 feet long. A Hurricaine West wind in land, as this ship was, is a sustained wind over 70 miles coming across from one direction on the lake and drives up waves that cap out over 20 to 30 feet high. Sank 11/15/1975. The ship was eventually located, the crew is with the shio and it is now a formal grave site. The original ship bell is in the museum in Detriot and the bell maker cast a new bell with the crews names and it was placed on the ship as their tombstone.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” One of the most beautiful and iconic lines I’ve ever heard. Rest in Peace, Gordon Lightfoot, your poetry and music will live on forever.
If the outside temperature is ever too warm, play this song. From the opening chord to the parting chorus, the air temperature will drop 30 degrees. You will feel the bite of freezing rain and wind in the wires. The song gives you chills. Even more so since it is a true story.
Being from Michigan it's interesting to hear what an Aussie thinks about the Great Lakes. For as much as you admit you don't know you're making a lot of good guesses. Yeah full size ocean going vessels will come into the lakes from the St. Lawrence Seaway. The lakes are large enough to effect weather patterns. There were some radio communications between the Fitzgerald and another ship that was also caught in the storm but was about 10 miles behind. That ship noticed the Fitzgerald's lights disappear and also saw it vanish from radar. Whatever happened was so fast that no distress call was made. This was supposed to be the Fitzgerald's last trip before docking for the winter.
The ship behind her was the SS Arthur M. Anderson. My friend was on the Anderson and he told about that experience of seeing her disappear. Still gives me chills to this day. I am from The Soo area and that storm was horrible even there. Having been out on Lake Superior many times it is both amazingly beautiful and frightening at how small it makes you feel. The Valley Camp Museum in Sault Ste. Marie has an Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial and Exhibit. In that exhibit are two of the lifeboats from her and seeing them is chilling. This is a song I will never forget.
@Kriskat6 Yeah, water is nothing to mess around with! My buddy thought our area lakes were not really dangerous. Because he grew up on a giant lake in N.Dakota. He survived learning his lesson 👏!...from Wyoming USA 🇺🇸 👋 🤠
I heard that the bell chimed 30 times at the Maritimers Cathedral when Gordon Lightfoot died. He was a great storyteller. When I saw him in concert in the mid 70s, this song had everyone in tears. RIP Gordon Lightfoot.
When he says the lake ever gives up her dead, he was being literal. Lake Superior is so deep and the bottom is so cold, that bodies don't decompose and float to the surface. The wreckage of the Fitz was eventually found, but they were unable to recover any of the crew. The site has been declared a burial site, and no one is allowed to dive it, unless given express written permission from the Canadian government. And nothing is allowed to be removed. (Though the ships bell was brought up, and replaced with another, with the crews names and date of loss.
When Lightfoot turned 80 an anthology of poetry was commissioned to celebrate him and his work. I was invited to participate by the editor and wrote a prose poem about learning this song on the recorder back in grade 8. At the launch for the anthology Lightfoot showed up so I read the poem aloud to him which was both an honour and slightly intimidating.
I grew up in Michigan and the storms tend to come out of nowhere. Even living there, it is unbelievable how huge these lakes are. Tried to swim in superior once in late August. Too cold. This was in a shallow beach area. Beautiful yet very dangerous.
@@ronhall5395for real. I’ve spent time on Lake Michigan almost every year. Some times it’s decent, sometimes it’s miserably cold. Even the coldest I’ve felt Lake Michigan had nothing on Lake Superior in the heat of summer. Sapped the heat from my legs in no time. So painful.
Lake Superior definitely makes its own weather. I live about a hundred miles south of the lake. I cannot tell you how many times I've driven up to the lake and once you get to within about 30 miles of the lake, the weather changes. Colder, cloudy, rainy conditions can occur over the lake on days that are beautiful and sunny just a short distance away. And in November, when Arctic cold begins to mix with the warmer air to the south, combined with the lake effect, yeah, nasty stuff can definitely happen.
I grew up in Ontario around the Great Lakes and my father and all his brothers sailed on the lakes during the 1940's and 50's. Here's some context about the song and its setting. The Great Lakes are just that; great, as in large - very large. They are in essence, inland, freshwater seas. Superior is the the largest, coldest and most northerly of the 5 (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior). What I have been told by experienced sailors who have sailed on both the Oceans and the Great Lakes is that the Great Lakes can be more treacherous. This is because sets of waves can come at you in much quicker succession (the lakes, while huge are still nothing compared to the size of an ocean). You can also get prevailing winds coming from different directions at the same time, so you can have waves coming at you from multiple sides/different directions, all at once. Being that far north, winter and its storms come on like a freight train...hence the reference to the 'witch of November'.
The other thing that makes them dangerous is, you have ocean like weather but on a LAKE. Out on the ocean if you see a storm coming you can course correct by miles to avoid it. But if you tried do that on the Great Lakes, well a course change of several miles and you'll probably end up in someone's backyard.
My uncle was a fresh water sailor on the Great Lakes and knew many of men that died. He hated sailing on Lake Superior because it was so rough in a storm. Uncle Alex liked this song and said it was a fitting tribute to the ship and the men.
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship to have sunk in the Great Lakes. It was in 1975. It's maiden voyage was in 1958 and was the largest ship at the time to ship on the Great Lakes.
@@OJBReactsI live in Michigan (born and raised here). The Great Lakes are basically land locked oceans. You can start at the bottom of the state, drive north 6 hours and if you look to your left, it’s still the same lake (Lake Michigan). Lake Superior is the largest body of freshwater on the planet. Lake Superior is so deep there is enough water to cover all of South America in 3 feet of water. With Lake Superior the storms are especially bad because the lake runs East to West. So in big storms the wind is equivalent to a hurricane force. People don’t normally expect 50 foot waves on a “lake”. On a funny note, I once saw a bumper sticker that said “4 out of 5 Great Lakes prefer Michigan”. A lot of people don’t realize that my state is made up of 2 peninsulas, the lower and upper peninsulas. Three if you count the thumb.
@@OJBReactsthere were probably larger freighters. Don’t know their names. There are ocean going vessels that can sail into the Great Lakes via the Saint Laurence Seaway. The size restrictions on the ships is due to limitations in the width and length of the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Not sure how wide the locks are, but they can handle a ship 1200 ft. or 365.76 meters in length. You should check out a video by the Ask A Mortician channel, called something along the lines of, The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead. It covers some of the history of Lake Superior, it’s shipwrecks, especially the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the Kamloops, as well as the implications of preserving these wrecks as resting places of the dead, who still have immediate family members alive.
@@evilproducer01 Agreed. I saw that video. She did an excellent job on it. I believe it was, at least at it's release, her largest video undertaking. It is well worth a watch for anyone interested in the history of Lake Superior, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, and/or shipwrecks on Lake Superior.
I really appreciated your reaction to this. Gordon Lightfoot wrote this song in honor of the memory of these men since news outlets did such an awful job, even getting their names wrong. Gordon kept in touch with the family members up until his death. A truly kind and remarkable man. May he Rest In Peace. 🕊
Yes, someone in comments on another channel said that Gordon knocked this song out very quickly. He had come into the studio that day and they were talking about the wreck and the reporting and he wrote the song in something like an hour.
Lake Superior, where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, is about half the size of Tazmania. All told, the 5 lakes are about 245,000 square kilometers -about the size of the United Kingdom (or a little smaller than New Zealand). That should put the size of them into decent context. Relatively large ships can fully transit the entire great lakes system. The 'Seaway Max' is 225m long by 24m wide by 8m draft (and max height of 35m). There are freighters confined to the upper great lakes that can be 300m in length. The great lakes are a graveyard of ships, with more wrecks per square kilometre than the Bermuda Triangle. Main reason is that out on the open ocean, a ship can usually go around a storm. But as big as the Great Lakes are, they may as well be a bathtub when it comes to dodging a storm. So the ships have to either head for sheltered waters, or just ride it out. A high percentage of the wrecks occur in November. Not because its especially stormy, although the weather can still get pretty bad. Its because November is a very busy month. In the winter, the lake shipping industry shuts down. The ports (if not the lakes themselves) are usually frozen & its impossible to operate the canals & locks. So a lot of places try to stock up in November. Also, most of the year, if the weather looks really bad you can wait a day or two before heading out. But at the end of the shipping season, there simply aren't many good sailing days left. And a week from now, things might be worse than they are today. So people push their luck & a lot of ships have been lost as a result.
My dad worked on the Great Lakes freighters. He was a lifelong sailor (WWII navy and merchant marines after) and I grew up hearing the stories of Great Lakes ship wrecks including the Edmund Fitzgerald. This song is seared into my soul.
I'm a Minnesota boy, and my dad grew up on the "Iron Range" and I've heard this song and the "folk tales" about the ship my whole life. Gordon Lightfoot did an awesome job of making it an epic.
What always stuck with me was the Captain and another crew member were on their final shipment as they were officially retiring once they made their delivery and returned home. All crew members were very experienced, it's just how dangerous the Lake Superior truly is. Also when the song says "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead" is not being facetious, it's true. When you go down in that lake due to how cold the bottom is all year round the bacteria that make a body float cannot form and your body will become basically encased in adipocere. Which is a waxy material composed of long chain hydrocarbons such as oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids. (The channel Ask A Mortician did a video on the shipwreck, it has much more details)
After hearing this song once, I can't help but to tear up before the lyrics even start when hearing it again. Every time. Having been on ships in severe storms, the rattling the wires, and against the railings, and metal truly is an almost ominous sound with the background of the waves, and wind. It's something you really have to experience to fully understand. Some people wonder and are surprised by how quick he described the wreck, and crew. He goes a few lines into the storm, then only 2-3 lines for the sudden wreck, and ask why he didn't go into it more. I think this is for several reasons. One of which, is because the wreck itself happened so fast for the crew. Another boat who had the lights of the Edmund in sight, said that the whole ship went down extremely fast. I think Gordon was trying to relay that, by making the actual section about ship going down also being very quick.
An amazingly soulful ballad, written by Gordon Lightfoot. That haunting guitar rift fits the mood to a tee.. The line - "Does anyone know where the love of God goes?" - is a perfect observation for situations like this. When Gordon passed away in May 2023... they rang the bell thirty times as a tribute to him. RIP Gordon
The reference to Gitchee Gumee (the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior) is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. Gordon Lightfoot was a genius! He has so many amazing songs that people deserve to know: If You Could Read My Mind, Rainy Day People, In the Early Morning Rain, Sundown, Beautiful, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Carefree Highway, For Lovin' Me...and many more.
