Shipwreck Anniversary

posted by Johnny A on Thursday November 9, 2006

Filed under: Legend of The Ancient Mariner, Tips From The Safety Squad

Today is the anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The freighter S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. It was shipping taconite ore from Superior, Wisconsin to a steel mill in Michigan. It was the last run of the season for the ship before it moored in Cleveland for the winter. But then an unexpected storm hit, forcing the ship to change course. The ship lost its radar and began taking on water. It sank off the coast of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, killing all 29 men on board.

Shortly after the sinking, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote his famous song the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The song maintains a tragic, mythic tone while giving an account of the event that’s accurate and rich in detail (e.g., it reports the ship’s cargo capacity: “with a load of iron ore / 26,000 tons more / than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty�). It is a central shipwreck song, right up there with Woody Guthrie’s The Sinking of the Reuben James and the theme song to Gilligan’s Island.

Observe a moment of silence for the victims today. Then spend the night with a bottle of Canadian whisky, a copy of Gord’s Gold (Lightfoot’s Best Of cd), and people you love.