Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - Toronto Sun article-Shipwreck Museum

charlene · 06-26-2007, 12:52 PM

Sun, June 24, 2007
http://www.torontosun.com/Travel/USA...86243-sun.html

Legend lives onEdmund Fitzgerald saluted on Great Lakes
By DOUG ENGLISH

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy.''

So begins Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, about the big bulk freighter that sank in storm-swept Lake Superior in November 1975, taking 29 sailors with her.

At least 6,000 vessels have gone down in the Great Lakes, and some took a much greater toll, but in Michigan's Upper Peninsula the Edmund Fitzgerald commands the most attention.

The UP is bordered on three sides by Great Lakes, and shipping is big business. So is iron ore, which the Edmund Fitzgerald was carrying in the form of taconite pellets.

At the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee, they'll tell you that nearly one-quarter of all the iron ore mined in the U.S. comes from Marquette County, and that it made more money for Michigan than the Gold Rush did for California. Just outside Marquette, on the shore of Superior, you can watch ore being loaded onto vessels just like the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Lightfoot's ballad and other reminders of the tragedy cropped up repeatedly during a visit to the UP last September.

The "Fitz," as they call it, is the main attraction at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It's at Whitefish Point, about as close as you can get to the Fitzgerald's final resting place and still be on land. The Fitzgerald was trying to get around Whitefish Point to the relative safety of Whitefish Bay when it went down. As the ballad recounts:

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

The museum is operated by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, of which Lightfoot is a board member. In 1995, the society, families of the Fitzgerald's crew, the National Geographic Society and the Canadian Navy -- the wreck is in Canadian waters -- raised the Fitzgerald's bell from 163 metres down. Visitors can watch a moving video of the artifact being recovered and replaced with a replica. The soundtrack, of course, is Lightfoot.

Exactly what happened to the Fitzgerald was a mystery. As Lightfoot's lyrics speculated:

They might have split up or they might have capsized

They may have broke deep and took water.

But during the 1995 exploration of the wreck, divers found a long trench scraped by the Fitz when it hit bottom. The museum's director told us it is now thought that the fully laden vessel scraped on a shoal, then dove like a submarine. It is estimated it was doing the equivalent of 48 km/h when it hit bottom.

Cleaned and polished, the 100 kilo bronze bell was put on display at the museum. Lightfoot was there Nov. 10, 1995, two decades to the day after the sinking, for a dedication ceremony.

Reminders of the Fitz continued to pop up. Next day, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., I noticed that the captain of a boat that does tours of the locks was wearing a pin shaped like the bell. And the local freighter museum, housed in a retired ore carrier, contains two lifeboats from the Fitz. A local guitarist sang Lightfoot's lament during dinner, and on my last night in Michigan, in a pub in Marquette, what did I spy on the wall but a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is open May through September. Phone 1-800-635-1742 or visit ShipwreckMuseum.com. For tourism info on Sault Ste. Marie, call 1-800-647-2858 or visit saultstemarie.com. For Marquette, visit marquettecountry.org.

06-26-2007, 12:52 PM	#1
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 16,001	Sun, June 24, 2007 http://www.torontosun.com/Travel/USA...86243-sun.html Legend lives onEdmund Fitzgerald saluted on Great Lakes By DOUG ENGLISH "The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy.'' So begins Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, about the big bulk freighter that sank in storm-swept Lake Superior in November 1975, taking 29 sailors with her. At least 6,000 vessels have gone down in the Great Lakes, and some took a much greater toll, but in Michigan's Upper Peninsula the Edmund Fitzgerald commands the most attention. The UP is bordered on three sides by Great Lakes, and shipping is big business. So is iron ore, which the Edmund Fitzgerald was carrying in the form of taconite pellets. At the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee, they'll tell you that nearly one-quarter of all the iron ore mined in the U.S. comes from Marquette County, and that it made more money for Michigan than the Gold Rush did for California. Just outside Marquette, on the shore of Superior, you can watch ore being loaded onto vessels just like the Edmund Fitzgerald. Lightfoot's ballad and other reminders of the tragedy cropped up repeatedly during a visit to the UP last September. The "Fitz," as they call it, is the main attraction at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It's at Whitefish Point, about as close as you can get to the Fitzgerald's final resting place and still be on land. The Fitzgerald was trying to get around Whitefish Point to the relative safety of Whitefish Bay when it went down. As the ballad recounts: The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay If they'd fifteen more miles behind her. The museum is operated by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, of which Lightfoot is a board member. In 1995, the society, families of the Fitzgerald's crew, the National Geographic Society and the Canadian Navy -- the wreck is in Canadian waters -- raised the Fitzgerald's bell from 163 metres down. Visitors can watch a moving video of the artifact being recovered and replaced with a replica. The soundtrack, of course, is Lightfoot. Exactly what happened to the Fitzgerald was a mystery. As Lightfoot's lyrics speculated: They might have split up or they might have capsized They may have broke deep and took water. But during the 1995 exploration of the wreck, divers found a long trench scraped by the Fitz when it hit bottom. The museum's director told us it is now thought that the fully laden vessel scraped on a shoal, then dove like a submarine. It is estimated it was doing the equivalent of 48 km/h when it hit bottom. Cleaned and polished, the 100 kilo bronze bell was put on display at the museum. Lightfoot was there Nov. 10, 1995, two decades to the day after the sinking, for a dedication ceremony. Reminders of the Fitz continued to pop up. Next day, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., I noticed that the captain of a boat that does tours of the locks was wearing a pin shaped like the bell. And the local freighter museum, housed in a retired ore carrier, contains two lifeboats from the Fitz. A local guitarist sang Lightfoot's lament during dinner, and on my last night in Michigan, in a pub in Marquette, what did I spy on the wall but a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is open May through September. Phone 1-800-635-1742 or visit ShipwreckMuseum.com. For tourism info on Sault Ste. Marie, call 1-800-647-2858 or visit saultstemarie.com. For Marquette, visit marquettecountry.org.