To answer one of your early questions, the ship sizes are limited on the Great Lakes Seaway system by the width of the locks they must traverse. Each lake is higher in elevation than the one below, so the ships must enter a lock and be raised up. Welland Canal, which allows ships to bypass Niagara Falls, is 80 feet or 24.4 meters wide. There is a total of 16 locks to enter in order to get from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior. Superior is 600 feet higher than the Atlantic.
Interestingly, Michigan and Huron are really one big lake. There's no difference in elevation. Superior is a bit higher and you need to go down a river to get from Superior to Huron. Of course the really big drop is between Erie and Ontario. That would be Niagara Falls.
@@protorhinocerator142 I once did work for a short period of time on an ore boat, the JP Morgan Junior. The only locks I remember were in soo saint marie on the river to avoid some rapids. To get from Huron to Erie there were no locks and I just checked to be sure. After 60 years ago, one can forget. I went no further east than lake Erie.
I’ve lived on my boat for the last 8 years and I’ve gone through too many storms to count and two hurricanes. This song brings images and feelings back to times when “the minutes seemed like hours”. And listening today has put a knot in my stomach remembering. But I love Mother Ocean when she’s nice.
Haunting, no doubt! That longer musical interlude before he sings about the families praying in the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral, is what I consider to be representative of the lengthy period of time that it must have felt for the sailors and for their families after the Captain wired to shore that "there was water coming in and the good ship and crew was in peril". They had waited all night for further word as the storm raged, but there was nothing. That was the last message received from the Edmund Fitzgerald. All 29 aboard died when the big freighter went down that night. Canadian singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote and released that song in 1976, in honour of the crew that perished on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot died on May 1, 2023, at the age of 84. On the day of his funeral, the churchbell chime at the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral in Detroit was rung 30 times, one for each of the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and one for Gordon Lightfoot, whose song had so reverently ensured that these men would not be forgotten. May they all rest in peace.
Gordon Lightfoot was a master songwriter and storyteller. This song always sends chills up my spine, love it. The events happened November 10, 1975. The 29 men on the crew were lost. There was one "survivor", The main cook was laid up sick and unable to go on the ship that day. November the weather is extremely unpredictable on the Great Lakes, especially Superior, they usually come later in the months. The winds shifted from a north wind to a west wind which put a lot more water between them and the land causing larger waves. Out of respect to the families and crew he later changed the line about the main hatchway to something else in live performances. Late in the trip with the Arthur M Anderson following not too far behind and assisting with navigation due to the Fitz having lost their radar, the Captain of the Anderson asked how they were doing, Captain McSorley replied with "We are holding our own." Then a short time after the Fitz vanished from view and radar. During the later part of the trip their bilge pumps were working hard.
Oh, BTW, the Great Lakes contain about 1/5th of all the fresh water on the planet. When you talk about seeing across them, I had a good laugh. Take a real tour of them with RUclips, just to get some perspective, if you are up for it.
The day after Gordon passed, the Maritime church rang the bell 29 times + 1. Another neat fact about the song is that recording is the first time played by the band and done in a single take and released in 1976 . The Fitz went down the previous November
I was in college when this happened. Everyone who lived in the area of the Great Lakes at the time knew about this wreck. For context, the Fitz was part of a class of freighters designed to carry iron ore from the mines in the northern part of the Great Lakes to the steel factories in the southern part of the Great Lakes. The ships were enormous, larger than most of the ocean going freighters that would enter the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway from the North Atlantic (but smaller than the modern supertankers or container ships). When she was built in the 1950s, the Fitz was the largest of the lake freighters at something less than 800 ft. When she sank there were larger boats. There were no survivors so Gordon was exercising some poetic license when describing the conversations between the cook and crew. So, no one knows exactly what happened. Whatever happened it was sudden and catastrophic. Another freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson was trailing the Fitz by about 10 miles and they were in periodic radio communication. One minute the Anderson had the Fitz on radar, and then it was gone. When the wreck was located a few years later, she was found to have literally broken in half. The storm that happened that night was not a hurricane. Rather, it had straight line winds that were classified as hurricane force. This may not be entirely accurate, but I seem to remember reading at the time that there were sustained winds of 90 mph gusting to over 100mph, and the waves were running 20 - 30 ft. As another commenter said, the reason these Great Lakes storms can be so dangerous is that the waves tend to come much closer together than on the open ocean, and also, they can come from multiple directions.
Was privileged to have seen / heard Lightfoot in concert , in a small venue outside Philly ......several years BEFORE this song , and the tragedy with inspired the song ...One of the true story tellers of the last Century ..
Gordon Lightfoot wasn't just a song writer and singer, he was a story teller. His songs told stories that people could connect to. His loss is a deep one for our country. I'm happy you chose to share his music with your followers. Maybe his music will reach more people. And I strongly encourage you and your followers to go and listen to more of his music. It's great music for sure. Influenced many singers, and many of of his songs were covered by others, like Peter, Paul & Mary, The Irish Rovers, The Seekers, and many others.
I've been in the middle of Lake Michigan, one of the "Great Lakes", when a storm rolled in. My father, and his best friend had been drunkenly fishing all day. I was supposed to be fishing too. When I pointed at the black squall line headed for us, both my dad and his friend hesitated, thinking it would break up before hitting us. I was in a 25' foot boat when the storm wailed on us. The waves came with the winds. Then the rain pummeled us. We were literally in the middle of the lake. I could not see my hometown of Sheboygan, nor could I see the shores of Michigan. My drunk father and his friend were so consumed with saving the fishing down-riggers and other equipment, that they had me pilot the boat towards our home. I pointed the boat west via the compass, as i saw nothing but sky, then water, sky then water. I couldn't see the horizon almost at all. My Father got sick, and his friend passed out as I, at 12 years old, learned how to drive a boat in the fierce storms that can kill entire cargo ships. I was certain, we were going to die. The waves were massive, and our tiny boat was not built for that. The storms on the Great Lakes are deadly.
Good God! How awful! To do that to a kid is totally wrong and unforgivable! So sorry for your sad tale. Drink has destroyed and affected many lives. It also angers me to hear of grown men being so irresponsible.
I always knew when my teenage daughter was depressed..she played this over and over. Not only thev record made me cry but the fact that she was dealing with the pain of loosing her little sister. So here i am crying again...RIP to all lost loved ones ...and Gordon. ( one of his last performances in the US was right up the road from me butvthere wasnt enough tissues in the world for me to go here him)
For almost 50 years this Aussie gets choked up every time I hear Gordon sing the tail of the Edmond Fitzgerald 😢 for the crew and the families left behind.
Ocean going ships can use the St. Lawerence seaway to get from the Atlantic ocean to the Great Lakes, and can go as far as Thunder Bay, on the western end of Lake Superior
Yeah the Great Lakes ports are busy with salties, ocean going ships. The problem with big waves on the Lakes is they don't roll the way ocean waves do. There is a return chop from the shores that creates a kind of corkscrew motion.
The disaster was November 10, 1975. The song was released in summer of 1976. November is when the weather cools down to cold. The locks at Sault Ste. Marie freeze over whenever they want! There were no survivers. Everything thing seems to have been done right. It was sobering for me to realize that things can go that wrong in our modern era. A Michigander
Gordon was a lyrical genius. A poetic singer that could paint a picture that was truly worth every word. Gordon took on this project almost immediately after he read about the wreck in the newspaper. Every penny this song made for him was given to the families of the 29 sailors lost that day.
One of the more emotional and expressive reactions I've seen to this song. Based on a real event that happened in November 1975. GL and his band were so tight with each other that the recorded version you heard (aside from live shows) was from the very first studio session they did, without rehearsal.
We listened to this on the radio as it happened. We listened to this song on the radio and found healing. Thanks for the memories, rough and good alike.
Edmund Fitzgerald was built in 1958. It was 729 ft long, 75 ft wide , 39 ft high, and had a 25 ft draft. It sank during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975 with a crew of 29, who were all lost. The song by Gordon Lightfoot was released in 1976.
The 29 crew members of the Edmund Fitzgerald were the ages between their early 20's to their early 60's. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" always brings me to tears each time I listen to it since it was first released in 1976 when I was just 20 back then.
This is one of of my favorite songs of all time! Gordon Lightfoot was a magical song writer and singer! The music was so perfect! It is such a haunting song, yet so magically fascinating!
The Edmund Fitzgerald was named after the insurance CEO that owned the ship as an asset. Gordon saw a small right-up in a magazine about the tragedy and felt that the piece didn't do justice to the crew, and penned the song. As others have commented, money earned from this song was donated by Gordon to the families. The Captain was to have retired the next year. Gordon's iconic song ensured that even though the Edmund Fitzgerald is at the bottom of Lake Superior, she and her crew will always be remembered and never forgotten. The ship was located nine days after she was last heard from. The most poignant line for me is, "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours." The area is designated a monument and graveyard, and is deemed sacred. Special permission has to be obtained to dive down to her. I watched a documentary about the ship several years ago and it was eerie to see her at the bottom of the lake, knowing that 29 people rested there. Gordon was a Canadian treasure. His songs are so beautiful.
Driving around Lake Superior is a 1,300 mile (2,092 km) drive. The Trans Superior Yacht Race is 338 nautical miles, from Sault Saint Marie, MI (near where the Fitzgerald went down) to Duluth, MN (near where the Fitzgerald departed). The Paul R. Tregurtha is currently the largest ship on that great lakes at 1,013 feet 6 inches (308.91 m). If you're interested in seeing some great lakes ships, the Duluth Harbor Cam is a great RUclips channel. You'll see great lakes freighters, foreign cargo ships, and even some cruise ships leaving and entering Lake Superior through the Duluth harbor canal. I grew up in Superior, WI, which is where the Fitzgerald started its final journey.
Lightfoot was a beloved Canadian singer and supreme storyteller. My first ever concert was his performance in 1969 at Place des Arts in Montreal. I believe it's Lightfoot's iconic voice as well as his talent for poetic lyrics that make this tragic song so compelling to listen to. Glad you enjoyed one of our national treasures.
When my buddy was in Detroit a number of years ago, he actually went to the real Maritime Sailors Cathedral that's mentioned in the song. The Fitz's sister ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, is still in service and continues to run the same route to this day.
It's actually called 'Mariners Church, on Jefferson between he RenCen and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. I highly recommend the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. They have a complete bridge of a Great Lakes freighter, and the actual bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald that Jacques Cousteau recovered.
@gordieparenteau6555 The Arthur M Anderson is not the Fitzgerald's sister ship. The sister ship is named Arthur B Homer. The Anderson was the ship following Fitzgerald in the storm and the first to report her loss. She and the William Clay Ford were the only ships able to answer the initial call to search for survivors.
total area of the great lakes is 244,106 sq km. with a length of 3700 km. Freighters are 300 + meters long. Ive lived on the lakes my whole life and have swam in each
The Maritime Sailors Cathedral in Lightfoot's song is today Mariners' [Anglican] Church on the Detroit River in Downtown Detroit. The parish was first formed as a Christian church in the 1800s for all sailors to pray as they traveled through Detroit on the Great Lakes ships. Detroit was the center point of the lakes and the largest commercial center on the lakes, and it made sense to have the church there. Each fall a special service is celebrated there at the close of the navigation season and in the spring, another service to pray for the sailors during the new navigation season on the lakes. Yes, the lakes freeze over in the winter. Before emancipation of slaves in the United States, the church was used as a safe house with secret chambers underneath the church building to hide those slaves in transit. Freedom was just across the river in Canada. My grandmother was one of many patrons of Mariners Church from the 1920s into the 1950s and she told me many stories about the church. Ships from all over the world travel the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway that connects the North Atlantic Ocean with the furthest northwest points of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin. The Seaway, a joint project between the U.S. and Canada that opened access of ships from the world over, opened in 1959 as a navigation system of the dredged St. Lawrence River and several locks. Ships like the Edmund Fitzgerald are very long ships of from 800 to 1000 feet in length that carry iron ore in holds located along the length of the ship. This is the iron that created Detroit automobiles from 1900 until today. Also, the Great Lakes do not have hurricanes but rather huge gales that can have the intensity of an average hurricane. And these long ore boats can break up in such conditions especially if the holds are compromised as in the case of the Fitzgerald. Many stories of over 300 years on the Great Lakes.
Well there was a hurricane in the 1940s that stated intact all the way to the Canadian maritime provinces. Unusual but right now Hurricane Hillary is affecting the weather in the southern Rocky Mountain deserts. Las Vegas expects a years worth of rain this coming week.
The reason Gordon Lightfoot changed the lyrics for the song is because after The Fitz was found they said that lids for the cargo holds were not the reason the ship sank and it exonerated the crew of being at fault for the sinking.
A beautifully written full meal of music and haunting melodies, with a poetic stomach punch, you never forget. I will never forget the first time I heard it!
Love this song and your reactions. When I heard this song, I also had a difficult time imagining how large the lake was. I also remember seeing the film Ordinary People in which two brothers were sailing in Lake Michigan in the Chicago area when a storm came up and capsized them and one brother died. That was 1980, and I had never see any of the Great Lakes and could not invision a storm on a lake causing so much havoc. The poetry and musical beauty of this song as well as Gordon’s voice have always captivated me.
Having lived my whole life on the shores of the great lakes I never cease to be awed by their power. When the song states that Superior never gives up her dead that is an absolute fact. The lake is so cold the bodies don't decompose so unlike the other warmer lakes they don't float up to surface. In fact some of them have been filmed and photographed in and around wreck. The families had to go to court a few years ago to stop the images being made public. The ship is in Canadian waters so our government has designated it a gravesite and it is now off limits to the public.
@@Ira88881 They sent a remote submersible down to investigate wreck once it was located. As bodies do not decompose in those conditions, some of the lost crew were seen on the monitor and thus seen/recorded. The bodies being filmed was incidental to the investigation.
They are ocean going ships, they don't just sail on the lakes. The St. Lawrence seaway is used to get to and from the Atlantic Ocean. You are literally the only person I have ever seen react to this song and smile all the way through it. I remember when this happened, so does everyone who lived near the Great lakes at the time. Both sides of the border. The bells rang 30 times this year, 29 for those who died in 1975, and once for Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away this year.
Gordon Lightfoot had a deep catalogue of classics - Carefree Highway, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Walls, Sundown, Steel Rail Blues, Black Day In July, Wherefore and Why, Home From the Forest, Song For A Winter's Night, Early Morning Rain, Did She Mention My Name and many others including another great maritime tragedy song - Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle.
Wonderful reaction to one of the best songs of the 20th Century. I have studied language and English literature some, and it's interesting how people can sometimes have their thinking channeled by details of language. In English, a body of water is a "lake" if it is full of fresh water, no matter how big it is. Okay; so the Great lakes are lakes, but to me, really, Superior at least is an inland sea. It's just that in English if you want to call it an inland sea, you have to qualify your statement, something like this: "Superior is an inland sea, though unlike the normal use of the word 'sea' it is fresh water, not salt." "Inland sea" better characterizes the size and power of Gitchee Gumee; its waves and winds. A detail about the legend which has made the song more moving to me: To the Indians, normally you have to give someone's remains proper burial if their spirit is to rest properly in the next world. As mentioned in other comments, Superior is so cold that the normal decay that produces gasses and brings a body to the surface does not happen. I understand that the deep waters of Superior are low in oxygen, which contributes to this process. In fact Superior is right around freezing all year round below the first few meters. In summer the surface is a comfortable place to swim. Those who dive into the lake occasionally get a frigid shock. "...the big lake they call Gitchee Gumee." Something about the name has added to the impact of the song for me, and I thought I share it too: A literal translation of "Gitchee Gumee" is "Big Sea Water." Apparently "gumee" means "sea water", a body of water like a sea. Now literally, "Gitchee" is here translated as "big". But this leaves out an important connotation of the word to the Indians. "Manitou" is translated as "spirit." Now many of the Indians, while believing in many powerful spirits all around them, were in fact monotheists. They believed on one spirit above all the others; the "Great Spirit." Their name for him was "Gitchee Manitou." Sometmes referred to as "Gitchee Manitou the Mighty." So the word "gitchee" meant more than just big in measurement. It meant of a different level of importance. To them, something holy was going on when Gitchee Gumee did not give up her dead. I like to think they thought the spirits of these dead were taken to another good place by the Great Spirit, but that's just a wish on my part; I have no idea what they really though.
It was awesome to watch your reaction and hear your brilliant insight. How you relished every word and when you picked up on the fact that they had to go hungry. It is so good to know there are young people like you with amazing intelligence and sensitivity. This song and story goes right through me every time. I was 15 when this happened. My dad was a navy man in WW2 and a fisherman so I was raised on the stories. You have a beautiful heart, never change. You didn't miss a thing, that's awesome!!!
The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729-feet long. I believe any bigger and it could not fit into the locks that make up the St Lawrence Seaway. Lake Superior is about 350 miles long, and over 160 miles wide at its widest, to give you some context
It was at the time. Written by Gordon. He was also a sailor on the Great Lakes in his sail boat, named Silver Heels I believe. His possibly greatest song was The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. It is the song he closed his concerts with. The crowd/fan’s favourite. Saw him many times. Great memories. A true Canadian icon.
Gordon Lightfoot wasn't just a musician he was a story teller, this is one of the more haunting songs. By the way there are things called steel mills so "Mill" may not have meant lumber. There is a line in the movie "November Man" that says "We used to call you november man because after you came everything died." November is when winter starts to show its teeth up here.
Curious about the Edmund Fitzgerald’s size, it was 729 feet (222 meters). The maximum length for Great Lakes Freighters is 1000 feet ( 305 meters ) capped by the size of the locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron
Gordon wrote the song soon after the wreck. Where he got that stuff about the cook and the other conversations is from sailirs that had survived at the fringe of such storms whose ships managed to steer toward safe harbor to ride out the storms. They had those sorts of conversations, an the fact is that meals might reasonably be suspended if all hands are required to maneuver the ship. If you're dealing with a hurricane, the winds are far too rough for the ship to move smoothly enough to allow meal service anyway. I was in the Navy. I have been involved in such storms at sea. Serving on a submarine, we just go deep and wait out the storm. Nonetheless, there are still difficulties to deal with.
The Great Lakes create their own weather fronts, are especially when weather is turning into winter the gales can become like hurricanes. Once winter hits, most of the Lakes are closed to any shipping (ice). Lake Superior is the largest and deepest (700' +). On this particular storm consisted of 2 weather fronts merging over Lake Superior. You should see a couple of the videos on the theories of what caused the sinking of this ship. The ship had unloaded cargo in Wisconsin, then travelled up to Duluth, MN and took on a full load (26,000 tons) of taconite iron ore pellets with the trip to be made to Cleveland for processing. If you're on a ship in the Great Lakes in Nov/Dec, and something happens causing it to sink, you have about 10 minutes in the icy waters - that is why it is said the Lake never gives up her dead in November gales/storms.
I live in Michigan and years ago, not, all that long after the Fitz sank, I did a research paper on the wreck. I was at University of Michigan and my degree is in history and I’m a Great Lakes specialist. The ship sank on November 10, 1975 after probably striking shoals in Canadian waters. There’s some poetic liberties taken in the song. They left in good weather and hit two storms coming together. Superior is one of the largest and deepest inland bodies of water in the world and storms on the lakes, particularly Superior, can be worse than on the open seas because of the relative confinement. There was a ship traveling with the Fitz, the Arthur M Anderson that still sails today and it’s a smaller vessel compared to the 1000 footers that now sail the lakes. The Fitz knew she was taking on water, had a list, but the Captain told the Anderson his pumps were handling it. It went down very quickly 17 miles from Whitefish Point. They were heading for the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. There’s a Shipwreck Museum at the point where the ship’s bell has been brought up and is rung every November 10th at a memorial that’s live-streamed at 7PM, roughly the time the ship went down, around 7:10. Gordon Lightfoot changed the lyrics after surviving family members protested. The hatches did not give in and the rector at Mariner’s Church did not like it described as musty. I’ve been to both memorials. The ship is in two pieces on the bottom. One is upside down. There has been one body seen. It’s a grave though and diving is no longer allowed. It probably did not break up on the surface. You can see the memorial on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum Facebook page.
Others have made the point that a hurricane force wind is not necessarily in a hurricane, a tropical cyclone called a typhoon in the western Pacific. The other point is the song is also about the "wives and the sons and the daughters" waiting by their TVs, radios, and telephones for what we already know would be the worst possible news. We are also with them at their memorial service as they listened for a specific name and the tolling of a low bell. Overall, I enjoyed his reaction to this song.
The Edmond Fitzgearld was indeed very sad, and a great song was written about it by Gordon Lightfoot, However there is never a mention of the Ocean Ranger February 15 1982
THe Church bell chimed 30 times when Gordon Lightfoot Passed. He was a fantastic singer and writer. An Icon for sure. Happen in 1975. I was 15 and living in Michigan. I remember the story so well.
You got it so well with respect to the scale of the maritime event. A hurricane is a hurricane, whether it's in the Atlantic or on lake Superior. The Great Lakes are full of shipwrecks like so many waterways. I was in high school in the 70's when this happened. It was a blip in the network news at the time but became much more well known due to Gordon Lightfoot's epic saga; such a tribute. It's a human story!
