November 10, 1975
35 years ago today
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a sudden squall on Lake Superior, around 17 miles from Whitefish Bay. It sank quickly, no distress signals reported, carrying all 29 aboard to their frigid deaths. When the wreck was found, it was discovered to be as above: broken in two.
The song (everyone knows the song) says that Lake Superior "never gives up her dead" - the fact is, that's a fact. The water is so cold that the usual bacteria who cause disintegration and the creation of gases which cause the corpse to float are absent. Lake Superior keeps her dead.
I mark this date - as a lover of Lake Superior and as a woman whose family (or part of it) made its living on the lake and witnessed her beauty and her fury.
A fact which brings tears to my eyes: every year the light at Split Rock (no longer in regular use) is illuminated on November 10th, to remember and honor the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
One day I will be there to see it.
1 comment:
My parents used to take us camping up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in August, and that water was cold cold cold. There's nothing like the sound of the waves crashing the rocks together.
Anyway, here: the Granite Island Light Station webcams are here.
http://www.graniteisland.com/webcamp.shtml
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