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November 10, 2005
'Twas the witch of November come stealin'
The "witch of November" is a term given for a fast moving, gale force storm that often signals the beginning of winter on the Great Lakes. Exactly 30 years ago this night, the a particularly brutal storm of this type was bearing down on Lake Superior.
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin on the afternoon of November 9, 1975 bound for Detroit with 26,000 tons of iron ore. By 1:00am on November 10, the winds had picked up to 52 knots. By afternoon, the Fitzgerald lost her radars and was coping with waves crashing onto the deck. Sometime around 7:30pm, she sank beneath the waves with all hands.
In 1995, the bell--the symbolic heart of the ship--was recovered from the site of the wreck and the area was declared off limits to further exploration. Tonight, the bell, which resides at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in Michigan, will be rung as part of a memorial service. The bell will ring 29 times. Once for each member of the crew. The bell will then be rung a 30th time for all who have been lost on the Great Lakes. The museum will have a webcast of the memorial at 7pm eastern tonight. Go here for more information about the ship and the wreck. This page was the source for the times given above.
The title of this post is from the Gordon Lightfoot song that memorializes the tragedy. Click the link for the lyrics.
UPDATE: Here's another link with a meteorological perspective.
Posted by William Polley at November 10, 2005 12:39 AM
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November 10, 1975 was not a good day to be attempting a passage on Lake Superior. [Read More]
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Comments
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald is smaller than the Titanic but its closer to home (and fresher)[And seasonally adjusted].
Ok does that make you a sailor William? a lover of Canadian folk songsters? [Do you know 'Rise Again' by the late Stan Rogers?]
Is there an allegorical significance or are we just joining the inclement weather in a clever M&A manoever?
Only me maybe.
Posted by: calmo at November 10, 2005 12:41 PM
I was born and raised in Minnesota, and I've always been fond of the Great Lakes--Superior, expecially. I think a lot of Minnesotans have a fondness for Superior. And of course Minnesota's iron ore was the raw material for so much of the post-war expansion. Ore boats carried that cargo from Duluth-Superior to the industrial cities of the east. It was a source of pride for my old home state. It was an important part of the economy. Of course, times have changed.
Every time I visit Duluth and watch those vessels leave the harbor and head out over the lake it fascinates me. I think about how much safer it is today than in the past, and how that's probably what people thought back in 1975. The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald sounds like something out of the pages of the distant past. But it's not.
I'm not a sailor, but I am fascinated by transportation of all kinds. I love watching barges being towed through the locks on the Mississippi. I love railroad museums and old WWII biplanes. Part of the reason I enjoy those things is because of the effect they had on the economy. Transportation and economics are very closely related. But the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald puts a human face on the Great Lakes economy. There's no allegorical significance or value judgement here. But for a native Minnesotan whose primary school days featured stories of Lake Superior, it's a reminder of a time that is gradually slipping into history.
But the legends will live on forever.
Posted by: William Polley at November 10, 2005 1:33 PM