My father worked on the boats as a cook for many years.....including the Fitz.... I've been aboard her a few times myself.... We knew many of the men personally...... Rest in Peace.... Michael Armagost- 37- Third Mate- Iron River, Wisconsin Fred Beetcher- 56- Porter- Superior, Wisconsin Thomas Bentsen- 23- Oiler- St. Joseph, Michigan Edward Bindon -47- First Asst. Engineer- Fairport Harbor, Ohio Thomas Borgeson -41- Maintenance Man- Duluth, Minnesota Oliver Champeau- 41-Third Asst. Engineer- Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Nolan Church -55 -Porter -Silver Bay, Minnesota Ransom Cundy- 53- Watchman- Superior, Wisconsin Thomas Edwards-50- Second Asst. Engineer- Oregon, Ohio Russell Haskell -40- Second Asst. Engineer- Millbury, Ohio George Holl -60- Chief Engineer- Cabot, Pennsylvania Bruce Hudson- 22- Deck Hand -North Olmsted, Ohio Allen Kalmon -43- Second Cook- Washburn, Wisconsin Gordon MacLellan- 30- Wiper- Clearwater, Florida Joseph Mazes- 59- Special Maintenance Man -Ashland, Wisconsin John McCarthy -62-First Mate -Bay Village, Ohio Ernest McSorley -63 -Captain -Toledo, Ohio Eugene O'Brien- 50- Wheelsman -Toledo, Ohio Karl Peckol -20- Watchman -Ashtabula, Ohio John Poviach -59- Wheelsman- Bradenton, Florida James Pratt -44- Second Mate- Lakewood, Ohio Robert Rafferty -62 -Steward -Toledo, Ohio Paul Riippa -22 -Deck Hand -Ashtabula, Ohio John Simmons -63 -Wheelsman -Ashland, Wisconsin William Spengler -59- Watchman- Toledo, Ohio Mark Thomas -21- Deck Hand- Richmond Heights, Ohio Ralph Walton -58- Oiler- Fremont, Ohio David Weiss -22 -Cadet -Agoura, California Blaine Wilhelm -52- Oiler- Moquah, Wisconsin
The Edmund Fitzgerald was 728 feet long ( 221.894 meters) which was the largest freighter when she was built in 1958. There are now ships that are 1000 feet long hauling loads to ports throughout the Great Lakes. The Fitz went down so fast, that there was no distress call sent.The last message sent to the Arthur M Anderson, the ship which was following , was that they were holding their own. They got caught out in the open when a severe weather front turned and were running for shelter. Look up the story of the incident. There were no survivors.
What a wonderful reaction - thanks! I'm subscribing! A few days after Gordon Lightfoot died, just this past May 1, 2023, I was moved to tears -- literally crying when I heard on the news that the same church bells that ring out in the song rang out once more... The song always, always give me real chills. The actual events happened in Lightfoot's (and my) lifetime: "He was always part of the 29 families of the men who went down on the Edmund Fitzgerald. But with one ring of a church bell, Lightfoot is now one of them. "For the first time since the legendary laker went down off Whitefish point in Lake Superior, near Sault Ste. Marie, on Nov. 10, 1975, the bells of the Mariners’ Church of Detroit rang 30 times to commemorate that tragic day. "The first 29 were for the ship’s crew. The 30th was for Lightfoot, who died Monday at the age of 84." I am so sorry; I clicked away from the news website where I got that quote, so I'm not sure what network it came from. Anyway, Lightfoot was a treasure, not just of Canada, but of a generation of us who grew up on singer/songwriters. He performed well into his "golden years,", and he left a legacy that can't be beaten. But it is still always sad when a legend passes. You really should check out his catalog -- he had quite a few major hits.
My dad was a merchant seaman on the Great Lakes sailing Superior, Michigan, and Huron from 1937 to 1942 when he went to navy pilot training. When this happened in 1975, he talked about it for months. We heard stories we’d never heard him tell about his time on the Great Lakes.
I would recommend also checking out his song “Canadian Railroad trilogy”. He wrote it over the weekend when CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp. - TV) requested he do a song for them to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the confederation agreement that created Canada in 1867.
I've lived here on the big lake for 20 years and in the autumn the lake does what it wants when it wants. It's great for the surfers. I've seen 30 foot waves crashing into the stone cliffs. The storms are beautiful
Some of the Great Lakes are shallower than others. Superior is so deep that it also means it is very cold. When the winds blow at hurricane strength there is no way to warm up the water. Even in the heat of summer, the lake is still cold enough to kill. Because it is so cold, bodies sink instead of floating as as they do in warmer.
It is so cold at the bottom of Lake Superior that bodies don't rot and produce gases that would make the bodies float to the surface, you become fish food and no one evers sees your body. Gordon wrote this because it intrigued him that few articles covered it 1975 except in passing, he wanted the world to know about these 29 people and the ship that disappeared. He made the tragic event forever present in our consciousness. R.I.P. Gordon & the 29 sailors who lost their lives & the families who live on.
I still remember when the Fitzgerald went down. We live next to Lake Erie. When storms blows up over the Great Lakes it's very serious. Even now in the winter we have had some 5 to 9 foot of snow in one storm.
This occurs on our Great Lakes, as they are inland, and like small oceans. Look at a map of the United States, and at the eastern end of the states and Canada, you'll see the "Great Lakes." Some are larger than some states.
The fact this is a tribute to 29 men who lost their lives in an instant makes this a very chilling song. You have to really research the reports of the wreck in the Great Lakes Museum. There are a ton of specifications and records that you can find online about the ship. The coast guard reports of the sinking of the ship is a very important part, then listen to the song again. It is important to research the ship and its history and you will find a very different meaning to the song. Without the back history most think this is just a song. I was born in 71 it sank in 75 and I was adopted as an infant in Traverse City MI so this really has a connection for me.
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank November 10, 1975. Gordon saw the various newspaper results, He did not like the reporting of the event. Some papers even misspelled the name of the ship. He wrote the song getting as close as he could to what actually happened. All the proceeds from sales went to the surviving families of the sailors. Gordon also attended every single memorial service for years. At the service they ring the ships bell ( the only thing recovered from the wreck ) 29 times. When Gordon died they rang it 30 times. No bodies were ever recovered as Lake Superior is so cold, bodies can’t resurface. The area where the ship went down is officially considered sacred ground and no diving is allowed in that area. Gordon was a true Canadian treasure. His music catalogue is huge, many famous singers have covered his songs. Bob Dylan considered Gordon one of his favourite song writers. R.I.P. Gordon.
The 'Fitz' is the ONLY ship u can't dive on out of all 5 Great Lakes, because they don't want the ship's logbook recovered. They screwed the families of the crew out more substantial financial monies, due to negligence by the shipping company and outdated nautical maps. Thank you Gordon for your generosity towards the families.
Also the size of the ship was good bit larger than a ww2 aircraft carrier. Lake superior I believe is the largest freshwater lake on the planet. I once heard it's 8s about the same area as 1/3 of Australia. I don't know how accurate that us, but I don't think it's too far off
@@atomicwedgie8176how about some prove of that instead your conspiracy theories.
@@craigplatel813 The 'proof' is that the 'Fitz' is the ONLY ship on the Great Lakes you can't dive on. Thousands of shipwrecks and it's the ONLY one! I just proved my so-called conspiracy is true.
@@kenkonwick6660 It holds more volume but isn't the largest lake by surface acres, I believe.
The line "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours" is one of the greatest lines from any song, from any time.
ABSOLUTELY the most chilling line I have ever heard in a song!
Makes me gasp, with tears in my eyes.
The best is “the searchers all say they would make white fish bay if they had put 15 more miles behind her”
Couldn't agree more!!
One of the most profound lines written…
Gordon Lightfoot is a Canadian icon. He gave all the money made on this song to the families of the men who parished that night.
I did not know that. Thank you.
Upon his passing, the Mariner's Church Gordon mentions in the song rang it's bell 30 times, 1 extra in honour of Gordon.
@@terrygaudio1053 Wow.
Being from Michigan I still tear up every time I hear it.
He also put it in his will. Every penny that the song ever makes will go to the families.
the Maritime Sailors Cathedral rang 30 times to honour Gordon when he passed for the 29 men of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Gordon.
They did the same thing at Saint Paul’s in Orillia when he was Laid to rest. I remember I was there for it and I got teary-eyed
I had an auinte who was married there
@@robertaewing5468Gordon started out singing in the church choir there. RIP Gord…
Hearing that 30th tolling of the bell would have been truly something
That’s cool. I went to the mass in ‘92 because of the song. Even though I knew the 29 chimes were coming, I still was caught off guard by how powerful it was.
The day Gordon Lightfoot died our local radio station played The Edmund Fitzgerald 30 times throughout the day, 29 times for the men who lost their lives & 1 more time for Gordon.
That made my throat tighten and my chest held it's breath, your home is precious to honor him so. He has been and still is much loved in the USA.
I had tickets for his tour, sadly not happened.
I remember when this song came out and, in Canada, it was in about the heaviest rotation possible. Not a bad thing, and if it wasn't for this song the 29 would have been as forgotten as the hundreds of sailors lost on the Great Lakes over the centuries.
I’m sure people were calling the station well before the 30th time begging them to stop playing it.
@@richardvinsen2385
Probably not, unless they new nothing of him.
What a tribute.
📻🙂
To help you out a little, Lake Superior, in which the "Big Fitz" sank, is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. It covers 82,100 sq. km (31,700 sq. mi.). The Fitz was an iron ore carrier, the largest plying the Great Lakes till 1971. She was 222 m (729 ft.) long, & weighed 13,632 tons empty. The Great Lakes can swallow an aircraft carrier, like an elephant swallows a peanut. The final image in the video is an artist's rendering of the Fitz, broken in 2 on the bottom of the Lake. This is Gordon's haunting tribute to the 29 sailors who lost their lives that night, & all who perish sailing the waters of the world. Thanks for your reaction.
And it sank in 1975.
@@yarsivad000.5 Right, I believe that was mentioned in this video. Thanks for your reply.
Have you been to the harbor in Duluth tho?
@@captainnibby Unfortunately, I have never had that privilege.
@cdfdesantis699 Since you brought up a carrier in this size comparison, for those who didn't know, we operated two training aircraft carriers on Lake Michigan during World War II so pilots could get experience without taking any from the combat fleets: the U.S.S. Sable and U.S.S. Wolverine.
