“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”and its Shipwreck Mystery

S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald freighter claimed the lives of the 29 crew members on board, forty years ago on November 10, 1975, the . If you want to know ahow it all happened, Gordon Lightfoot does an exceptional job with his songwriting abilities and folk story re-telling of that fateful night on Lake Superior, one of the five Great Lakes. His single version of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” excellently relay some of the narratives that happened during the unfortunate event.  Appearing originally on Lightfoot’s 1976 album Summertime Dream, Lighfoot’s song hit number 1 in his native Canada on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster. Also, it was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

The mystery unlocked

The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed in books, film, and media only by that of the Titanic. November 10, 1975 is one of the saddest day in history. This was the day Edmund Fitzgerald lost his entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior located at 17 miles north-west of Whitefish Point, Michigan. No exact account could explain what really happened in the ship that day. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society has conducted three underwater expeditions to the wreck, 1989, 1994, and 1995. On July 4, 1995,  Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society recovered Fitzgerald’s 200 lb. bronze bell. The bell is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew.