“ …then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.”
— Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. It is not the anniversary of the song; shortly after the Nov. 10, 1975, tragedy, Gordon Lightfoot put pen to paper and took guitar in hand to write a song that continues to resonate even in 2025, but it would not be released until 1976.
The song, of course, played a major role in immortalizing the disaster. Lightfoot created an honest, raw 20th-century folk song. Unlike Bob Dylan’s interesting and admittedly catchy ramblings with their oddball imagery, or Bruce Springsteen’s efforts to create a working-class mythology, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a heartfelt tribute to the men who died. It is not a dirge, but a ballad in the truest sense of the word. It tells a real story, about real people. The melody, lyrics, structure, and Lightfoot’s voice all come together to create a sense of loss, sorrow, and empathy. Even in 2025, the song still evokes feelings of grief and mourning for the 29 lost lives, sometimes among people who were not even born when the Edmund Fitzgerald took her crew to their graves.
The loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is not an event confined to the dusty pages of history. The story of the sinking of the Titanic has been told and retold, and is the subject of countless documentaries, movies, and even touring exhibits. The Titanic has long since sailed into myth. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975. It lives on not just in cultural memory but in actual memory. There are those today who remember where they were when they heard the news, or who worked on other ships that plied the Great Lakes. And there are, as Lightfoot said in his song, “the wives and the sons and the daughters.” In terms of history, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is relatively recent and still raw for some. The names of the 29 men who died are not those of great-great-great-grandparents or distant relatives. They are not found in dusty, yellowed pages of ancient books. Their names and faces can be found in family albums and in the vivid memories of those left behind. Some remember and mourn those who were lost.
The story reminds us that even in the present day, with all of our technology, we are not immune to disaster. There are still forces greater than man and his machinations. We send beeping probes to the stars or sounding through the depths. We have weapons that can destroy the planet, but at the same time, we remain at the mercy of the elements. The world and the universe are harsh, unforgiving places. Even in 1975, men and their machines should have been able to prevent the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The story is a reminder of our place in the universe. We believe ourselves to be masters of our environment, when in truth, we are anything but.
And then there are the mysteries of the deep. The Great Lakes can be more dangerous than the open ocean and contain more than their fair share of history and lore, from ghosts to water monsters to lost ships. “The Mighty Fitz” seemed almost doomed from her christening, and bad omens abounded on that day. It has become a uniquely American myth, not in the sense that it lacks veracity; the story is true. It has become a myth in the sense that it has become part of our cultural heritage, and it is a story to be passed down and woven into our history.
Related: The ‘Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ Haunts the Great Lakes Still Today
Below is an interview I did on the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald back in 2010. My guest was Mark Gumbinger, a producer and maritime historian. I was living in rural Utah at the time, and many residents of the Beehive State had no concept of the Great Lakes, so keep in mind that it was targeted to the local population. It is also important to note that, yes, more research has been done since 2010, and more information is available than we had 15 years ago. But the interview holds up well, and who knows? There may be a few things you never knew before.
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