OT: 50 years ago now

[purplefaithful]

This is still a big deal and remembered with reverence here in MN, Michigan, Oh, Wi, Canada etc...

Hard to believe its been 50 years now. 

God rest the 29 souls of The Edmund Fitzgerald. 
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TWO HARBORS, MINN. – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a wicked storm 50 years ago on Lake Superior. On Monday, at Split Rock Lighthouse, where the doomed ship passed on its final trip, the sun shone bright on a chilly day and the water below merely rippled.

An annual event paying homage to the crew — including the names of the 29 lost men read aloud, a bell ringing after each, and then the lighting of the historic beacon — drew thousands to the North Shore.

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[StickierBuns]

Yep, it was a big deal in Upper Michigan. People don't understand that Lake Superior is no joke. Its massive and very deep. Ice cold water. And an iron ore carrier is very susceptible to massive winds and waves, especially when empty, because they are ocean-like sometimes on that lake the waves. And a great song by Gordon Lightfoot who I love.

[purplefaithful]

Yep, it was a big deal in Upper Michigan. People don't understand that Lake Superior is no joke. Its massive and very deep. Ice cold water. And an iron ore carrier is very susceptible to massive winds and waves, especially when empty, because they are ocean-like sometimes on that lake the waves. And a great song by Gordon Lightfoot who I love.

I luv him too, he passed in 23 I believe...

They now ring that bell 31 times

29 for each member of the Fitz Crew
1 for all the other ships lost on Superior
1 for Gordon Lightfoot

[hogjowlsjohnny]

When my son was working up in Duluth I had a live feed of the canal the ships would go through. It was a way to check the weather in real time but I liked watching the ships enter and leave the harbor and the people coming out to watch them. I'm also a Gordon Lightfoot fan and saw him live 6 times.

[Montana Tom]

Yep, it was a big deal in Upper Michigan. People don't understand that Lake Superior is no joke. Its massive and very deep. Ice cold water. And an iron ore carrier is very susceptible to massive winds and waves, especially when empty, because they are ocean-like sometimes on that lake the waves. And a great song by Gordon Lightfoot who I love.

That was my last year in Minnesota, before I moved to Upper Michigan myself.  I think the consensus of the news at the time was disbelief that it could possibly even happen to such a massive ship.

Yes, Lake Superior is to be respected.  There were plenty of stories of fishermen lost, because it is so cold.  Hypothermia can set in so quickly.  I remember stories of steelhead fishermen at the mouth of the rivers who slipped into the current, their waders filled up, they were swept out into the lake and never seen again.

It is an inland sea, that creates its own weather.  I lived in the snow belt along the south shore...200"+ snow annually.

One thing though Sticky...that big ore boat was not empty...it did have 52 million pounds of taconite pellets...as it says in the song..."a load of iron ore, 26 thousand tons more, than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty."

I heard a story on NPR yesterday that said in the 100 years from 1875 to 1975, there were over 6,000 ships sunk in the Great Lakes.  They said that in the 50 years since, that number dropped to zero.  

Footnote:  I know a guy up there who was the grandson of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  A namesake, in fact.  Still a Facebook friend.

[StickierBuns]

That was my last year in Minnesota, before I moved to Upper Michigan myself.  I think the consensus of the news at the time was disbelief that it could possibly even happen to such a massive ship.

Yes, Lake Superior is to be respected.  There were plenty of stories of fishermen lost, because it is so cold.  Hypothermia can set in so quickly.  I remember stories of steelhead fishermen at the mouth of the rivers who slipped into the current, their waders filled up, they were swept out into the lake and never seen again.

It is an inland sea, that creates its own weather.  I lived in the snow belt along the south shore...200"+ snow annually.

One thing though Sticky...that big ore boat was not empty...it did have 52 million pounds of taconite pellets...as it says in the song..."a load of iron ore, 26 thousand tons more, than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty."

I heard a story on NPR yesterday that said in the 100 years from 1875 to 1975, there were over 6,000 ships sunk in the Great Lakes.  They said that in the 50 years since, that number dropped to zero.  

Footnote:  I know a guy up there who was the grandson of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  A namesake, in fact.  Still a Facebook friend.

Yes, didn't mean to say the Fitzgerald didn't have a load, I'm just saying 5 times more ships went down empty than they did full. My Dad worked on those boats for a few years.

[PurplePorsche]

We have Gordon Lightfoot's haunting tribute to credit for this memory to be fresh. Mostly nobody remembers this much more deadly accident:

The SS Eastland was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On July 24, 1915, the ship capsized while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. In total, 844 passengers and crew were killed in what is the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

[BigAl99]

I was a sophomore at UMD, had just moved from Griggs to the Movillas, up in the wood above campus.  Remember getting up that morning and it was just dead still and the trees were covered with hoarfrost, just enjoying the view.  Then a roommate came out with the new's.