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The song was released in 1976, and details a sinking from only a year before.
The most fascinating aspect of the incident to me is that the Edmund Fitzgerald was 728' long and sank in 535 feet of water. One video I saw analyzing the sinking showed that it was possible the ship's bow was forced down hit the bottom with 200' or so still above the surface.
Obligatory link to the Gordon Lightfoot song about this disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzTkGyxkYI
What a song — chills me every time. I can’t think of another historical and/or tragedy song that grips me as much as this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_in_the_Cradle
... gotta make a phone call now ... :-/
Obligatory link to the Gordon Lightfoot song about this disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzTkGyxkYI
- Tons of water likely getting into the cargo hold, wetting it down, especially if the
crew didn't take care of shutting the cargo hold top.
- Lots of rocking back and forth
- They were carrying tons of iron ore
- That stuff can absorb a ton of water, then when rocked, let it all loose at once,
thus causing a top-heavy rocking motion that will capsize a vessel within minutes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fitzgerald#Maintenance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fitzgerald#Structural_f...
Huge waves (running down the ship's length) obviously put extreme stresses on the hull of a long, thin, heavily-loaded ship. And the Fitzgerald's wreck is broken into two pieces, right in the middle.
Obligatory link to the Gordon Lightfoot song about this disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzTkGyxkYI
What a song — chills me every time. I can’t think of another historical and/or tragedy song that grips me as much as this one.
Arguably you could also include Telegraph Road (Dire Straits, 1982) although its story is even more generic.
The most fascinating aspect of the incident to me is that the Edmund Fitzgerald was 728' long and sank in 535 feet of water. One video I saw analyzing the sinking showed that it was possible the ship's bow was forced down hit the bottom with 200' or so still above the surface.
The most fascinating aspect of the incident to me is that the Edmund Fitzgerald was 728' long and sank in 535 feet of water. One video I saw analyzing the sinking showed that it was possible the ship's bow was forced down hit the bottom with 200' or so still above the surface.
If you haven't visited the Great Lakes, it can be hard to fathom how vast they are. They are really more like inland seas than lakes. At its deepest point, Lake Superior is about 1300ft deep, and edge-to-edge it measures about 350 miles across. If Lake Superior were drained, it could cover the entirety of North and South America with a foot of freshwater. The northwestern coast of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula tha…
Beaver Island has an entire year-round community. Farms, wineries, a small airport. It was featured on some survival show I caught late at night once.
The Manitou islands used to be inhabited. They have found arrowheads on the island 7000 years old. They went through a logging colony, to a farming colony, to them mostly just a collection of summer cottages, before the state finally bought them and made them a wild camping nature preserve. 5 miles offshore, and within sight of other massive islands which have their own wild histories.
Lastly - South Manitou island has a shipwreck from the 60's along its shore you can still explore and dive.
Mackinac island is another year-round community. No cars are allowed, and the historical forts from the 1800's have been all preserved. It's the only place I've visited which has a real, "Pirates of the Caribbean" feel to it.
Put-in-Bay, where fishermen go to party. There's a lot of these places!