The S S Edmund Fitzgerald sank 35 years ago, today. Twenty-nine men died in the wreck, now made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song. While we still do not know precisely why ”The Big Fitz” sank, we do know why many other Great Lakes shipwrecks occurred. Human captains and pilots went too fast for the weather conditions, and so appeared rapidly out of the fog; or they would simply not back down, and ram other vessels in a catastrophic game of “chicken,” according to the exhibits at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Maybe that is why we are so intrigued by the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald–for a change, it was nature, not our own human foibles, that caused it.
The first time I heard the song, I was delivering newspapers in a wooded neighborhood. It was shortly after dark, so Lightfoot’s ringing guitar and haunting voice felt even more spooky. I do not remember if I cried then, but I often do now–especially when I hear the lyrics about the memorial service in Detroit, when a bell was rung “29 times, for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
A similar memorial will happen today, only it won’t be a church bell, but the actual ship’s bell, that gets rung. In 1995, the bell was removed from the wreck, and replaced with another bell, with the dead men’s names on it. The bell is now exhibited at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, where they hold a memorial every five years. Today’s service will ring the bell a 30th time, for all the mariners lost on the Great Lakes.
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