November tenth, remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald

The haunting song The Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot, is born of sorrow and tragedy. 

The Edmund Fitzgerald

June 1957 to November 1975 

                                                  listen and lyrics

The large cargo vessels that roamed the five Great Lakes were known as lakers, and the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was, at the time, the biggest ever built. Weighing more than 13,000 tons without cargo, it was christened on June 8, 1958, and made its first voyage on September 24 the same year. 

                                                           The HOMES

According to Michael Schumacher’s The Mighty Fitz, with the commissioning of the Fitzgerald, Northwestern Mutual became the first American insurance company to build its own ship—at a cost of $8.4 million.

It was named after the head of the company, and the ship's main job was hauling iron ore. 

Its impressive size made the ship popular with boat-watchers, and

over the years it garnered many nicknames, including “The Queen of the Great Lakes,” and “The Toledo Express,”

 Crowds would watch as the massive freighter moved through the

locks at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The “Soo” Locks, which connect Lake Superior to Lake Huron, allowed the Fitz to reach ports on the lower Great Lakes.

November is a brutal month on the Great Lakes with frequent storms and hurricane-force winds. On November 9, the Fitz was loaded up at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock in Superior, Wisconsin with 26,116 tons of iron ore pellets  It left at 2:30 p.m. A second ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, sailed 10-15 miles behind the Fitzgerald as a precaution, and the two ships remained in radio contact until just after 7 p.m. on November 10.

  As swells reached 35 feet and winds raged at nearly 100 mph, the ship contacted Coast Guard officials in Sault Ste. Marie and said they were taking on water. Later, a blizzard obscured the Fitz on the Anderson’s radar.

   At 7:10 p.m., Captain Ernest McSorley assured a crew member of the Anderson “We are holding our own.” It was the last anyone heard from the Fitzgerald or Captain McSorley, who was on his final voyage before retirement, 

The ship was approximately 15 miles north of Whitefish Point

when it seemingly vanished with nothing on radar, and no radio contact. Captain Cooper, on the Anderson, was in contact with the Coast Guard and made it to Whitefish Point sometime after 8 p.m.. Captain Cooper bravely turned the Anderson back into the storm to search for the ship, but found only a pair of lifeboats and debris.

     The Captain and all 28 crew members died. Most crew members were from Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota. There is still no definitive explanation for the ship sinking. With help from the Canadian Navy, the National Geographic Society, Sony, and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians—The ship's bell was retrieved.

    Their is an annual Edmund Fitzgerald memorial ceremony at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. The recovered and restored bell tolls 29 times for each member of the Fitzgerald's crew, and a 30th for the estimated 30,000 mariners lost on the Great

 Lakes.                    

 Go here for interview with the brave Captain who tried to help.    Through the eyes of Captain Cooper  

 Go here for more info

   Documentary on the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald

      Thanks to mentalfloss.com for several bits of info.

Trapper's Moon winner of Maple Leaf Award.

                                   

Available paperback or e-book  

   This month see the biggest, brightest full moon of the year. It's also the perfect time to read "Trapper's Moon" Winner of the Maple Leaf award, 4 stars from NetGalley, and Reader's Favorite award. 

 Blurb: As a free trapper, mountain man Kade McCauley is wary of the Hudson Bay Company. Their form of vengeance against those who are not part of the company can be deadly. When he and his partner are attacked, he fights back, only to discover one of his shots struck an innocent. A woman who touches his soul, and he will do anything to keep her safe. 

    While searching for her Native American tribe, Blind Deer crosses paths with Kade—with near fatal results. Once she is patched up, she decides it is safer to travel with him than alone Their uneasy alliance turns to genuine caring, but Blind Deer's past gets in the way, and she must choose between her new love or her old obligations. 
   But nothing in life is carved in stone except the mountains, and those formidable peaks have been known to change the course of a man's life or a woman's.

 Excerpt 1

    The cabin door flew open. Blind Deer jumped and leaped aside. Favoring his right foot, Kade lumbered forward and flung himself toward the nearest chair.
     “Dang mule.” He bent forward to unlace his moccasin. “Stepped on my foot—not once but twice.”
     “Let me help.” She crouched down at his side. “Does the animal seek to harm you on purpose?” She slid the leather from his foot.
     “No, it was my fault for getting between the two of them hitched to a rail.”
     “Then I suppose shooting and eating this animal is out of the question.”  She peered up at him through her lashes. 
      He chuckled and relaxed back in the chair. “Sorry for bursting in on you in such a lather.” 
     Rolling a stump closer she up-ended it, placed a folded blanket on top, and rested his foot upon the trade wool. “I just brought in fresh water from the stream, the cold will help your pain and discourage the swelling.” 
      Soaking a cloth in the icy water she applied it to the top of his foot. Holding the cloth in place, she noticed a scar near the bruised flesh. Red and twisted, the old wound curved upward disappearing beneath the leg of Kade’s buckskin pants. The healed scar still appeared angry, as if refusing to be forgotten. “Did the mule do this too?” She gently ran a finger across the puckered flesh.
     “No. A Blackfoot brave accommodated me there. After he killed my parents.”
     Blind Deer drew back her hand as if it touched fire. “You must hate Indians.” She leaned away from him.
     “Some.” 
     “The Blackfoot people.”
     “Just that one.”
     “But not all?”
    “Why should I? They haven’t all tried to kill me.”

Excerpt 2
     Sitting by the door of the cabin, Kade tipped his chair back against the wall, then he reached down to scratch the big dog lying at his side. “Where do you hale from, Blind Deer?”
      Coming at her out of the blue, the question took her by surprise. She considered her answer. The Bitterroot Valley had been her home, but she had yet to make it back there in her current travels. Besides, why should he care? 
   “Where I am from depends upon whom you ask.” At her evasive answer, Kade raised a brow in exasperation. Regretting her sharp words she continued. “Having a white mother, and an Indian father, the Salish say I am from the circle that overlaps. They think I am honored to walk in two worlds. The Missionaries say I belong nowhere, and I corrupt both worlds.”
     “And what do you say?”
     She hesitated before answering. Here was a question no one had bothered to ask her before. “I am just me. And for now I am where I belong.”
     “Or maybe you’re a world unto yourself.” Kade tipped his chair forward, and the front legs thumped back down onto the floor.
     Did he laugh at her? His expression was serious, and kindness lived in his eyes. 
     Kade McCauley seemed very different from most of the dogface white men she’d met. 

                             Available paperback or e-book