Author Topic: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...  (Read 830 times)

Offline clerick

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The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« on: November 10, 2008, 05:46:54 PM »



The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 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 - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good 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 from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

 :salute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8s2zsNhSM

Offline ODBAL

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2008, 05:55:50 PM »
See Rule #2
« Last Edit: November 11, 2008, 10:28:39 AM by Skuzzy »
ODBAL

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Offline clerick

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2008, 06:07:10 PM »
[IMG]

 :confused:  :huh  :confused:  :huh  :confused:

Yes, because WHAM was tragically killed on November 10th.  What a tool.

Offline Mustaine

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2008, 06:08:03 PM »
things you probably didn't know about her:

Quote
Prior to the events of November 9, 1975, she suffered five collisions, running aground in 1969, colliding with the S.S. Hochelaga in 1970 and then striking the wall of a lock later in the same year, hitting a lock's wall again in 1973, and then again the following year. She also lost her original bow anchor in the Detroit River in 1974.[3]

I never knew ships that big had that many incidents...



Personally I hold to the rogue wave theory, along with the bottom out near Caribou Island... Whatever happened <S> to those men.




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Offline clerick

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2008, 06:11:17 PM »
The most accepted theory is that the water they were taking on heaved forward as the ship went down a larger wave.  The extra weight and the ships own propellers drove it nose down into the bottom, with a third of the ship no longer in the water it snapped and sunk.  Couldn't imagine the suffering that would have caused.

Offline Masherbrum

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2008, 06:15:14 PM »

Wrong thread to post it in.  


I agree Dave with the "rogue wave".   To even put a boat in the Great Lakes takes some "stones" to begin with.   My high school Math teacher is a very accomplished diver and took part in the raising of the Original Bell dropped in the Detroit River.

Ernest McSorely no doubt did his damnedest to make Whitefish Bay.  

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Offline Mustaine

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2008, 06:21:15 PM »
The most accepted theory is that the water they were taking on heaved forward as the ship went down a larger wave.  The extra weight and the ships own propellers drove it nose down into the bottom, with a third of the ship no longer in the water it snapped and sunk.  Couldn't imagine the suffering that would have caused.
or how fast... like literally 1 second you are sitting on the bridge, 5 seconds later on the bottom of the lake



I have been on just the breakwater in Milwaukee one night when 25 foot + waves were rolling over it, I mean over, like the breakwater was just a minor annoyance. Normally it's 10 feet down to the waterline, and what I saw scared the hell out of me. I can't imagine being on those lakes in that weather. Most say the great lakes are worse than the ocean because in the ocean at least all the waves go generally 1 direction.
Genetically engineered in a lab, and raised by wolverines -- ]V[ E G A D E T ]-[
AoM DFC ZLA BMF and a bunch of other acronyms.

Offline Nefarious

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2008, 08:05:01 PM »
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one song I can say that every cover that I have heard has been better than Gordon Lightfoot's.
There must also be a flyable computer available for Nefarious to do FSO. So he doesn't keep talking about it for eight and a half hours on Friday night!

Offline 442w30

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2008, 10:49:49 PM »
or how fast... like literally 1 second you are sitting on the bridge, 5 seconds later on the bottom of the lake



I have been on just the breakwater in Milwaukee one night when 25 foot + waves were rolling over it, I mean over, like the breakwater was just a minor annoyance. Normally it's 10 feet down to the waterline, and what I saw scared the hell out of me. I can't imagine being on those lakes in that weather. Most say the great lakes are worse than the ocean because in the ocean at least all the waves go generally 1 direction.

I remember many times as a kid watching green water come over the break waters south of Milwaukee.  Thanks to the OP for posting that.

I hold to the grounding theory myself...
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time

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Offline ODBAL

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2008, 11:05:22 PM »
See Rule #5
« Last Edit: November 11, 2008, 10:30:11 AM by Skuzzy »
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Offline ODBAL

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2008, 11:09:10 PM »
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one song I can say that every cover that I have heard has been better than Gordon Lightfoot's.

