Flashback Friday: The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

 

 

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of a big lake they call Gitche Gumee,
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early." 

 

SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Image courtesy/Wikipedia

 

 Fifty years ago this month, the American Great Lakes freighter, SS Edmund Fitzgerald,
embarked on her last journey, which ended in tragedy on November 10, 1975 when the
vessel sank during a violent, late autumn storm on Lake Superior, resulting in the loss 
 of the entire crew of  29 men aboard.  The remains of the ship were recovered
 several days later during a search conducted by the United States Navy. 

 The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship ever to sink in Lake Superior.

In 1976, the great Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote 
and composed the haunting ballad, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" 
in memory of the lives lost in the terrible maritime tragedy. 

 Lightfoot considered the song to be his finest work.

"The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" was a Number 1 hit song in Canada on
November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster.  In the United States, it was
 a Number One Hit song on Cashbox, and reached Number 2 where it
 stayed for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
(1976)
Gordon Lightfoot