" fellas, it's been good to know ya's " . That line still sends shivers. Gordon Lightfoot didn't write songs, he crafted them like an artist. He is legend in Canada, and well respected by many top artists. May he rest in peace, with thanks .
Does any one know where the love of God goes....
@@garrymoore2161Perhaps the most poignant, heartbreakingly artistic description of Fear & Despair.
This song rips my heart out (and the tears out of my tear ducts) every time!
When the old cook says that, it time to make your peace with God and tell Him you are coming home.
Not everyone can write a song that takes me there.
I was on that ship. I witnessed the cook saying that. I heard the wind in the wires making that tattle-tale sound.
Kicks me in the gut every time.
The ship was 728 feet long.
A Hurricaine West wind in land, as this ship was, is a sustained wind over 70 miles coming across from one direction on the lake and drives up waves that cap out over 20 to 30 feet high.
Sank 11/15/1975.
The ship was eventually located, the crew is with the shio and it is now a formal grave site. The original ship bell is in the museum in Detriot and the bell maker cast a new bell with the crews names and it was placed on the ship as their tombstone.
She sank on 10 November 1975. Not on the 15th.
The storm was bad, I had a coworker told me his dad was building a barn at the time, there were 3 walls up and they all got knocked down.
For reference, the RMS Titanic was 883 feet long, meaning Big Fitz was only 155 feet shorter than Titanic!
I believe the bell is located at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point
@@kevinduveneck1504 I'll have to go see it sometime
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” One of the most beautiful and iconic lines I’ve ever heard. Rest in Peace, Gordon Lightfoot, your poetry and music will live on forever.
If the outside temperature is ever too warm, play this song. From the opening chord to the parting chorus, the air temperature will drop 30 degrees. You will feel the bite of freezing rain and wind in the wires. The song gives you chills. Even more so since it is a true story.
The Radio reports between the Arthur M Anderson and the coast guard will give the real chills
Being from Michigan it's interesting to hear what an Aussie thinks about the Great Lakes. For as much as you admit you don't know you're making a lot of good guesses. Yeah full size ocean going vessels will come into the lakes from the St. Lawrence Seaway. The lakes are large enough to effect weather patterns. There were some radio communications between the Fitzgerald and another ship that was also caught in the storm but was about 10 miles behind. That ship noticed the Fitzgerald's lights disappear and also saw it vanish from radar. Whatever happened was so fast that no distress call was made. This was supposed to be the Fitzgerald's last trip before docking for the winter.
I have read many stories of shipwrecks on the lakes. It amazes me how many went down on the last trip of the season.
Rich men pushing for more riches, at the risk of working men!...from Wyoming USA 🇺🇸 👋🤠
The ship behind her was the SS Arthur M. Anderson. My friend was on the Anderson and he told about that experience of seeing her disappear. Still gives me chills to this day. I am from The Soo area and that storm was horrible even there.
Having been out on Lake Superior many times it is both amazingly beautiful and frightening at how small it makes you feel.
The Valley Camp Museum in Sault Ste. Marie has an Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial and Exhibit. In that exhibit are two of the lifeboats from her and seeing them is chilling.
This is a song I will never forget.
@Kriskat6 Yeah, water is nothing to mess around with! My buddy thought our area lakes were not really dangerous. Because he grew up on a giant lake in N.Dakota. He survived learning his lesson 👏!...from Wyoming USA 🇺🇸 👋 🤠
"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours" is, IMO, the greatest line ever written for a song.
I heard that the bell chimed 30 times at the Maritimers Cathedral when Gordon Lightfoot died. He was a great storyteller. When I saw him in concert in the mid 70s, this song had everyone in tears. RIP Gordon Lightfoot.
When he says the lake ever gives up her dead, he was being literal. Lake Superior is so deep and the bottom is so cold, that bodies don't decompose and float to the surface.
The wreckage of the Fitz was eventually found, but they were unable to recover any of the crew. The site has been declared a burial site, and no one is allowed to dive it, unless given express written permission from the Canadian government. And nothing is allowed to be removed. (Though the ships bell was brought up, and replaced with another, with the crews names and date of loss.
Glad to know it was designated a burial site and is being respected.
When Lightfoot turned 80 an anthology of poetry was commissioned to celebrate him and his work. I was invited to participate by the editor and wrote a prose poem about learning this song on the recorder back in grade 8. At the launch for the anthology Lightfoot showed up so I read the poem aloud to him which was both an honour and slightly intimidating.
Was quite a momentous occasion, no doubt, for a young boy! What a lovely memory for you as an adult; thank you for sharing it.
Yes, thank you for sharing such a wonderful memory with us.
I think most people cannot imagine how big the Great Lakes are
Or how bad the sailing conditions can get.
I grew up in Michigan and the storms tend to come out of nowhere. Even living there, it is unbelievable how huge these lakes are. Tried to swim in superior once in late August. Too cold. This was in a shallow beach area. Beautiful yet very dangerous.
@@ronhall5395for real. I’ve spent time on Lake Michigan almost every year. Some times it’s decent, sometimes it’s miserably cold.
Even the coldest I’ve felt Lake Michigan had nothing on Lake Superior in the heat of summer. Sapped the heat from my legs in no time. So painful.
I can, born there, Ashland, Superior. Still awed to this day.
Lake Superior definitely makes its own weather. I live about a hundred miles south of the lake. I cannot tell you how many times I've driven up to the lake and once you get to within about 30 miles of the lake, the weather changes. Colder, cloudy, rainy conditions can occur over the lake on days that are beautiful and sunny just a short distance away. And in November, when Arctic cold begins to mix with the warmer air to the south, combined with the lake effect, yeah, nasty stuff can definitely happen.
I grew up in Ontario around the Great Lakes and my father and all his brothers sailed on the lakes during the 1940's and 50's. Here's some context about the song and its setting. The Great Lakes are just that; great, as in large - very large. They are in essence, inland, freshwater seas. Superior is the the largest, coldest and most northerly of the 5 (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior). What I have been told by experienced sailors who have sailed on both the Oceans and the Great Lakes is that the Great Lakes can be more treacherous. This is because sets of waves can come at you in much quicker succession (the lakes, while huge are still nothing compared to the size of an ocean). You can also get prevailing winds coming from different directions at the same time, so you can have waves coming at you from multiple sides/different directions, all at once. Being that far north, winter and its storms come on like a freight train...hence the reference to the 'witch of November'.
The other thing that makes them dangerous is, you have ocean like weather but on a LAKE. Out on the ocean if you see a storm coming you can course correct by miles to avoid it. But if you tried do that on the Great Lakes, well a course change of several miles and you'll probably end up in someone's backyard.
It's not just November, either. Stan Rogers' "White Squall", "...even on a night so warm and fine."
My uncle was a fresh water sailor on the Great Lakes and knew many of men that died. He hated sailing on Lake Superior because it was so rough in a storm. Uncle Alex liked this song and said it was a fitting tribute to the ship and the men.
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship to have sunk in the Great Lakes. It was in 1975. It's maiden voyage was in 1958 and was the largest ship at the time to ship on the Great Lakes.
Thankyou for this information, however does this mean there are now bigger ships sailing the lakes?
@@OJBReactsI live in Michigan (born and raised here). The Great Lakes are basically land locked oceans. You can start at the bottom of the state, drive north 6 hours and if you look to your left, it’s still the same lake (Lake Michigan). Lake Superior is the largest body of freshwater on the planet. Lake Superior is so deep there is enough water to cover all of South America in 3 feet of water. With Lake Superior the storms are especially bad because the lake runs East to West. So in big storms the wind is equivalent to a hurricane force. People don’t normally expect 50 foot waves on a “lake”. On a funny note, I once saw a bumper sticker that said “4 out of 5 Great Lakes prefer Michigan”. A lot of people don’t realize that my state is made up of 2 peninsulas, the lower and upper peninsulas. Three if you count the thumb.
@@OJBReactsthere were probably larger freighters. Don’t know their names. There are ocean going vessels that can sail into the Great Lakes via the Saint Laurence Seaway. The size restrictions on the ships is due to limitations in the width and length of the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Not sure how wide the locks are, but they can handle a ship 1200 ft. or 365.76 meters in length.
You should check out a video by the Ask A Mortician channel, called something along the lines of, The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead. It covers some of the history of Lake Superior, it’s shipwrecks, especially the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the Kamloops, as well as the implications of preserving these wrecks as resting places of the dead, who still have immediate family members alive.
@@evilproducer01 Agreed. I saw that video. She did an excellent job on it. I believe it was, at least at it's release, her largest video undertaking. It is well worth a watch for anyone interested in the history of Lake Superior, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, and/or shipwrecks on Lake Superior.
@@OJBReactsMUCH BIGGER
I really appreciated your reaction to this. Gordon Lightfoot wrote this song in honor of the memory of these men since news outlets did such an awful job, even getting their names wrong. Gordon kept in touch with the family members up until his death. A truly kind and remarkable man. May he Rest In Peace. 🕊
Yes, someone in comments on another channel said that Gordon knocked this song out very quickly. He had come into the studio that day and they were talking about the wreck and the reporting and he wrote the song in something like an hour.
Lake Superior, where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, is about half the size of Tazmania. All told, the 5 lakes are about 245,000 square kilometers -about the size of the United Kingdom (or a little smaller than New Zealand). That should put the size of them into decent context.
Relatively large ships can fully transit the entire great lakes system. The 'Seaway Max' is 225m long by 24m wide by 8m draft (and max height of 35m). There are freighters confined to the upper great lakes that can be 300m in length.
The great lakes are a graveyard of ships, with more wrecks per square kilometre than the Bermuda Triangle. Main reason is that out on the open ocean, a ship can usually go around a storm. But as big as the Great Lakes are, they may as well be a bathtub when it comes to dodging a storm. So the ships have to either head for sheltered waters, or just ride it out.
A high percentage of the wrecks occur in November. Not because its especially stormy, although the weather can still get pretty bad. Its because November is a very busy month. In the winter, the lake shipping industry shuts down. The ports (if not the lakes themselves) are usually frozen & its impossible to operate the canals & locks. So a lot of places try to stock up in November. Also, most of the year, if the weather looks really bad you can wait a day or two before heading out. But at the end of the shipping season, there simply aren't many good sailing days left. And a week from now, things might be worse than they are today. So people push their luck & a lot of ships have been lost as a result.
Tasmania is about 26,000 sq mi and Lake Superior is about 32,000 sq mi.
Gordon Lightfoot is legend in Canada and was respected and loved by the families of the lost crew.
US AND CANADA Great Lakes. I was raised in Michigan
Gordon Lightfoot was one of the best story tellers. Rest in Peace.
