The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

A tribute to the 29 men who died November 10, 1975, aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. —- Announcer (0:04): An air and sea search is continuing for possible survivors of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729 foot ore carrier, which apparently broke apart and sunk last night on Lake Superior. The ship and its 29-man crew vanished in a storm with 80 mile-an-hour winds and wave heights up to 25 feet. All that has been found is an oil slick and some debris. — song begins at 0:17 — Radio Transmission (3:11): “We last had contact with ’em, the mate had talked to him … at about 10 minutes after 7, 19:10, and he said he was going along fine and no problem.” — Radio Transmission (3:21): “But it looks from the information that we have that it’s, uh, fairly certain that the, uh, Fitzgerald went down.” — Radio Transmission (4:04): “Uh, no, I didn’t have him, uh, visually, I had him on radar; he was, uh, exactly 10 miles ahead of us. I asked him how he was making out with his problems and he said he was holding his own, but I, uh, lost contact after that.” —- Lyrics: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called “Gitche Gumee” The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty, that big ship and true was a bone to be chewed when the Gales of November came early The ship was the pride of the American side coming back …