Performer at Annual Memorial Shares Story of Edmund Fitzgerald’s Sinking and the Song that Made it Famous
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Nov. 9, 2024)
Highland Township, MI – The last person Ruth Hudson spoke to, on a phone call from her death bed, was Gordon Lightfoot, the famous Canadian folk singer who told the story of her son’s death and that of 28 others in the song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The song immortalized what might otherwise have been just another accident – a story in the paper one might read and be momentarily saddened by and never think about again. But hearing of the Nov. 19, 1975 tragedy touched Lightfoot’s heart. And until his death in 2023 he remained connected to the families and the small Michigan town where the tragedy is remembered every year.
Mike Fornes is a Michigan-based singer who has also carried the torch of the story and the song. Each year he visits The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point to sing for the families at the memorial. He also travels around the Midwest sharing details about the incident and the story of the song.
On September 16 Fornes shared the story to a packed house at the Highland Activities Center in Highland Township, with the audience captivated for over an hour by the details they hadn’t known before about this infamous event. And of course the event ended with the song.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was a massive ship. Spanning 729 feet it was the largest freshwater ship of the time. It was built in River Rouge in 1958 and mainly carried taconite containing iron ore, shipped in the form of pellets the size of marbles that made it easy to transport. The ship was named after a banker who helped to finance it’s construction.
When it sank it was carrying 7,500 tons. The ship was so heavy that it could often barely clear the Soo Locks. The locks can accommodate a ship up to a dept of 30 feet. The Edmund Fitzgerald squeaked through at 27 feet 6 inches.
The ship would carry ore through the Great Lakes, often from Minnesota or Wisconsin to manufacturing communities like Detroit, Toledo, or Cleveland. Much of that ore was turned into automobiles.
When ships like the Edmund Fitzgerald would come through the locks, they attracted attention. “The crew knew there’d be big crowds,” Fornes said. “They’d stand at the rails and they get the same questions. Where are you going? Where are you coming from? What are you carrying?”
He added that the crew would watch for families with little kids, and toss them a canvas bag with money it, and it was a huge honor for a child to fetch them pasties from a nearby restaurant. “That little guy would have a story to tell his classmates,” he said.
On Nov. 9, 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior Wisconsin for a two day trip across Lake Superior as they headed towards Zug Island in River Rouge.
Back then, November was typically a cold month, especially in northern Michigan where snow was common that time of year. “But that day was very strange,” Fornes said. “The temps were in the low 70s. Men were working with their shirts off. But by midnight the temps dropped by 30 degrees, and there was icy rain. The barometer was dropping really fast, with 30 mph winds through the night.”
“At first light the winds were up to 50-55 miles per hour, with 20 foot waves.”
Weather reports would come via fax machine, and were not nearly as accurate as they are today. “Today you can tell me when it’s going to rain at you house by looking at your phone, but back then they didn’t even have nearly the depth of technology,” Fornes said.
That day there were two storms which met up over the ship’s position, rocking the massive freighter back and forth, making it twist and turn in the gigantic waves. The vent blew off the deck, leaving a gaping hole. The radar antenna was ripped away and the captain was sailing blind. It started snow and the deck was icing up. Water was gushing in but because the ship was being tilted so far, the bilge pump in the center could not get the water out effectively.
The winds grew up to 80 miles per hour, with 30 foot waves.
“We are holding our own,” was the last transmission from the ship. At 7pm the Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from radar, and sank without any requests for help.
Behind them on the same route was a ship called The Anderson, who stayed in contact with The Edmund Fitzgerald for as long as they could. The captain radioed to other ships in Whitefish Bay and no one had seen them. He and other captains searched the area while waiting for the Coast Guard to arrive.
A ship called the Woodrush came from Duluth to help look, as did a helicopter from Traverse City. It was the Canadian Navy that found the sunken ship using sonar, 192 days later. The wreck still lies 17 miles off Whitefish point, in Canadian water. None of the 29 bodies were ever recovered.
When the ship was found, the Mariner’s Church in Detroit rang their bell 29 times in honor of the men who died, and a reporter heard the bells and inquired why. That journalist’s story went out on the news wire and when musician Gordon Lighfoot read it, he was sad.
In Fornes’ telling, Lightfoot was even more sad that there wasn’t more coverage of the tragic event, that 29 hardworking people had lost their lives in this storm on Lake Superior, never returning home to their loved ones. He wanted the men to be remembered. He wanted people to care. He also had spent a lot of time on the Great Lakes as an avid sailor, so he knew the beauty and the peril of their depths.
And so he wrote a song.
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a folk song with Irish folk song influence that takes over six minutes to tell the epic tale of the men and the danger they faced. The song reached number one in Canada, number two in the US and even made the top 40 overseas in the United Kingdom. It’s considered his second most successful song, with Sundown being his most notable chart-topper.
The song prompted much more attention than the original news stories, which proved to be both a blessing and a curse as news outlets would reach out to family members of the victims each year for the tragedy’s anniversary.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum opened in 1978 to pay homage to all who have lost their lives in shipping on the lakes. Ruth Hudson, whose son was part of the crew, helped lead the way for an annual memorial service at the museum. Lightfoot’s song is part of the tradition, with Fornes carrying the torch of singing it each year.
Fornes shared stories of many families during his presentation. The men who died came from all over the midwest, including many from Michigan and Ohio. Hudson’s son Bruce had been working to save money for college. He was also an avid motorcyclist, which was a worry to his mother. In all those families the news that their loved one would not be coming home, left an impact on their hearts and their lives.
The families wanted the wreck to be more closely examined, and items to be recovered. They also wanted the shipwreck site to be declared a memorial gravesite to protect it from being disturbed. In this quest Hudson visited Lansing, Ottawa, and even Washington DC. “She lobbied for years,” Forne said. Eventually Natural Geographic Magazine offered to pay some of the cost, and they helped get Sony on board. The Sioux Tribe of Chippewa Indians contributed funds, as did the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
The expedition led to greater understanding, and led to the bell being recovered. A replacement bell was then brought down to the ship and welded on so it would not be without one, while the original was restored and remains on display at the museum.
The bell had been run 29 times each year – once for each life lost. In 2023 they expanded it to 30 rings, with the final in honor of the singer who had immortalized the story.
Prior to his death, Lightfoot himself also made appearances over the years, and got to know the families, and Fornes.
One of them was particularly memorable for the singer, a woman who wanted Lightfoot to make a correction to his song. “Ruth Hudson walks up to Gord and says, my son was in charge of the hatch covers,” Fornes said.
In Lightfoot’s telling of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald he sang that the hatch covers had failed. Investigation revealed that the hatch was not a factor in the sinking, and even as the boat lie 530 feet below the surface the hatch covers remain in tact.
The lyric had been speculative, and now that it was known to be inaccurate, the devoted mother wanted a correction. From then on when Lighfoot would perform the song he made no mention of the hatch, replacing it with a line about it growing dark at 7pm.
Hudson came to the ceremony each year, but in 2015 she could not make it. She was 90 years old and in failing health. The day before the ceremony, Lightfoot was in town and had been meeting with various family members. Learning that Hudson would not be there, he gave her a call.
“The last person Ruth talked to was Gordon Lightfoot, by phone on her deathbed,” Fornes said.
Without Lightfoot, and without Hudson, the memorial ceremony continues every year. It is closed to the public, but is livestreamed on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum website at https://shipwreckmuseum.com/.
In the history of the Great Lakes it’s estimated there have been over 6,000 shipwrecks and over 30,000 lives lost.
