Well, I was bummed to find no Fitz related shows on tonight.
Maybe the weekend will bring something.
The Mariner's Cathedral bell ringing ceremony is scheduled for 19:00 tonight.
posted by Hooda_Thunkit at 06:47 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
I was a receptionist for the Union of Merchant Marines which the Edmund was one of our ships (guys on the ship were members)...
The Merchant Marines which was called MEBA was located on Summitt Street which is now the Millers Brewing Co., we were all sad, very sad when the news came thru, I was 19 years old...
I forever am grateful that though a tragedy was/is and always will be remembered in a song...
posted by MARIELORA at 07:20 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
The livecast is on right now - http://www.shipwreckmuseum.org/
until 8 - they haven't started the bell ceremony yet.
I was 15 when it happened, at my friend Debbie's house. I have alot of history with that lake...but that's a story for some other time.
Thanks for the props Mike...
:-)
posted by psyche777 at 07:25 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
HT, I couldn't find anything searching online - all History Channel had was the link to buy the DVD
posted by psyche777 at 07:26 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
I wasn't alive for the sinking of the Ed. Fitzgerald (I'm only 22), but I vividly remember singing the song about the tragedy in elementary school in music class. I've always heard about the sinking but never knew until now that Toledoans went down with the ship. Actually living in the city where many of these men called home makes this event much more real to me.
posted by HeyHey at 10:38 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
I bought Lightfoot's song when it came out. That's about all I remember of the incident. I still have the 45. Someone else can explain to HeyHey what that is.
posted by jr at 10:49 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
I lived in Detroit at the time, and was 11 years old. I remember watching a news show about it, probably the day after, and that my whole family was glued to the set.
I remember watching those massive freighters on the Detroit River, and thinking that there was no way a storm could sink one of those huge vessels.
The Gordon Lightfoot song was a near-constant on CKLW-800 out of Windsor, where it not only was a great song but filled those pesky Canadian content laws for stations in Canada.
There were more than a handful of Detroit-area families affected by the tragedy, and the crew ringed the Great Lakes, so it was kind of a regional tragedy.
More than anything else, I think that I became much more respectful of boating on the Great Lakes (and probably boating in general). The storms that can suddenly develop on the lakes can rival all but the worst ocean weather.
Every tragedy can make us feel sad for the victims, but there was something about the thought of those sailors drowning in that freezing water on board an iron-hulled tomb that used to give me shivers, more so than the scariest book or creepiest movie.
posted by historymike at 10:55 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
It's a vinyl disc thats appx. 9 inches across, lain upon a disc spinner that spun this vinyl disc at 45,000 rpm (hence them callin' it a "45") under a stick with a diamond attached to the end that lays on the vinyl which makes me all nostalgic.
People like Barbra Striestand and Elvis Presley exploited this genre, and Frankie Vale too.
I remember watching the footage of the rescue operation on channel 11, cameras aimed out to the water from the shoreline, thinking about riding my bike off the end of the barges behind the Alphalfa towers on Summit Street and behind the old Hans Hansen place. That Maumee water was cold, so I can fathom how terrible a death those men experenced.
I clearly remember the talking head mention that the Fitzgerald sank at such a rate, it was like a "hand had pulled it down."
I was 9 years old!
posted by BrianInFlorida at 03:46 A.M. EST on Fri Nov 11, 2005 #
I was in diapers. I wasn't even 2 at the time. So other then a grade school music teacher who would make us listen to the whole song every other week, I don't have any memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
posted by tekrat at 06:58 A.M. EST on Fri Nov 11, 2005 #
Fred Shannon did a dive in 1994 and claims to have videotape of a crew member lying on the floor of the lake wearing a life jacket as well as other documentation concerning how he feels the ship sank. However, the initial outcry over the finding of the body has made him not release the rest of the video. Shannon feels after the several days of video taping that the ship hit the shoals and that is what made it break apart. He also feels given the crew member was wearing one of the life jackets that shows the theory of the ship going down so quickly is not true. Most of the documentation he's written is no longer on the net, but I did manage to find alot of it using the internet archive's way back machine.
I think for many part of the lure of the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald is we don't know what caused the ship to sink and Gordon Lightfoot, had it not been for him many would not have a clue as to any of it. However, there have been over 6,000 ship wrecks in the Lakes.
posted by psyche777 at 09:07 A.M. EST on Fri Nov 11, 2005 #
I first heard about it on XM radio.
posted by paddington at 10:41 A.M. EST on Fri Nov 11, 2005 #
Our uncle was the first Captain to sail the Edmund Fitzgerald. He took her on it's maiden voyage. He loved that ship, but he said it was just to large for him to handle. I guess transfered to something a little smaller.
Oh and by the way BrianInFlorida, You got it mostly correct. However the 45 record disc only spun at 45 rpm, not 45,000. The LP's spun at 33-1/3 rpm and the real old 78's spun at 78 rpm.
posted by AmericanPie at 05:57 P.M. EST on Fri Nov 11, 2005 #
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