What Gordon Lightfoot left off from the Edmund Fitgerald song

[GON]

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank on 10 November 1975, 29 Sailors lives were lost on Lake Superior.

What is not so well discussed in on 10 November on Lake Superior there were two other deadly shipwrecks. I did a google search and only found one, but believe as accurate yet another ship (freighter) sank on Lake Superior on 10 November.

SS Henry B. Smith was a steel-hulled lake freighter built in 1906 by the American Ship Building Company at Lorain, Ohio USA. The steamship was owned by the Acme Transit Company of Lorain, Ohio, under the management of William A. Hawgood. The hull number was 343 and the registration number was US203143.

Henry B. Smith was 545 feet in length, 55 feet in width, and 31 feet in height. The gross tonnage for the vessel was 6,631, and the net tonnage was 5,229. The engine was a triple-expansion type. She was named for Henry B. Smith (1849-1918), a prominent lumberman who was managing owner of the Ludington Woodenware Company in Ludington, Michigan.

The ship foundered and was lost in Lake Superior near Marquette, Michigan, on 10 November 1913 during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. She was carrying a load of iron ore at the time of her sinking. All 25 crew members died in the sinking, and only two bodies were retrieved from the lake.



The wreck was discovered in 2013, one hundred years after she disappeared.

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[dwasifar]

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank on 10 November 1975, 29 Sailors lives were lost on Lake Superior.

When I perform in bars with my guitar, if the crowd seems like they might appreciate it, I play "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" with the lyrics to "Gilligan's Island."

 

[csandste]

Edmund Fitzgerald was the editor of the Great Lakes Marine Historical Society news letter. (IIRC the name) in the late sixties. I worked for Milwaukee Public Library which housed their collection, I was the assistant editor and did most of the production work. Seemed like a nice guy for an insurance exec. I was long gone by the time his namesake went down.

 

[AutoMechanic]

That’s pretty interesting. That’s a cool fact to know for sure.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Some comedian joked about using that song to end parties when you want to persuade everyone to go home. His joke went something like, " 'And their lungs filled with water and they all drowned like rats...' 'Oh, look at the time! We really need to get going! Thanks for the party!' "

 

[Lubener]

One of the crew members ( Bruce Hudson ) lived less than a mile away from me at the time.

 

[#18FAN]

In the song he says the bell rings 29 time’s for the men on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

[DriveHard]

There are over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, having caused an estimate loss of 30,000 mariners’ lives. It is estimated that there are about 550 wrecks in Lake Superior, most of which are undiscovered. At least 200 lie along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, a treacherous 80- stretch of shoreline with no safe harbor between Munising, Michigan, and Whitefish Point. The famous Edmund Fitzgerald lies just 15 miles to the northwest of Whitefish Point.

Great Lakes Shipwrecks

Shipwrecks Shipwrecks are true time capsules that not only provoke our imagination – shipwrecks contain real artifacts from another time, unexpectedly snatched from the surface world by the forces of nature. No one, at the time of a shipwreck, had time to prepare it for future discovery. Given...

www.shipwreckmuseum.com

I have been there...it is a creepy place. I have been a boater my whole life, and I would not want to sail on that lake.

 

[doitmyself]

One of the crew members ( Bruce Hudson ) lived less than a mile away from me at the time.

My tie to the incident was being in college in the Upper Peninsula at the time. I vividly remember the blowing snowstorm that evening and the announcement coming over the television.

Thanks Gon for the interesting story. I hate to see any disrespect to the incident and the song that honors those that lost their lives.

 

[Astro14]

I think Gordon did, in fact, include the risk of being on the big lake when the “witch of November came stealin’” as a theme in the song.

 

[tmorris1]

Looked up Gordan Lightfoot and he is 83 and still alive. Maybe the Wreck of the SS Henry B. Smith will be released later. The North Shore of Lake Superior is probably one of the most beautiful places that most have never been.

 

[Kira]

The lighthouse master's home on Whitefish Point -where the tourist shop is- is one I'd gladly live in.
The mournful song is played endlessly.

 

[mk378]

I think Gordon did, in fact, include the risk of being on the big lake when the “witch of November came stealin’” as a theme in the song.

Yes there is a line about the danger "when the gales of November come early," but since the sinking was November 10, it was a regular November gale, not an early one.

