Still The Legend Lives On

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the gales of November remembered.

When it was launched the SS Edmund Fitzgerald became the largest laker to sail on the Great Lakes, a title it held for more than a decade. On November 10, 1975 the Fitz sank during one of the worst storms ever known on Lake Superior. This year, for the first time, the memorial services will be held in River Rouge — the city where the vessel was built in 1957-58.

Several speakers will be on hand at Belanger Park including people who helped build the ship, as well as captains from other ships who helped out in rescue efforts after the Fitz went down. Relatves of some of the lost crew members will call and address the crowd through a speakerphone. Artifacts and photographs will be on display.

At 7:10 PM — the time the ship sank — a memorial wreath will be tossed into the Detroit River and a bell will be rung 29 times for the men that were lost with the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Roscoe Clark, who is working on a documentary about the ship and one of the organizers for the event, said he is pleased the memorial service has been moved from Detroit to River Rouge: “The best place in the country to hold this memorial service is where the ship was built.”

Roscoe Clark also set up a website containing video clips and photos of the ship at ssedmundfitzgerald.com where you will also find another account of that fateful night, and much more.

Visit YouTube for the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” written and recorded by Gordon Lightfoot.

A 30th anniversary memorial tribute post was entered here at Night Bird’s Fountain last year.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call “Gitche Gumee.”
“Superior,” they said, “never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early.”