My dad worked on the Great Lakes freighters. He was a lifelong sailor (WWII navy and merchant marines after) and I grew up hearing the stories of Great Lakes ship wrecks including the Edmund Fitzgerald. This song is seared into my soul.
Thank you very much for reacting to wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
That song means so much to people on both sides of the Great Lakes. Thank you
As bob dylan said, lightfoot never wrote a bad song ..as a proud Canadian 🇨🇦, he is one of my favorite artists
Totally agree.
Absolutely 💯 agree.
I'm a Minnesota boy, and my dad grew up on the "Iron Range" and I've heard this song and the "folk tales" about the ship my whole life. Gordon Lightfoot did an awesome job of making it an epic.
What always stuck with me was the Captain and another crew member were on their final shipment as they were officially retiring once they made their delivery and returned home. All crew members were very experienced, it's just how dangerous the Lake Superior truly is. Also when the song says "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead" is not being facetious, it's true. When you go down in that lake due to how cold the bottom is all year round the bacteria that make a body float cannot form and your body will become basically encased in adipocere. Which is a waxy material composed of long chain hydrocarbons such as oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids. (The channel Ask A Mortician did a video on the shipwreck, it has much more details)
After hearing this song once, I can't help but to tear up before the lyrics even start when hearing it again. Every time. Having been on ships in severe storms, the rattling the wires, and against the railings, and metal truly is an almost ominous sound with the background of the waves, and wind. It's something you really have to experience to fully understand.
Some people wonder and are surprised by how quick he described the wreck, and crew. He goes a few lines into the storm, then only 2-3 lines for the sudden wreck, and ask why he didn't go into it more. I think this is for several reasons. One of which, is because the wreck itself happened so fast for the crew. Another boat who had the lights of the Edmund in sight, said that the whole ship went down extremely fast. I think Gordon was trying to relay that, by making the actual section about ship going down also being very quick.
I get the same kind of gut punch as I do from listening to Cats In The Cradle.
An amazingly soulful ballad, written by Gordon Lightfoot. That haunting guitar rift fits the mood to a tee..
The line - "Does anyone know where the love of God goes?" - is a perfect observation for situations like this.
When Gordon passed away in May 2023... they rang the bell thirty times as a tribute to him.
RIP Gordon
A Masterpiece for the ages.
Imagine- 100 years from now.....200 years from now...people will be listening to this incredible song.
Arguably some of the best song lyrics I've ever heard. And beautifully set to music and hauntingly sung.
The other thing to know Gordon gave all proceeds of this song to the families of men that were on the ship.
The reference to Gitchee Gumee (the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior) is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. Gordon Lightfoot was a genius! He has so many amazing songs that people deserve to know: If You Could Read My Mind, Rainy Day People, In the Early Morning Rain, Sundown, Beautiful, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Carefree Highway, For Lovin' Me...and many more.
To answer one of your early questions, the ship sizes are limited on the Great Lakes Seaway system by the width of the locks they must traverse. Each lake is higher in elevation than the one below, so the ships must enter a lock and be raised up. Welland Canal, which allows ships to bypass Niagara Falls, is 80 feet or 24.4 meters wide. There is a total of 16 locks to enter in order to get from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior. Superior is 600 feet higher than the Atlantic.
Interestingly, Michigan and Huron are really one big lake. There's no difference in elevation.
Superior is a bit higher and you need to go down a river to get from Superior to Huron.
Of course the really big drop is between Erie and Ontario. That would be Niagara Falls.
@@protorhinocerator142 I once did work for a short period of time on an ore boat, the JP Morgan Junior. The only locks I remember were in soo saint marie on the river to avoid some rapids. To get from Huron to Erie there were no locks and I just checked to be sure. After 60 years ago, one can forget.
I went no further east than lake Erie.
I’ve lived on my boat for the last 8 years and I’ve gone through too many storms to count and two hurricanes. This song brings images and feelings back to times when “the minutes seemed like hours”. And listening today has put a knot in my stomach remembering. But I love Mother Ocean when she’s nice.
Haunting, no doubt! That longer musical interlude before he sings about the families praying in the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral, is what I consider to be representative of the lengthy period of time that it must have felt for the sailors and for their families after the Captain wired to shore that "there was water coming in and the good ship and crew was in peril". They had waited all night for further word as the storm raged, but there was nothing. That was the last message received from the Edmund Fitzgerald. All 29 aboard died when the big freighter went down that night.
Canadian singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote and released that song in 1976, in honour of the crew that perished on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot died on May 1, 2023, at the age of 84. On the day of his funeral, the churchbell chime at the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral in Detroit was rung 30 times, one for each of the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and one for Gordon Lightfoot, whose song had so reverently ensured that these men would not be forgotten. May they all rest in peace.
Major respect for sure from the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral.
Well said
@@robertscotton9339 Thank you. Very kind of you to say so.
Gordon Lightfoot was a master songwriter and storyteller. This song always sends chills up my spine, love it.
The events happened November 10, 1975. The 29 men on the crew were lost. There was one "survivor", The main cook was laid up sick and unable to go on the ship that day.
November the weather is extremely unpredictable on the Great Lakes, especially Superior, they usually come later in the months.
The winds shifted from a north wind to a west wind which put a lot more water between them and the land causing larger waves.
Out of respect to the families and crew he later changed the line about the main hatchway to something else in live performances.
Late in the trip with the Arthur M Anderson following not too far behind and assisting with navigation due to the Fitz having lost their radar, the Captain of the Anderson asked how they were doing, Captain McSorley replied with "We are holding our own." Then a short time after the Fitz vanished from view and radar. During the later part of the trip their bilge pumps were working hard.
One of the best written ballads ever. What an artist!
Oh, BTW, the Great Lakes contain about 1/5th of all the fresh water on the planet. When you talk about seeing across them, I had a good laugh. Take a real tour of them with RUclips, just to get some perspective, if you are up for it.
The day after Gordon passed, the Maritime church rang the bell 29 times + 1. Another neat fact about the song is that recording is the first time played by the band and done in a single take and released in 1976 . The Fitz went down the previous November
I was in college when this happened. Everyone who lived in the area of the Great Lakes at the time knew about this wreck. For context, the Fitz was part of a class of freighters designed to carry iron ore from the mines in the northern part of the Great Lakes to the steel factories in the southern part of the Great Lakes. The ships were enormous, larger than most of the ocean going freighters that would enter the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway from the North Atlantic (but smaller than the modern supertankers or container ships). When she was built in the 1950s, the Fitz was the largest of the lake freighters at something less than 800 ft. When she sank there were larger boats. There were no survivors so Gordon was exercising some poetic license when describing the conversations between the cook and crew. So, no one knows exactly what happened. Whatever happened it was sudden and catastrophic. Another freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson was trailing the Fitz by about 10 miles and they were in periodic radio communication. One minute the Anderson had the Fitz on radar, and then it was gone. When the wreck was located a few years later, she was found to have literally broken in half. The storm that happened that night was not a hurricane. Rather, it had straight line winds that were classified as hurricane force. This may not be entirely accurate, but I seem to remember reading at the time that there were sustained winds of 90 mph gusting to over 100mph, and the waves were running 20 - 30 ft. As another commenter said, the reason these Great Lakes storms can be so dangerous is that the waves tend to come much closer together than on the open ocean, and also, they can come from multiple directions.
Yes, I believe it was what they call three sisters (waves coming from three angles) that claimed the Fitz and her crew.
Was privileged to have seen / heard Lightfoot in concert , in a small venue outside Philly ......several years BEFORE this song , and the tragedy with inspired the song ...One of the true story tellers of the last Century ..
Gordon Lightfoot wasn't just a song writer and singer, he was a story teller. His songs told stories that people could connect to. His loss is a deep one for our country. I'm happy you chose to share his music with your followers. Maybe his music will reach more people. And I strongly encourage you and your followers to go and listen to more of his music. It's great music for sure. Influenced many singers, and many of of his songs were covered by others, like Peter, Paul & Mary, The Irish Rovers, The Seekers, and many others.
I've been in the middle of Lake Michigan, one of the "Great Lakes", when a storm rolled in. My father, and his best friend had been drunkenly fishing all day. I was supposed to be fishing too. When I pointed at the black squall line headed for us, both my dad and his friend hesitated, thinking it would break up before hitting us. I was in a 25' foot boat when the storm wailed on us. The waves came with the winds. Then the rain pummeled us. We were literally in the middle of the lake. I could not see my hometown of Sheboygan, nor could I see the shores of Michigan. My drunk father and his friend were so consumed with saving the fishing down-riggers and other equipment, that they had me pilot the boat towards our home. I pointed the boat west via the compass, as i saw nothing but sky, then water, sky then water. I couldn't see the horizon almost at all. My Father got sick, and his friend passed out as I, at 12 years old, learned how to drive a boat in the fierce storms that can kill entire cargo ships. I was certain, we were going to die. The waves were massive, and our tiny boat was not built for that. The storms on the Great Lakes are deadly.
That, son, is a good sailor's story. Thanks.
Good God! How awful! To do that to a kid is totally wrong and unforgivable! So sorry for your sad tale. Drink has destroyed and affected many lives. It also angers me to hear of grown men being so irresponsible.
I always knew when my teenage daughter was depressed..she played this over and over. Not only thev record made me cry but the fact that she was dealing with the pain of loosing her little sister. So here i am crying again...RIP to all lost loved ones ...and Gordon. ( one of his last performances in the US was right up the road from me butvthere wasnt enough tissues in the world for me to go here him)
For almost 50 years this Aussie gets choked up every time I hear Gordon sing the tail of the Edmond Fitzgerald 😢 for the crew and the families left behind.
Ocean going ships can use the St. Lawerence seaway to get from the Atlantic ocean to the Great Lakes, and can go as far as Thunder Bay, on the western end of Lake Superior
They go get to Duluth, MN wich is west of Thunder Bay.
Yeah the Great Lakes ports are busy with salties, ocean going ships.
The problem with big waves on the Lakes is they don't roll the way ocean waves do. There is a return chop from the shores that creates a kind of corkscrew motion.
I've seen some pretty huge ocean-going ships in Duluth when my Mom used to take me down to the piers
The disaster was November 10, 1975. The song was released in summer of 1976. November is when the weather cools down to cold. The locks at Sault Ste. Marie freeze over whenever they want! There were no survivers.
Everything thing seems to have been done right.
It was sobering for me to realize that things can go that wrong in our modern era.
A Michigander
The song is much beloved, when Gordon Lightfoot passed the cathedral bell was rung 30 times to honor his memory
Gordon was a lyrical genius. A poetic singer that could paint a picture that was truly worth every word. Gordon took on this project almost immediately after he read about the wreck in the newspaper. Every penny this song made for him was given to the families of the 29 sailors lost that day.
