Leaving port from Superior, Wisconsin, on a sunny November day, the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald is looking forward to a routine crossing of deep Lake Superior.
Heading for Zug Island, Detroit, Michigan, the giant transport ship is loaded with ore that will be used to build cars. But disaster is building in the wind as a storm begins to track after the great ship.
The bell rings forever where heroes are found, for the soul of the sailor is held in its sounds.
There wasn't a sound except for the bell - Some say it rang out when the mighty ship fell.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was found later, lying broken and twisted on the bottom of Lake Superior, only 17 miles from the shelter of Whitefish Point.
November 10th, 1975
29 men aboard
A wonderful book to teach children and adults about the Edmund Fitzgerald is...The Edmund Fitzgerald - The Song of the Bell. Check it out at your local library.
Carla, isn't that a haunting story! I wrote a post about it last November, (great minds, as they say :-)) with the Gordon Lightfoot song accompanying scenes of Lake Superior. It is one of the saddest stories, and especially thinking of that horribly cold water of Lake Superior! What a tragedy! Thank you for this post. A reminder of the tough life the crews of those ships endure.
ReplyDelete