The Edmund Fitzgerald

I've been a Gordon Lightfoot fan since my college days at SUNY-Albany. Emily Wright turned me on to Gordon.

He has had a number of hits over the years, but he may be best known for his 1976 ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Today is the 32nd anniversary of the loss of the ship. I came across this video tribute to the lost ship and crew on Fark.com. The video has some actual footage and has Lightfoot's song as accompaniment.

The Fitzgerald was launched in 1958 and was the biggest ore freighter on the Great Lakes until the early 1970's. The boat was built by Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co. of Wisconsin and named after the company's chairman, whose father had been a Great Lakes ship captain.

Some people believe that the Fitzgerald was a jinxed boat and bad luck dogged it from the beginning. When Mrs. Fitzgerald went to christen the boat by breaking a champagne bottle over the bow, it took her three swings to break the bottle. Upon launching the vessel in the water, the boat was slightly damaged as it hit the dock, and finally, at the ceremony one of the onlookers suffered a heart attack. The boat suffered an unusual number of minor wrecks and mishaps during its 17 years of service.

Apparently, controversy still remains about the actual cause of the wreck. There is no question, however, that Lightfoot's hit song has made the Edmund Fitzgerald the most well-known Great Lakes' shipwreck.