I've always loved how the guitar has an almost spectral , ghostly feel to it.
One of the more emotional and expressive reactions I've seen to this song. Based on a real event that happened in November 1975. GL and his band were so tight with each other that the recorded version you heard (aside from live shows) was from the very first studio session they did, without rehearsal.
Hard to listen to without shedding tears.
Buddy, you did an absolute magnificent breakdown of this song/ story. I really enjoyed it. ✌🏻
We listened to this on the radio as it happened.
We listened to this song on the radio and found healing.
Thanks for the memories, rough and good alike.
Tears in my eyes right now watching this, I think because this guy totally gets it and really digs the song!
Edmund Fitzgerald was built in 1958. It was 729 ft long, 75 ft wide , 39 ft high, and had a 25 ft draft. It sank during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975 with a crew of 29, who were all lost. The song by Gordon Lightfoot was released in 1976.
The 29 crew members of the Edmund Fitzgerald were the ages between their early 20's to their early 60's. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" always brings me to tears each time I listen to it since it was first released in 1976 when I was just 20 back then.
This is one of of my favorite songs of all time! Gordon Lightfoot was a magical song writer and singer! The music was so perfect!
It is such a haunting song, yet so magically fascinating!
Your smile when you hear about death and destruction is unsettling.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was named after the insurance CEO that owned the ship as an asset. Gordon saw a small right-up in a magazine about the tragedy and felt that the piece didn't do justice to the crew, and penned the song. As others have commented, money earned from this song was donated by Gordon to the families. The Captain was to have retired the next year. Gordon's iconic song ensured that even though the Edmund Fitzgerald is at the bottom of Lake Superior, she and her crew will always be remembered and never forgotten. The ship was located nine days after she was last heard from. The most poignant line for me is, "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours." The area is designated a monument and graveyard, and is deemed sacred. Special permission has to be obtained to dive down to her. I watched a documentary about the ship several years ago and it was eerie to see her at the bottom of the lake, knowing that 29 people rested there. Gordon was a Canadian treasure. His songs are so beautiful.
Driving around Lake Superior is a 1,300 mile (2,092 km) drive. The Trans Superior Yacht Race is 338 nautical miles, from Sault Saint Marie, MI (near where the Fitzgerald went down) to Duluth, MN (near where the Fitzgerald departed). The Paul R. Tregurtha is currently the largest ship on that great lakes at 1,013 feet 6 inches (308.91 m). If you're interested in seeing some great lakes ships, the Duluth Harbor Cam is a great RUclips channel. You'll see great lakes freighters, foreign cargo ships, and even some cruise ships leaving and entering Lake Superior through the Duluth harbor canal. I grew up in Superior, WI, which is where the Fitzgerald started its final journey.
Lightfoot was a beloved Canadian singer and supreme storyteller. My first ever concert was his performance in 1969 at Place des Arts in Montreal. I believe it's Lightfoot's iconic voice as well as his talent for poetic lyrics that make this tragic song so compelling to listen to. Glad you enjoyed one of our national treasures.
When my buddy was in Detroit a number of years ago, he actually went to the real Maritime Sailors Cathedral that's mentioned in the song.
The Fitz's sister ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, is still in service and continues to run the same route to this day.
I live near Detroit and ride my bike past it often.
Is that the one that's right on the riverside next to the tunnel? I've been past it several times but never in
It's actually called 'Mariners Church, on Jefferson between he RenCen and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. I highly recommend the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. They have a complete bridge of a Great Lakes freighter, and the actual bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald that Jacques Cousteau recovered.
Yes @@linkspeaks
@gordieparenteau6555 The Arthur M Anderson is not the Fitzgerald's sister ship. The sister ship is named Arthur B Homer.
The Anderson was the ship following Fitzgerald in the storm and the first to report her loss. She and the William Clay Ford were the only ships able to answer the initial call to search for survivors.
total area of the great lakes is 244,106 sq km. with a length of 3700 km. Freighters are 300 + meters long. Ive lived on the lakes my whole life and have swam in each
The Maritime Sailors Cathedral in Lightfoot's song is today Mariners' [Anglican] Church on the Detroit River in Downtown Detroit. The parish was first formed as a Christian church in the 1800s for all sailors to pray as they traveled through Detroit on the Great Lakes ships. Detroit was the center point of the lakes and the largest commercial center on the lakes, and it made sense to have the church there. Each fall a special service is celebrated there at the close of the navigation season and in the spring, another service to pray for the sailors during the new navigation season on the lakes. Yes, the lakes freeze over in the winter. Before emancipation of slaves in the United States, the church was used as a safe house with secret chambers underneath the church building to hide those slaves in transit. Freedom was just across the river in Canada. My grandmother was one of many patrons of Mariners Church from the 1920s into the 1950s and she told me many stories about the church.
Ships from all over the world travel the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway that connects the North Atlantic Ocean with the furthest northwest points of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin. The Seaway, a joint project between the U.S. and Canada that opened access of ships from the world over, opened in 1959 as a navigation system of the dredged St. Lawrence River and several locks. Ships like the Edmund Fitzgerald are very long ships of from 800 to 1000 feet in length that carry iron ore in holds located along the length of the ship. This is the iron that created Detroit automobiles from 1900 until today. Also, the Great Lakes do not have hurricanes but rather huge gales that can have the intensity of an average hurricane. And these long ore boats can break up in such conditions especially if the holds are compromised as in the case of the Fitzgerald.
Many stories of over 300 years on the Great Lakes.
Well there was a hurricane in the 1940s that stated intact all the way to the Canadian maritime provinces. Unusual but right now Hurricane Hillary is affecting the weather in the southern Rocky Mountain deserts. Las Vegas expects a years worth of rain this coming week.
The reason Gordon Lightfoot changed the lyrics for the song is because after The Fitz was found they said that lids for the cargo holds were not the reason the ship sank and it exonerated the crew of being at fault for the sinking.
A beautifully written full meal of music and haunting melodies, with a poetic stomach punch, you never forget.
I will never forget the first time I heard it!
Love this song and your reactions. When I heard this song, I also had a difficult time imagining how large the lake was. I also remember seeing the film Ordinary People in which two brothers were sailing in Lake Michigan in the Chicago area when a storm came up and capsized them and one brother died. That was 1980, and I had never see any of the Great Lakes and could not invision a storm on a lake causing so much havoc.
The poetry and musical beauty of this song as well as Gordon’s voice have always captivated me.
Having lived my whole life on the shores of the great lakes I never cease to be awed by their power. When the song states that Superior never gives up her dead that is an absolute fact. The lake is so cold the bodies don't decompose so unlike the other warmer lakes they don't float up to surface. In fact some of them have been filmed and photographed in and around wreck. The families had to go to court a few years ago to stop the images being made public. The ship is in Canadian waters so our government has designated it a gravesite and it is now off limits to the public.
They filmed the bodies!?
@@Ira88881 They sent a remote submersible down to investigate wreck once it was located. As bodies do not decompose in those conditions, some of the lost crew were seen on the monitor and thus seen/recorded. The bodies being filmed was incidental to the investigation.
They are ocean going ships, they don't just sail on the lakes. The St. Lawrence seaway is used to get to and from the Atlantic Ocean. You are literally the only person I have ever seen react to this song and smile all the way through it. I remember when this happened, so does everyone who lived near the Great lakes at the time. Both sides of the border. The bells rang 30 times this year, 29 for those who died in 1975, and once for Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away this year.
Gordon Lightfoot had a deep catalogue of classics - Carefree Highway, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Walls, Sundown, Steel Rail Blues, Black Day In July, Wherefore and Why, Home From the Forest, Song For A Winter's Night, Early Morning Rain, Did She Mention My Name and many others including another great maritime tragedy song - Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle.
Wonderful reaction to one of the best songs of the 20th Century. I have studied language and English literature some, and it's interesting how people can sometimes have their thinking channeled by details of language. In English, a body of water is a "lake" if it is full of fresh water, no matter how big it is. Okay; so the Great lakes are lakes, but to me, really, Superior at least is an inland sea. It's just that in English if you want to call it an inland sea, you have to qualify your statement, something like this: "Superior is an inland sea, though unlike the normal use of the word 'sea' it is fresh water, not salt." "Inland sea" better characterizes the size and power of Gitchee Gumee; its waves and winds.
A detail about the legend which has made the song more moving to me: To the Indians, normally you have to give someone's remains proper burial if their spirit is to rest properly in the next world. As mentioned in other comments, Superior is so cold that the normal decay that produces gasses and brings a body to the surface does not happen. I understand that the deep waters of Superior are low in oxygen, which contributes to this process. In fact Superior is right around freezing all year round below the first few meters. In summer the surface is a comfortable place to swim. Those who dive into the lake occasionally get a frigid shock.
"...the big lake they call Gitchee Gumee." Something about the name has added to the impact of the song for me, and I thought I share it too: A literal translation of "Gitchee Gumee" is "Big Sea Water." Apparently "gumee" means "sea water", a body of water like a sea. Now literally, "Gitchee" is here translated as "big". But this leaves out an important connotation of the word to the Indians. "Manitou" is translated as "spirit." Now many of the Indians, while believing in many powerful spirits all around them, were in fact monotheists. They believed on one spirit above all the others; the "Great Spirit." Their name for him was "Gitchee Manitou." Sometmes referred to as "Gitchee Manitou the Mighty." So the word "gitchee" meant more than just big in measurement. It meant of a different level of importance. To them, something holy was going on when Gitchee Gumee did not give up her dead. I like to think they thought the spirits of these dead were taken to another good place by the Great Spirit, but that's just a wish on my part; I have no idea what they really though.
i remember when this happened. Lived near the lakes most my life. this has always been a powerful tribute to the Fitz and all those tied to her.
Great reaction. You asked the right questions, and had a good feeling for the lyrics
It was awesome to watch your reaction and hear your brilliant insight. How you relished every word and when you picked up on the fact that they had to go hungry. It is so good to know there are young people like you with amazing intelligence and sensitivity. This song and story goes right through me every time. I was 15 when this happened. My dad was a navy man in WW2 and a fisherman so I was raised on the stories. You have a beautiful heart, never change. You didn't miss a thing, that's awesome!!!
The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729-feet long. I believe any bigger and it could not fit into the locks that make up the St Lawrence Seaway. Lake Superior is about 350 miles long, and over 160 miles wide at its widest, to give you some context
The largest Great Lakes ships are 1000 feet long. There are currently 13 of them in service.
It was at the time. Written by Gordon. He was also a sailor on the Great Lakes in his sail boat, named Silver Heels I believe. His possibly greatest song was The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. It is the song he closed his concerts with. The crowd/fan’s favourite. Saw him many times. Great memories. A true Canadian icon.
Gordon Lightfoot wasn't just a musician he was a story teller, this is one of the more haunting songs.
By the way there are things called steel mills so "Mill" may not have meant lumber.
There is a line in the movie "November Man" that says "We used to call you november man because after you came everything died." November is when winter starts to show its teeth up here.
What a great song. It’s always on my favorites playlist!
Curious about the Edmund Fitzgerald’s size, it was 729 feet (222 meters). The maximum length for Great Lakes Freighters is 1000 feet ( 305 meters ) capped by the size of the locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron
Gordon wrote the song soon after the wreck. Where he got that stuff about the cook and the other conversations is from sailirs that had survived at the fringe of such storms whose ships managed to steer toward safe harbor to ride out the storms. They had those sorts of conversations, an the fact is that meals might reasonably be suspended if all hands are required to maneuver the ship. If you're dealing with a hurricane, the winds are far too rough for the ship to move smoothly enough to allow meal service anyway. I was in the Navy. I have been involved in such storms at sea. Serving on a submarine, we just go deep and wait out the storm. Nonetheless, there are still difficulties to deal with.
The Great Lakes create their own weather fronts, are especially when weather is turning into winter the gales can become like hurricanes. Once winter hits, most of the Lakes are closed to any shipping (ice). Lake Superior is the largest and deepest (700' +). On this particular storm consisted of 2 weather fronts merging over Lake Superior. You should see a couple of the videos on the theories of what caused the sinking of this ship. The ship had unloaded cargo in Wisconsin, then travelled up to Duluth, MN and took on a full load (26,000 tons) of taconite iron ore pellets with the trip to be made to Cleveland for processing. If you're on a ship in the Great Lakes in Nov/Dec, and something happens causing it to sink, you have about 10 minutes in the icy waters - that is why it is said the Lake never gives up her dead in November gales/storms.
I live in Michigan and years ago, not, all that long after the Fitz sank, I did a research paper on the wreck. I was at University of Michigan and my degree is in history and I’m a Great Lakes specialist. The ship sank on November 10, 1975 after probably striking shoals in Canadian waters. There’s some poetic liberties taken in the song. They left in good weather and hit two storms coming together. Superior is one of the largest and deepest inland bodies of water in the world and storms on the lakes, particularly Superior, can be worse than on the open seas because of the relative confinement. There was a ship traveling with the Fitz, the Arthur M Anderson that still sails today and it’s a smaller vessel compared to the 1000 footers that now sail the lakes.
The Fitz knew she was taking on water, had a list, but the Captain told the Anderson his pumps were handling it. It went down very quickly 17 miles from Whitefish Point. They were heading for the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. There’s a Shipwreck Museum at the point where the ship’s bell has been brought up and is rung every November 10th at a memorial that’s live-streamed at 7PM, roughly the time the ship went down, around 7:10.
Gordon Lightfoot changed the lyrics after surviving family members protested. The hatches did not give in and the rector at Mariner’s Church did not like it described as musty. I’ve been to both memorials.
The ship is in two pieces on the bottom. One is upside down. There has been one body seen. It’s a grave though and diving is no longer allowed. It probably did not break up on the surface.
You can see the memorial on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum Facebook page.
Others have made the point that a hurricane force wind is not necessarily in a hurricane, a tropical cyclone called a typhoon in the western Pacific.
The other point is the song is also about the "wives and the sons and the daughters" waiting by their TVs, radios, and telephones for what we already know would be the worst possible news. We are also with them at their memorial service as they listened for a specific name and the tolling of a low bell.
Overall, I enjoyed his reaction to this song.
This was one of my favourite songs and was played every day on the radio in the late 70's in Australia.
The Edmond Fitzgearld was indeed very sad, and a great song was written about it by Gordon Lightfoot, However there is never a mention of the Ocean Ranger February 15 1982
THe Church bell chimed 30 times when Gordon Lightfoot Passed. He was a fantastic singer and writer. An Icon for sure. Happen in 1975. I was 15 and living in Michigan. I remember the story so well.
You got it so well with respect to the scale of the maritime event. A hurricane is a hurricane, whether it's in the Atlantic or on lake Superior. The Great Lakes are full of shipwrecks like so many waterways. I was in high school in the 70's when this happened. It was a blip in the network news at the time but became much more well known due to Gordon Lightfoot's epic saga; such a tribute. It's a human story!
My father worked on the boats as a cook for many years.....including the Fitz....
I've been aboard her a few times myself....
We knew many of the men personally......
Rest in Peace....
Michael Armagost- 37- Third Mate- Iron River, Wisconsin
Fred Beetcher- 56- Porter- Superior, Wisconsin
Thomas Bentsen- 23- Oiler- St. Joseph, Michigan
Edward Bindon -47- First Asst. Engineer- Fairport Harbor, Ohio
Thomas Borgeson -41- Maintenance Man- Duluth, Minnesota
Oliver Champeau- 41-Third Asst. Engineer- Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Nolan Church -55 -Porter -Silver Bay, Minnesota
Ransom Cundy- 53- Watchman- Superior, Wisconsin
Thomas Edwards-50- Second Asst. Engineer- Oregon, Ohio
Russell Haskell -40- Second Asst. Engineer- Millbury, Ohio
George Holl -60- Chief Engineer- Cabot, Pennsylvania
Bruce Hudson- 22- Deck Hand -North Olmsted, Ohio
Allen Kalmon -43- Second Cook- Washburn, Wisconsin
Gordon MacLellan- 30- Wiper- Clearwater, Florida
Joseph Mazes- 59- Special Maintenance Man -Ashland, Wisconsin
John McCarthy -62-First Mate -Bay Village, Ohio
Ernest McSorley -63 -Captain -Toledo, Ohio
Eugene O'Brien- 50- Wheelsman -Toledo, Ohio
Karl Peckol -20- Watchman -Ashtabula, Ohio
John Poviach -59- Wheelsman- Bradenton, Florida
James Pratt -44- Second Mate- Lakewood, Ohio
Robert Rafferty -62 -Steward -Toledo, Ohio
Paul Riippa -22 -Deck Hand -Ashtabula, Ohio
John Simmons -63 -Wheelsman -Ashland, Wisconsin
William Spengler -59- Watchman- Toledo, Ohio
Mark Thomas -21- Deck Hand- Richmond Heights, Ohio
Ralph Walton -58- Oiler- Fremont, Ohio
David Weiss -22 -Cadet -Agoura, California
Blaine Wilhelm -52- Oiler- Moquah, Wisconsin
Well done. The names are important and must be remembered.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was 728 feet long ( 221.894 meters) which was the largest freighter when she was built in 1958. There are now ships that are 1000 feet long hauling loads to ports throughout the Great Lakes. The Fitz went down so fast, that there was no distress call sent.The last message sent to the Arthur M Anderson, the ship which was following , was that they were holding their own. They got caught out in the open when a severe weather front turned and were running for shelter. Look up the story of the incident. There were no survivors.
What a wonderful reaction - thanks! I'm subscribing!
A few days after Gordon Lightfoot died, just this past May 1, 2023, I was moved to tears -- literally crying when I heard on the news that the same church bells that ring out in the song rang out once more... The song always, always give me real chills. The actual events happened in Lightfoot's (and my) lifetime:
"He was always part of the 29 families of the men who went down on the Edmund Fitzgerald. But with one ring of a church bell, Lightfoot is now one of them.
"For the first time since the legendary laker went down off Whitefish point in Lake Superior, near Sault Ste. Marie, on Nov. 10, 1975, the bells of the Mariners’ Church of Detroit rang 30 times to commemorate that tragic day.
"The first 29 were for the ship’s crew. The 30th was for Lightfoot, who died Monday at the age of 84."
I am so sorry; I clicked away from the news website where I got that quote, so I'm not sure what network it came from. Anyway, Lightfoot was a treasure, not just of Canada, but of a generation of us who grew up on singer/songwriters. He performed well into his "golden years,", and he left a legacy that can't be beaten. But it is still always sad when a legend passes. You really should check out his catalog -- he had quite a few major hits.
A steel mill is where the chunks of iron ore are broken up and concentrated before being sent to the smelter.
yeah, the Fitz was loaded at an Ore Dock, not a mill.
My dad was a merchant seaman on the Great Lakes sailing Superior, Michigan, and Huron from 1937 to 1942 when he went to navy pilot training. When this happened in 1975, he talked about it for months. We heard stories we’d never heard him tell about his time on the Great Lakes.
I would recommend also checking out his song “Canadian Railroad trilogy”. He wrote it over the weekend when CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp. - TV) requested he do a song for them to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the confederation agreement that created Canada in 1867.
I've lived here on the big lake for 20 years and in the autumn the lake does what it wants when it wants. It's great for the surfers. I've seen 30 foot waves crashing into the stone cliffs. The storms are beautiful
Some of the Great Lakes are shallower than others. Superior is so deep that it also means it is very cold. When the winds blow at hurricane strength there is no way to warm up the water. Even in the heat of summer, the lake is still cold enough to kill. Because it is so cold, bodies sink instead of floating as as they do in warmer.
I was up in Canada a few years ago, and I had the pleasure of seeing one of these freighters. It was immense
It is so cold at the bottom of Lake Superior that bodies don't rot and produce gases that would make the bodies float to the surface, you become fish food and no one evers sees your body. Gordon wrote this because it intrigued him that few articles covered it 1975 except in passing, he wanted the world to know about these 29 people and the ship that disappeared. He made the tragic event forever present in our consciousness. R.I.P. Gordon & the 29 sailors who lost their lives & the families who live on.
I still remember when the Fitzgerald went down. We live next to Lake Erie. When storms blows up over the Great Lakes it's very serious. Even now in the winter we have had some 5 to 9 foot of snow in one storm.
This occurs on our Great Lakes, as they are inland, and like small oceans. Look at a map of the United States, and at the eastern end of the states and Canada, you'll see the "Great Lakes." Some are larger than some states.
The fact this is a tribute to 29 men who lost their lives in an instant makes this a very chilling song.
You have to really research the reports of the wreck in the Great Lakes Museum. There are a ton of specifications and records that you can find online about the ship.
The coast guard reports of the sinking of the ship is a very important part, then listen to the song again.
It is important to research the ship and its history and you will find a very different meaning to the song.
Without the back history most think this is just a song.
I was born in 71 it sank in 75 and I was adopted as an infant in Traverse City MI so this really has a connection for me.