 

[stormgol]

my best friend lives in sand bay, goulais river. his home is on the shore of lake superior. it is one of the most beautiful place i have ever seen. i visit him every year driving 3200km round trip. endless forests of gigantic sugar maple trees everywhere. riding on an atv during fall when the sugar maple trees change colors is borderline religious experience. as close as a paradise on earth i can think of.

 

[tyman]

Wew lad

The Smith left port in Marquette on November 9. By that time, the storm had been raging on the lakes for nearly three days and many ships had already been lost or damaged. Owen undoubtedly knew what he was facing; indeed, he could see it with his own eyes. Yet, according to news reports, he left port believing he’d outrun the worst of the storm on his way down to the Soo Locks. He was confident of his ship’s ability to weather any gale, even one as fierce as this. At 565 feet, Smith was one of the largest freighters at that time, and Owen reportedly thought it unsinkable.

Marquette Daily Chronicle reported that captains of other ships safely in port that day were sure that Owen would realize his folly and turn the ship around within the hour. Captain Fox of the Chocknaw was standing on his ship’s bridge when the Smith passed by.

“She steamed directly out to sea for 20 minutes,” he said. “Then suddenly she turned her prow to the wind and ran for Keweenaw Point.”

Sailors from Chocknaw and Denmark watched, too, as the Smith headed out into the storm – with its sailors frantically trying to close the hatches to make it watertight.

That Owen would leave port at all in such rough weather was surprising, but that he’d do it with open hatches was astonishing. After the storm subsided, several newspapers around the lake, including The Mining Journal in Marquette, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Duluth Herald ran stories speculating about Owen’s motives.

 

[GON]

My tie to the incident was being in college in the Upper Peninsula at the time. I vividly remember the blowing snowstorm that evening and the announcement coming over the television.

Thanks Gon for the interesting story. I hate to see any disrespect to the incident and the song that honors those that lost their lives.

DitM,

Thanks- hope my post was not disrespectful. Just found it fascinating to learn two other ships (freighters) sunk in Lake Superior on 10 November. Seemed a superstious merchant marine might want to stay off Lake Superior on 10 November.

Not relevant to this thread, my Dad was a merchant marine and had many a story of his time as a young man at sea. He was a navigator, and could navigate around the world at night using stars. He was on the oceans in the 1950s/1960s. I suspect most of the technology on freighters at that time was likely analog and manual.

 

[doitmyself]

Your post is awesome. There are a couple of replies that walked the fence on being disrespectful, but not for me to judge.

Way down on my bucket list is to book passage on a great lakes ore freighter. Go through the Soo Locks, where I lived near during my early career.

What Are Great Lakes Freighter Cruises? Your Questions, Answered | ActionHub

Have you dreamed of catching a ride on a freight ship, escaping the luxuries of your everyday life and exploring new terrain? Well, this is the reality that adventurous spirits experience on Great Lakes freighter cruises. While it may not be the easiest way to… More »

www.actionhub.com

 

[GON]

my best friend lives in sand bay, goulais river. his home is on the shore of lake superior. it is one of the most beautiful place i have ever seen. i visit him every year driving 3200km round trip. endless forests of gigantic sugar maple trees everywhere. riding on an atv during fall when the sugar maple trees change colors is borderline religious experience. as close as a paradise on earth i can think of.

Thanks for posting that video SG. Well worth the 30 minutes to watch.

 

[dlundblad]

When I perform in bars with my guitar, if the crowd seems like they might appreciate it, I play "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" with the lyrics to "Gilligan's Island."

That’s an interesting combination. I’d listen to it.

 

[A_Harman]

There are over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, having caused an estimate loss of 30,000 mariners’ lives. It is estimated that there are about 550 wrecks in Lake Superior, most of which are undiscovered. At least 200 lie along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, a treacherous 80- stretch of shoreline with no safe harbor between Munising, Michigan, and Whitefish Point. The famous Edmund Fitzgerald lies just 15 miles to the northwest of Whitefish Point.

Great Lakes Shipwrecks

Shipwrecks Shipwrecks are true time capsules that not only provoke our imagination – shipwrecks contain real artifacts from another time, unexpectedly snatched from the surface world by the forces of nature. No one, at the time of a shipwreck, had time to prepare it for future discovery. Given...

www.shipwreckmuseum.com

I have been there...it is a creepy place. I have been a boater my whole life, and I would not want to sail on that lake.

The song has a line:
"...she'd have made Whitefish Bay if she'd put 15 more miles behind her"