New Doc on The Fitz

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http://www.cleveland.com/rocky-river...river_exp.html

By Bruce Geiselman, cleveland.com
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on December 08, 2015 at 3:54 PM, updated December 08, 2015 at 4:00 PM


ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – A new documentary on the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald focuses on the lives of the 29 men who died 40 years ago when the freighter sank during a storm on Lake Superior.

"For the past 40 years, everyone has concentrated on trying to explain without any level of certainty why the Fitzgerald sank," Christopher Gillcrist, executive director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes, said. "No one has had the evidence to make that case. Our approach is, we are never going to know for sure why she sank. There were never any witnesses. Why not talk about the people who worked on the boat before she sank."

"A Good Ship and Crew Well Seasoned: The Fitzgerald and Her Legacy," which will be shown in Rocky River Dec. 16, includes rare photographs and film footage of the Fitzgerald, including the last known photographs of the vessel.

The 57-minute film explores the crew, most of whom came from Ohio, including three from the Cleveland area.

It also delves into the lawyer for Oglebay Norton, the company that operated the freighter. The lawyer's son died on the ship, and he had to cope with his grief while dealing with the company's legal issues and settling the affairs of crew members, Gilchrist said.

"It was reported in a small way in 1975, but it has been lost to history," Gillcrist said.

The sinking is recounted in the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and on the label of Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s porter.

"Their lives should never be summed up in the final few seconds they lived," Gillcrist said.

"A Good Ship" -- produced by the National Museum of the Great Lakes and Allied Media Group Inc. -- includes interviews with family members of those who died and others who served on the ship prior to its sinking.

The movie will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at Memorial Hall in the Don Umerley Civic Center, 21016 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River. Tickets are $5. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 419-214-5000, extension 0.

Following the documentary, Gillcrist will discuss stories that ended up on the cutting room floor and didn't make the final version of the film.

The movie premiered at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo last month.

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Published: Saturday, 12/26/2015 - Updated: 18 minutes ago

Fitzgerald film takes a personal approach
Documentary highlights ship’s crew
BY DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Jack McCarthy had a recurring nightmare.

The first mate of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was in a ship’s pilothouse staring at a wall of water.

The ship was taking a nose dive to the bottom, he told a fellow crewman.

Whether or not you believe in premonitions, this one proved true: Mr. McCarthy was one of the 29 who perished when the Big Fitz plunged to Lake Superior’s bottom during a November storm 40 years ago.

Mr. McCarthy’s nightmare is among the many stories told in the Great Lakes Historical Society’s 57-minute documentary, A Good Ship and Crew Well Seasoned: The Edmund Fitzgerald and Her Legacy, which recently premiered during a local fund-raiser that commemorated the disaster.

Beginning today, the film will be shown to general audiences in the National Museum of the Great Lakes at 1702 Front St. in East Toledo.

While the Fitzgerald’s sinking inevitably plays into the film’s narrative, it avoids rehashing the 40-year mystery of why the ore freighter went down. It concentrates on recollections from people who worked or visited aboard the vessel during its 17 years of sailing.

“What we tried to do is capture the humanity” of the people who worked aboard the Fitzgerald, Christopher Gillcrist, the historical society’s and museum’s executive director, said.

Ed Perrine, a Fitzgerald crewman who started as an oiler and learned to read after exposure to the vessel’s library, said in the film he resented Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” because “it reminded me of all my good friends” who went down with the ship.

But he added the lingering publicity caused by the song probably changed safety standards in the Great Lakes maritime industry too.

Others interviewed for the film were relatives of crew members or guests of the Oglebay Norton Co., a mining company whose Columbia Transportation subsidiary operated the Fitz as its fleet’s flagship.

The Fitz had many veteran sailors aboard. Some, including captain Ernest McSorley of Ottawa Hills, were planning their imminent retirements, although contrary to some Fitzgerald lore, an early-November departure from upper Lake Superior would not have been a lakes freighter’s final scheduled voyage for the season.

Mr. Perrine recounted in the film that Grant Walton, uncle of retired Blade editor Thomas Walton, had signed onto the Fitzgerald because working as a conveyor man on one of the Oglebay Norton fleet’s self-unloading vessels “was eroding his health.

“He transferred to the Fitz for less hazardous work — and died,” Mr. Perrine said.

Thomas Walton worked on the Fitz one season as a porter before deciding maritime life — pursued by his father, as well as his uncle — wasn’t for him.

After the sinking, Mr. Walton said, “I realized the fragile nature of life — that it’s all temporary.”

The film will be shown in the National Museum of the Great Lakes Community Room at noon and 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, through June. It also will be shown at noon and 2 p.m. on Tuesday, but starting in January, the museum will only be open Wednesday through Sunday until midspring.

Admission to the film is a $3 surcharge on regular museum admission prices, which are $8 for adults and $7 for seniors older than 65 and children ages 6 to 18. Children younger than 6 are admitted free of charge.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.


Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/local/201...4pwmcAiYr2Y.99