NDR Edmund Fitzgerald

[Tom Wall]

I stumbled across this on youtube last night and thought some here would enjoy it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw

I never saw the Fitz in person. I was always intrigued by the large ships I saw offshore on Lake Michigan growing up. I did see the then named Medusa Challenger in the Chicago River. It was the largest ship that could pass through the locks into the river. It kept the draw bridge operators busy downtown.

Tom

 

[Jay Anglin]

I love the lakes shipping. There are some good websites out there. Somewhere I have a photo of my Jeep sitting under the boom of the Arthur M. Andersen when it was off-loading coal in Marquette's lower harbor. You may recall that the Andersen was the ship following the Fitz in that storm and sustained damage while losing radio contact with the Fitz after Captain McSorley said,"We are holding our own".

One winter when the Kaye E. Barker was essentially iced in at Marquette's upper harbor I was fishing the channel next to the oar dock, under the coal terminal. There was a discharge from the upper harbor power plant that kept the water warm and the fish would stack there. I would fly fish at night and the guys on board would come out and watch me and cheer for me when I hooked fish. They were towering over me like an upper deck at a stadium. I used to see the Kaye in the Rouge River in Detroit and over here at Indiana Harbor.

www.shipwreckmuseum.com/fitz.phtml?page=fateful

http://www.boatnerd.com/

www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/greatlakesandsea.phtml

www.great-lakes.net/teach/business/ship/ship_1.html

 

[Jay Anglin]

That's a helluva video...well done. That song always gives me chills which is amazing seeing as, like many of us I've heard it about 10,000 times!

My friend Chris Seegert's father watched the Fitz up bound through the St Clair River on her last run. A good family friend was in downtown Detroit when they rang the bells at the cathedral. He said it was one of the most profound things he had ever experienced. Anybody else hear the bells here?