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Date: 09/11/15
"And All That Remains Are The Faces And The Names..."
Forty years ago today, the iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin with a load of taconite pellets destined for a steel mill near Detroit, Michigan.
She never arrived. Instead, she encountered a severe storm passing through Lake Superior and - for reasons still not yet clear - sank with all hands, disappearing from visual and radar contact shortly after 7pm on the evening of November 10. No bodies were ever recovered, and the ship's bell was only brought back to the surface in 1995.
A couple of weeks after the Fitzgerald sank, the Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot read an article in Newsweek about the tragedy and - as a resident of the Great Lakes region himself - wrote a song in memory of the victims. He took one or two minor liberties with the story: for instance, he has the ship heading to Cleveland, Ohio rather than Detroit (before you condemn him, consider: can you think of a rhyme for Detroit appropriate to the context?)
The song appeared on his LP Summertime Dream - which was recorded shortly afterwards - and was released as a single the following August, reaching number 1 in Canada and either number 1 or 2 (depending on which chart you follow) in the US. He regards it as his best work ever. I don't dispute that, and it moves me every time; so much so that - eminently singable though it be - I can't sing along with it. Or, at least, not for more than a couple of lines.
Let us listen, and remember:
| Name |
Age |
Position |
| |
|
|
| McSorley, Ernest |
63 |
Captain |
| Armagost, Michael |
47 |
3rd Mate |
| Beetcher, Frederick |
56 |
Porter |
| Bentsen, Thomas |
23 |
Oiler |
| Bindon, Edward |
47 |
1st Asst Engineer |
| Borgeson, Thomas |
40 |
Maintenance Man |
| Champeau, Oliver |
41 |
3rd Asst Engineer |
| Church, Nolan |
55 |
Porter |
| Cundy, Ransom |
53 |
Watchman |
| Edwards, Thomas |
50 |
2nd Asst Engineer |
| Haskell, Russell |
40 |
2nd Asst Engineer |
| Holl, George |
60 |
Chief Engineer |
| Hudson, Bruce |
22 |
Deck Hand |
| Kalmon, Allen |
45 |
2nd Cook |
| MacLellan, Gordon |
30 |
Wiper |
| Mazes, Joseph |
59 |
Special Maintenance Man |
| McCarthy, John |
62 |
1st Mate |
| O'Brien, Eugene |
50 |
Wheelsman |
| Peckol, Karl |
20 |
Watchman |
| Poviach, John |
59 |
Wheelsman |
| Pratt, James |
44 |
2nd Mate |
| Rafferty, Robert |
62 |
Steward/Cook |
| Riippa, Paul |
22 |
Deck Hand |
| Simmons, John |
62 |
Wheelsman |
| Spengler, William |
59 |
Watchman |
| Thomas, Mark |
21 |
Deck Hand |
| Walton, Ralph |
58 |
Oiler |
| Weiss, David |
21 |
Cadet |
| Wilhelm, Blaine |
52 |
Oiler |
For more of the story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, go here.
