11/10/2025
Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald captivated me as a young child. I would sit on the floor of our dining room and play the 45 record over and over again. The haunting melody resonated with me and instead of reading age appropriate books for an eight year old, I read my dad’s copy of Gales of November which tells the tale of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
I’ve always loved the Great Lakes as well as the Fitzgerald. I’m stunned that even today, some people who haven’t had a chance to visit the Great Lakes, think of the them as ponds or small bodies of water, and not the inland seas they really are. Equally as dangerous as the oceans, maybe even more so. The Fitzgerald was no small boat either. A 729 foot freighter, the largest on the lakes at that time…gone in a matter of a few minutes, at most.
Fifty years ago today, 29 men lost their lives on Lake Superior. I read their names every year, for their families. May they always be remembered.
Captain: Ernest M. McSorley
First Mate: John H. McCarthy
Second Mate: James A. Pratt
Third Mate: Michael E. Armagost
Chief Engineer: George J. Holl
First Assistant Engineer: Edward F. Bindon
Second Assistant Engineers: Thomas E. Edwards and Russell G. Haskell
Third Assistant Engineer: Oliver J. Champeau
Cadet: David Weiss
Watchmen: Ransom Cundy, Karl Peckol, and William Spengler
Wheelsmen: John Simmons, Eugene O’Brien, and John Poviach
Deckhands: Paul Riippa, Mark Thomas, and Bruce Hudson
Oilers: Ralph Walton, Blaine Wilhelm, and Thomas Bentsen
Wiper: Gordon MacLellan
Steward: Robert Rafferty
Second Cook: Allen Kalmon
Special Maintenance: Joseph Mazes
Maintenance Man: Thomas Borgeson
Porters: Frederick Beetcher and Nolan Church
The original bell from the Fitzgerald will ring 30 times today in Whitefish Point, MI. Once for each crew member and an extra toll for all Great Lakes mariners lost at sea. ❤️
