"My mind sees that I am nothing, my heart sees that I am everything, between these two poles my life unfolds."

Thursday, November 10, 2011

This Day In History - The Edmund Fitzgerald

Greetings!


A new feature at Jane's Jewels will be the occasional 'This Day In History'. Today's story takes place on Lake Superior, that huge, treacherous, yet oh so beautiful Great Lake. I lived in Thunder Bay for six years during my late teens/early twenties, and what I remember most about my time there was the wind, which never seemed to stop blowing.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that made headlines after sinking in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew. When launched on June 8, 1958, she was the largest boat on the Great Lakes, and remains the largest boat to have sunk there. Nicknamed the "Mighty Fitz", "Fitz", or "Big Fitz", the ship suffered a series of mishaps during her launch: it took three attempts to break the champagne bottle used to christen her and she collided with a pier when she entered the water. (Wiki)

Gordon Lightfoot immortalized this tragedy in his haunting 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'. This song quite often comes to mind when I hear or see the word November; in fact that's how I ended up profiling this story. 


I love Lightfoot almost as much as I do Neil Young (and that's saying a lot :)


Have a great day! 
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4 comments:

  1. DanNovember 10, 2011 at 6:33 AM

    ...Often wondered why HollyWood never made a major motion picutre of this? I couldn't imagine being on that boat when it "broke in half" after taking in water from undone cargo hatches before speculated cresting on a huge wave!

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  2. WebDebrisNovember 10, 2011 at 11:13 AM

    That is a fantastic song. I took a peek at wiki and was amazed at the amount of information they have on the wreck. I agree with Dan that it would make a great movie.

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  3. Plowing Through Life (Martha)November 10, 2011 at 6:17 PM

    This was truly a terrible tragedy. Great song! I haven't listened to a Gordon Lightfoot tune in ages.

    Love the idea of 'This Day In Histroy'. There are so many interesting things in the past to learn about.

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  4. Jane November 11, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    Dan, Very terrifying indeed.

    WebDebris, I agree with Dan as weel - it would make a great movie.

    Martha, Gordon packed a lot of info into that song. I am looking forward to this new feature - fyi: Monday's With Mireille is returning soon :)

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