I have never heard a cover of this song, Although Gordon Lightfoot is not an artist that I prefer, I love this song by him. It is one of those songs that perfectly captures the moment and emotion of the event he is writing about.  I would be curious to hear who you think does a better job, I'd like to hear some other versions, since they come so highly recommended.  Thanks in advance.
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Offline Rich46yo

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2008, 07:16:54 AM »
I'm a believer in the bad seal theory. The top of the EF, where the cargo hold doors are located for loading, had been cited for faulty/old rubber seals. I believe so much water was coming over the top, for so long, that water got into the cargo and just made the ship heavier and heavier. Eventually she topped a wave and as she was trying to ride out another valley she just took a header and couldn't recover. The EF was longer then the depth of the lake at the point she sunk at and she hit bottom very fast.

Course its very possibly she scraped bottom at the Caribou Island shoals and started taking on water that way, her Captain had reported damage and a list prior to her going down. The Lake being so rough her crew didn't even know she hit. She wasn't the only freighter on the Lake that day, there was another within their sight line heading to leeward cover too. The incredible thing was that that very ship that was in front of her and  actually turned in that terrible storm to look for her. I think the name of the 2nd ship was the Anderson. What courage eh?

Anyway the Anderson reported a bad wave too and its very likely the combination of that wave, and a low waterline due to leakage, doomed the EF.

I remember being in my little salmon fishing boat when the Edward Ryerson would come out of harbor. It actually leaves you a bit stunned that the Lakes can swat a freighter that size like a fly. To really appreciate the size of such boats, "boats not ships", you have to be getting out of the way of one, while in a narrow shipping channel, and while in a 22' fishing boat.
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Offline ODBAL

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Clerick
« Reply #12 on: November 11, 2008, 09:05:13 AM »
I am going to do something rarely seen on this board, admit I was wrong and apologize.  I wasn't aware that yesterday was the anniversary of the EF tragedy.  I thought you had perhaps come across the song and decided to put the lyrics up on the board, it is a great song.  So me, being me put up what I would consider the total opposite of a great song just to be random.  I guess I would have expected you to write some sort of tribute of your own (something along the lines of "RIP Crew of the EF, you will never be forgotten") to include with the text of the song.  I did not do it to dishonor the lost sailors memory in any way.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.  :salute
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Offline Rich46yo

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #13 on: November 11, 2008, 10:01:09 AM »
Some of the things that came up during the investigation of the disaster was that even if the crew had been able to get off the ship they couldn't have been saved. Great Lakes freighter owners were notoriously cheap when it came to safety requirements and the law didn't even require much of them in the first place. As unbelievable as it might seem that 730' boat, that cost how many millions?, didn't even have a cheap sonar onboard to tell the Captain how shallow the water was. Their way of finding out was to throw a weighted rope over the side like they did 400 years ago. The requirement that such commercial vessels on the Lakes had to have these instruments was one of the changes made after the investigation of the sinking.

The EF also had no electronic beacons to aid searchers, nor did it have emergency cold weather suits for the crew. So no matter what the crew was as good as dead even if they had gotten off the boat. The Coast Guard had no ship able to get there in time anyways and any lifesaving would have had to be done by other ore freighter crews whom aren't trained or equipped properly. The sinking of the Fitz made the Coast Guard improve its cutter availability, and even more important, it hastened the introduction of LORAN to the Great Lakes. LORAN was a very good pre-GPS navigational tool that would have prevented the EF from getting so close to Caribou Island. I used LORAN on my fishing boats and was able to make it right to a harbor mouth even in heavy fog. It had an accuracy of 50' which was actually even better then the early scrambled GPS signals and was far better then the radio navigation used by ore freighters at the time.

But the real kicker was this million $ ore carrier didn't even have a $150 electronic depth sounder on it. A crew of 29 and all it had for safety equipment was some row boats and life preservers.
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Offline Nefarious

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Re: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down...
« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2008, 10:13:25 AM »
Perhaps I should have been a little more clear, ODBAL. There really isn't any real covers by major artists. But I have been to enough bars and gigs to hear covers that I enjoyed much more than GL's original version.
There must also be a flyable computer available for Nefarious to do FSO. So he doesn't keep talking about it for eight and a half hours on Friday night!