It's been almost 2 weeks since I've written in this blog and it's not that I havent been wanting to write in it, but with my health issues of this past month, working and trying to keep up with everything else in my life in general, I simply have gotten to it. Therefore, I think it's only fitting that I reinaugurate this blog by posting a memoriam piece in honor of the 29 crew members of the Great Lakes freighter EDMUND FITZGERALD which sank during a hurricane-like storm on Lake Superior on the night of November 10th, 1975. Though it's been 36 years since this tragedy took place it will always be in the "gone-but-not-forgotten" category of disasters for me personally.
I'll never forget that snowy, ice-cold morning of November 11th, 1975....I had just gotten picked up for school by one of the other military base mothers who lived 4 huts down from us and as me and 4 or 5 other children in that giant station wagon listened to the radio, we just could not believe what we were hearing....one of top 5 largest freighters on the Great Lakes, the EDMUND FITZGERALD, had gone missing the night before, with all 29 hands on board and all they found was a beat up lifeboat floating in the water....that was it!
I remember shivering in the backseat of that station wagon and as the group of us all began to talk about it, I said to the mother of my friend "If we're all freezing right now, then that means those guys on board the FITZ dont have much of a chance do they?" The mother responded "That's right Hon, so we gotta pray for all of them, we gotta have hope, somehow." It's kinda ironic in a way, but even as a youngster growing up in Western Ohio, I was always concerned about people being in a safe place and not being harmed. Granted, I had just turned 10 years old a little under 2 months before the EDMUND FITZGERALD disappeared and was already well into my love of the mighty ocean liners of the North Atlantic run; but, during those early formative years of ship study, I also read up a lot on Great Lakes passenger liners too, as well as any Great Lakes vessels period, so it really was a big deal for my peers and myself back then since the EDMUND FITZGERALD had been built right there in Cleveland. My heart went out to the families of the men who were on board when the ship sank that night - and it still does.
Years later, via a PBS special on the wreck, I was actually relieved that they not only found the wreck of the EDMUND FITZGERALD, but also very fascinated by the few theories presented as to how she sank, though I must admit, there were 2 aspects of the wreck in particular that just blew my mind. First, both sections of the ship, which broke inhalf, are very well preserved - the original paint, the name of the ship itself, everything. I guess scientists have been right all these years - when something gets preserved in fresh water as close to actually freezing as that, it really does last for a long, long time. Secondly - and this still blows my mind to this day - the wreck of the EDMUND FITZGERALD is located very closeby to another famous Great Lakes freighter which sank back in 1958, the CARL D. BRADLEY, and that will always be something I'll remember because it was one of the 1st Great Lakes shipwrecks my Dad told me about when I was growing up. Kinda neat to a kid of 10 years old.
Normally with all my writings on ships I automatically include the statistics of every vessel I discuss but the mighty FITZ has been so talked about over the years that I figure if folks wanna check those things out further, they may feel free to do so themselves. As I mentioned earlier though, I do remember her being in the top 5 of the largest freigthers afloat at the time of her sinking and so many newspapers said she was the largest ship afloat on the Lakes at that time but I think a year or two later that was proved false. The only actual statistic I remember is that she was around 729 feet long, only about 60 or more feet shorter than the Cunard twin-sisters MAURETANIA and LUSITANIA of 1907. For a junior ship buff like myself back then, that was a pretty amazing fact!
I bow my head in respect and reverence towards the 29 men who lost their lives that terrible night of November 10, 1975 when the EDMUND FITZGERALD disappeared beneath the storm-ridden waves of Lake Superior and both they themselves and the ship they were on will never be forgotten. Thank you for reading
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