RIP Gordon Lightfoot. The Tragedy Of The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot the great Canadian folk singer has passed away a the age of 84

He was known for his deep and smooth singing with big hits mostly coming in the early 70's like, "Everyday People", "Sundown", "Carefree Highway", "If  You Could Read My Mind" and of course the song he is most remembered by, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" released in 1976.

The song defied the typical radio rules at the time for a lot of reasons, such as; the the subject matter was not a love song, dance song or a rock song, it was based on the true story of the freighter ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald. Plus, the song was over 6 minutes long. Most Top 40 songs were in the three minute range, with only a few songs ever reaching the length of six minutes. Radio stations could not edit the song without losing the meaning or the content of it, because the song was an actual story that had to be told (or sung) to tell the whole story.

A true seafaring tragedy

It was after all based on the real life story of the freighter ship Edmund Fitzgerald that held a cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second taconite freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near-hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed.

The Edmund Fitzgerald previously reported being in significant difficulty to Arthur M. Anderson: "I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in." However, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last (7:10 p.m.) message to Arthur M. Anderson was, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, grounded on a shoal, or suffered from a combination of these.

Here's the  story as sung by the late great Gordon Fitzgerald