Pharyngula

Posted by: Anon | November 10, 2009 1:11 PM

I lived on the Great Lakes at the time.

Grew to hate that song.

Posted by: David D.G. | November 10, 2009 1:23 PM

I think it's a pretty good ballad, actually, but I didn't really need to have it burrow into my mind for the rest of the day. Thanks for the earworm, PZ! :^p

~David D.G.

Posted by: KI | November 10, 2009 1:33 PM

littlejohn@4
Yes, Gitchee-Gummi is the Anishinabe (aka Ojibwa or Chippewa) name. I don't know the Dakota word (they were pushed out of the area when the Anishinabe got guns from the fur traders). "Superior" is an apt description, in my estimation (but I've never been to Lake Baikal).

Posted by: Brock | November 10, 2009 1:41 PM

*sigh* I'll drink to that....

(for those not from the region, "Edmund Fitzgerald" is a popular porter from Great Lakes Brewing Co. here in Cleveland, named commemoration of the wreck)
http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/whatsOnTap.php

Posted by: Newfie | November 10, 2009 1:55 PM

Never cared for Lightfoot's voice or singing style. Stan Rogers wrote some great maritime songs though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uCFs06j7E8

Posted by: Tim | November 10, 2009 2:05 PM

I thought that song was an inspiration, at least in style, of Paul and Storm's "The Ballad of Eddie Praeger."

Posted by: charley | November 10, 2009 2:11 PM

Our ferry ride from Houghton to Isle Royale this August was calm, but the ranger on board said they were surprised by a squall and 14' waves the day before. No thanks.

Posted by: nomen-nescio.myopenid.com | November 10, 2009 2:16 PM

it is a decent ballad, actually --- once. possibly even once a year. but, living in Michigan, if you only have to hear it one time in any given calendar year, you count that a remarkably good one and tell your grandkids about it until they're sick of the tale about the year you only had to hear The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald just once.

the porter from Cleveland is decent, though i've had better porters. plenty good enough to wash earworms out of your grey matter with, though.

Posted by: JD | November 10, 2009 2:22 PM

Being from the south I didn't ever have much exposure to the history of the event or the song... It is an interesting piece of regional lore and a reminder that life's a bitch sometimes!

Posted by: Brock | November 10, 2009 2:25 PM

Oh, I don't actually like the porter much. But I do like beer in general. I don't usually go for the bitter stuff, but their Blackout Stout is great (also like 9% ABV).

Posted by: Chuck | November 10, 2009 3:02 PM

I wouldn't have wanted to be on the lakes on November 10, 1913, either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Storm_of_1913

By the way, PZ - I'm looking forward to your talk at Purdue on Thursday!

Posted by: Rick McWilliams | November 10, 2009 3:12 PM

The story of the sinking of a ship at sea is very scary to me. I have endured some storms aboard my boat. Motor vessel Nekton is tiny compared to the sea. Her 53 tonnes of steel and machinery were tossed easily by the seas of hurricane Flosi. Conditions were so bad at anchor that we decided that it would be better in the open sea. We raised the anchor without injury to any crew. We motored slowly against the 24 foot breaking seas. The wind was tremendous on the tops of the waves. In the troughs the seas appered as if they might seal over us. If a system fails, or a crewmember gets tired and does something stupid we will all die. An emergency at sea lasts a long time. The intensity of the danger did not allow time to think about how things could have been different. The crew endured the fear. We were rather getting used to the situation in a few hours. I made a risky decision to try taking the seas on our stern to move away from the storm and in the direction of home. It was a dramatic maneuver on the top of a rather flatter wave. The first waves to approach from our stern looked like they might stuff the bow into the trough. The heavy boat was pushed along just enough to avoid broaching and subsequent rollover. Eight hours later the sky quickly cleared, and the last giant wave passed under us. We were instantly in calm 12 ft seas, and light 30 knot breeze. We must have gone berserk as we decided it was a fine time to fish. We did not know that the real emergency would happen in few hours.

It would be a lie to say that there were not efforts to invoke devine intervention. Our lives were preserved by courage, intelligence, seamanship, luck and the short duration of the hurricane.

Posted by: Zan | November 10, 2009 3:23 PM

The metal band Jag Panzer has a FANTASTIC cover of this song, however I have only heard it once and haven't been able to find a copy of the cover.

Posted by: Mike Wagner | November 10, 2009 3:43 PM

[blockquote]God bless the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald.[/blockquote]

If there were a God, you might want to consider suggesting he use his omnipotence to go back and "bless" them out of a painful death by drowning.

