Editor’s note: Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 film, “The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald” resonated especially in Detroit. This story appeared on Page Three of the Free Press on September 5, 1976.
The Chippewa legend lives on down
From the large lake they named it Gitche Gumee
It is said that the lake never gives up its dead
When the november sky turns gloomy
Long and moody, the song is an unexpected hit in the highly competitive world of popular music. But in Detroit and other Great Lakes cities, it is now one of the loudest records on AM radio.
The song is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot’s tribute to the giant freighter that plunged into Lake Superior last November with the loss of all 29 hands.
“Because of that tune, the album playing is #1 in the Great Lakes cities,” says Bob Merlisse of Warner Bros. Records.
more:Gordon Lightfoot, singer of Edmund Fitzgerald, dies at 84
“Everything surprised us.” “So we decided to release it as a single two weeks ago, and now it’s our best single.”
The song’s appeal isn’t limited to the Midwest. It spread to New York, Boston, and Houston and began playing on West Coast stations.
Les Garland, program director for CKLW radio in Windsor, says the song is played an average of about once every three hours on his station, a frequency that only the biggest hits receive.
Garland said the song was “out of the top five” in orders every day at CKLW, and that the song moved from 14th to 7th in sales in the Detroit area last week.
Ironically, the album is titled “A Summer’s Dream”.
But there is no hint of summer in the temperamental strains of Edmund Fitzgerald. funeral lyrics. The rhythm was highly syncopated, suggesting the tone and rolling of a large ship in heavy water.
The wind in the wires made a shrill sound
And a wave broke over the wall
And every man knew as did the captain
“November Witch Tuas Comes Stealing”
November is the harshest month in the Great Lakes region. The shift of seasons can lead to severe storms, and the worst disasters in the history of the Great Lakes occurred that month.
In November 1913, for example, a brutal five-day saga sent 12 ships to the bottom and killed 248 men. Five of the ships simply disappeared without a trace.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was lost in similar fashion on the 10th of November last. The 729-foot freighter simply disappeared from the radar screen of a neighboring ship, after battling 25-foot waves and 80-mph winds on Lake Superior about 60 miles away. Northwest of Sault Ste. Marie.
The ship’s captain, Ernest McSorley, 63, a veteran captain with more than 40 years of experience on the Great Lakes, radioed to a nearby ship at about 7 p.m. that evening that his ship was taking in water through two hatches.
more:This week in Michigan history: Edmund Fitzgerald plunges
He was sure his pumps could handle any excess water, said McSorley calmly, though waves as high as 30 feet were pounding the ship as it steamed toward (the relative safety of Whitefish Bay). At that moment, radio contact was lost and Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from the other ship’s radar screen.
When it was dinner time the old cook came on deck
Say “Guys, it’s so hard to feed you”
At 7pm, a main door collapsed
He said, “Guys, nice to meet you.”
Fitzgerald’s “old cook” was Robert Rafferty, 62, of Toledo. A veteran of the Great Lakes waters, Rafferty, 44, signed up for the large freighter just three weeks before the tragedy.
Just a week before he went down with Edmund Fitzgerald, he sent a postcard to his wife. “I might be home by November 8th,” Rafferty wrote. However, nothing is certain.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her icy-water palace
Old Michigan is vaporizing like a young man’s dreams
Islands and bays for athletes
Lightfoot has been fascinated by the Great Lakes for years, according to his sister and office manager, Bev Lightfoot of Toronto.
“We grew up in Orillia, Ont., near Georgian Bay,” she said. “He’s had his eye on big ships for years.
She continued, “He felt so bad when Edmund Fitzgerald fell.” “He decided to write the song in memory of the families they left behind.”
She said her brother had received several letters from family members, all expressing her happiness with the song. She said Lightfoot had been on a long kayaking trip, and could not comment on the success of his song. She added that he did not yet know the spread of her popularity.
They may have separated or they may have flipped
They may have broken deep and taken on water
All that remains are faces and names
Of wives, sons and daughters
The US Coast Guard, which was investigating the disaster, is still not sure what caused Edmund Fitzgerald to go down. Her latest attempt to determine the cause was using a remote-controlled camera-controlled submarine drone that filmed and video-recorded the remains of the sunken ship at the bottom of the lake in May.
“It’s like reconstructing a plane crash, except it’s harder to put it back together,” says Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Dan Shotwell. “All we have are pictures and the TV tape.”
Shotwell said Coast Guard officials are reviewing the evidence and will release a final report later this year. But he warned that the exact cause of the sinking may not be known for certain.
Sonar readings indicated that the ship suddenly broke in two before sinking. One theory is that the ship was caught simultaneously by two giant waves that lifted the bow and stern of the ship, and cut it off in the middle. Another theory suggests that the ship was hit in the middle of its hull by a large wave, which caused it to break.
Meanwhile, the ancient legends of the large lake called “Gitche Gumee” or “Great Water” of the Chippewa Indians still linger. So is the memory of lost men.
In a musty old auditorium in Detroit, pray
At the Maritime Seamen’s Cathedral
The church bell rang until it struck 29 times
For Every Man in Edmund Fitzgerald.
When Father Richard Engels, rector of the Old Mariners’ Church in Jefferson in downtown Detroit, heard the news of the ship’s loss the morning after the sinking, he rang the large church bells 29 times for each crew member.
In March, Father Ingalls dedicated his annual memorial service for lost sailors to the crew of the ill-fated ship. “Many of the crew’s relatives came,” Father Ingalls said. “They told me it was the most meaningful memorial service.”
(Lyrics Copyright 1974 by Moss Music Limited)