In Memoriam: " The "SS Edmund Fitzgerald"

1. From June 1958 until November 1975, the "SS Edmund Fitzgerald" operated as an ore freighter on the Great Lakes. On the 10th of November, during a storm with near hurricane force winds and waves of up to 35 feet, the ship went down. The captain and crew perished. Do you remember when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank?

2. The day after the shipwreck, the Mariners' Church in Detroit, Michigan rang the church bell 29 times- once for each of the crew of the "Edmund Fitzgerald." Did you know...

3. On July 4, 1995, the ship's bell was recovered from the wreckage. It was replaced with a replica engraved with the names of the lost crew members. The original bell is incorporated into a permanent memorial at Whitefish Point, Michigan under the custodian and conservatorship of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. The GLSHS is responsible for maintenance of the bell and prohibited from moving, selling, or using the bell for commercial purposes. Have you ever visited this memorial to the "Edmund Fitzgerald?"

4. Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the shipwreck in his 1976 hit, "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald." According to Lightfoot, the melody was "just an old Irish folksong, an old Irish dirge." As a 19 year old college sophomore waiting for Thanksgiving break, I am not sure I was even aware of the shipwreck. And it would be a number of years before I learned that Lightfoot's ballad was telling the story of a contemporary tragedy and not something from the distant past. But I am pretty sure that the song will again be stuck in my head in a few days. Did you know that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the shipwreck?