The legend lives on... 50 years later
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2025 10:12 pm
It was 50 years ago today that the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sunk during a storm on Lake Superior, with all 29 crew lost. It was the largest ship ever lost on the Great Lakes. While it has outsized familiarity due to the ballad Gordon Lightfoot was inspired to write about it, the sinking brought major changes to improve the safety of navigation. To this day, there has been no further loss of life on commercial ships on the Great Lakes. So perhaps those 29 men did not die in vain.
I don't think there is a more evocative lyric written than
"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
or
"And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters."
I don't think there is a more evocative lyric written than
"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
or
"And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters."