The Gales of November remembered

[Boyd Brooks]

November 10, 1975 the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald and all 29 Souls aboard.

After yesterday’s foul weather moved through Ontario, I was thinking out on my deer watch, it was very close to that fateful day 48 years ago. It will be forever immortalized in song by another Canadian legend Gordon Lightfoot.

 

[93marlin]

I live in northern lower Michigan. I was 20yrs old on that day. I remember...

 

[BeeMaa]

I was but a child but remember seeing it in the news. The Gordon Lightfoot song always brings up some crazy emotions in me. Maybe because I’m a Navy man, but it just gets me.

 

[fourfive8]

 

[Boyd Brooks]

I was but a child but remember seeing it in the news. The Gordon Lightfoot song always brings up some crazy emotions in me. Maybe because I’m a Navy man, but it just gets me.

Yes the chilling words, give me goose bumps and shivers. I have boated Superior when I lived in Thunder Bay and spent lots of time around the lake working all the way to the Sault. It can be a powerful beast.

 

[Red Leg]

One of of the greats. We saw him in concert at Wolf Trap outside Washington DC in the early 2000's. He was in his early seventies then and commented that he was still doing 150 shows a year. I will bear witness that he could still put on a great one. He died just last May after an incredible career.

 

[Badjer]

I like this video with actual footage and the radio calls.
I was in grade school so I don't remember much about when it actually happened, but the song gets played by me every November.

I remember them bringing the bell up in 95, having a ceremony and ringing it 29 times, once for each sailor, then returning a replica to the wreck... You can see it before being recovered at 4:27 to 4:39 in the video.

 

[fourfive8]

One of the most haunting ballads ever recorded

 

[IronRanger]

They still do the memorial at split Rick light house, the ringing of the bells should be tonight. The weather is proper, windy with light snow getting worse once sun falls down.

 

[93marlin]

Yup, I had friends who lived up on Whitefish Bay. It's quite a remembrance.

 

[Finprof]

I was born in Terrace Bay Ontario on the north shore of Lake Superior. We fished in in a 16 foot skiff sometimes to the Slate Islands which were 17 miles off shore
Although storms could come up quickly our two biggest dangers were fog, which could roll in quickly , and runaway pulp logs that would take out a lower unit of an outboard.
One time we had 8 foot rollers on the way back from the Hydro station. Those waves turned the minutes to hours.
The worst was off Cape Victoria where the waves would bounce back from a sheer granite cliff and come at you from two directions.

 

[WAB]

I was actually outside the Maritime Sailor’s Cathedral when that bell rang 29 times. Not something you’ll soon forget.

I heard Lightfoot in concert a few times. As stated above, one of the true greats.

 

[Badjer]

Fifty years after Edmund Fitzgerald claimed 29 lives, Gordon Lightfoot's musical memorial endures

Fifty years ago, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing 29 crew members. Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad immortalized the tragedy forever.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Badjer]

Lots of info and links here:

The true story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 years after a tragic shipwreck

Twenty-nine men died in the Great Lakes' most famous shipwreck. The Edmund Fitzgerald’s legacy endures for many reasons.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Wyfox]

Great remake

 

[Boyd Brooks]

Wow it’s been 50 years. I spent my teen years in Thunder Bay and Wawa with a few adventures out on Lake Superior. I know it’s the coldest lake I’ve ever swam in, in the summer. I had forgotten I made this thread a couple years ago.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song still gives me goosebumps, a true tribute to the 29 souls lost that day.

 

[Boyd Brooks]

 

[Badjer]

I brought this thread to the front because the freshwater inland seas that are the great lakes and the hundreds of ships and lives they have claimed over the centuries are unusual dare I say unique to our world.
In addition. every day, every person, every trip, from each of our lives becomes our past. Whether a day, or 50 years, our past stays alive by telling and retelling the stories. Godspeed -Jeff

 

[Houston Bill]

Perhaps the best ballad ever written and sung about a real world event. Don McClean's American Pie is another great one that comes to mind. Both my dad and my brother served in the Navy so Gordon's song always gave me goose bumps.

 

[jruby]

Wow it’s been 50 years. I spent my teen years in Thunder Bay and Wawa with a few adventures out on Lake Superior. I know it’s the coldest lake I’ve ever swam in, in the summer. I had forgotten I made this thread a couple years ago.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song still gives me goosebumps, a true tribute to the 29 souls lost that day.

They still have that giant goose up there in Wawa - saw it as a kid - still remember it.