Posted by: AdamK | November 10, 2009 3:55 PM

Loved the melody, but those rhymes were really strained.

They're true rhymes alternating with half-rhymes. Not strained at all; a traditional balladic technique, and perfectly done.

Posted by: Jim Bouldin | November 10, 2009 4:53 PM

Thanks for this. Excellent footage and I've always loved the song. I remember this event very very well. It was page-wide headline, front page news in our local (Toledo, OH) newspaper the following morning, because the captain and several crew members were from Toledo, and a few more were from surrounding towns. If you have ever been out on ANY of the Great Lakes in a real screamer at night, you know what real fear is.

Pretty amazing that people here prefer to rip on Gordon Lightfoot's song about a tragedy that killed 29 people, or discuss the merits of a beer. Preeeety amazingly shallow and callous.

Posted by: RBH | November 10, 2009 5:32 PM

Jag Panzer version.

Posted by: Newfie | November 10, 2009 5:44 PM

Stan Rogers's The Mary Ellen Carter is more apropos:

..if by "apropos" you mean "getting to the final song in the documentary in a quicker fashion". ;)

And since the Edmund Fitzgerald wasn't raised, I'd contend that "The Jeannie C." is more apropos. And it's here in part four of that documentary, at about one minute in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAuYj2GXIMM&feature=related

Posted by: arrakis | November 10, 2009 5:51 PM

This earworm replaced another one..."Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by the Smiths.

Irony, ahoy.

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | November 10, 2009 6:17 PM

.if by "apropos" you mean "getting to the final song in the documentary in a quicker fashion". ;)

No, by apropos I meant that if we're discussing a shipwreck made memorable by a song then a song about another shipwreck is more appropriate than a song about the arctic.

Posted by: Jonathan Martin | November 10, 2009 7:40 PM

Oh, I get to be the second Newfie in a row to post on this topic! @Newfie, I wish I were back home in St. John's now, there's no decent music out here in Vancouver that I can find. Funny, I was reading this post on my iPhone while I was drifting around off Vancouver on the university research vessel I'm in charge of. Believe me, it's an ugly day out here too, but not exactly life-endangering. I never did like the Gordon Lightfoot version of the Fitzgerald, preferring instead the version by the Rheostatics off their sophmore album "Melville". Spectactular rendition, if you ask me!

Posted by: Dawn | November 10, 2009 8:12 PM

I've never seen Superior during a storm but I was in it one July---a very hot summer---and the water was still damn freezing cold. I've been in Huron and Erie during storms and those are scary enough. Seeing waves crash over the bow of a 60 foot Criss Craft...I can still remember my parents' fear. Only time I can remember they insisted everyone go to sleep in life jackets until we hit Put-In Bay. Never so glad to be there in my life. Superior has a well-deserved reputation for being a much worse lake during a storm.

Posted by: MAJeff, OM | November 10, 2009 8:21 PM

Damn, I remember the song, but not the event (was only 8 at the time). I can't believe I can still sing every damned line.

One of the things I grew to appreciate while living in New England, with the ship losses that happen so often, was the danger of water. I grew up in a family that fished recreationally, and had an appreciation of some danger, but never really how deadly commercial fishing and boating really is.

Posted by: Anon | November 10, 2009 8:33 PM

Dawn--

You had a 60-foot ChrissCraft? I reflexively hate you (not really)--I was a dockboy at a yacht club, and it was my job to wash those sons of bitches. I have relatives on Put In Bay, and lived on Catawba Island. Saw waves come into Marblehead that scared the shit outta me. The Great Lakes are freshwater oceans, especially during storm season. The difference is, nobody tries to walk on the saltwater oceans during winter; every spring, my friends would "go cruising for floaters", looking for the unfortunates who did not survive ice-fishing.

Posted by: Jonathan Martin | November 10, 2009 8:46 PM

@Owen: Good to hear! The Rheos are still my favorite band. I first got to see them live in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1995 after having listened to them for a couple years. Brought it full circle in 2007 at Massey Hall in Toronto, when I got to see their final concert. Le sigh :)

Posted by: Jim Bouldin | November 10, 2009 9:10 PM

"I have heard it said that the worst storms in the Great Lakes produce higher and fiercer waves than any found in the world's oceans. Don't know if it's true."

I'm not sure if that's entirely true because there is some very wicked stuff in the Southern Ocean. However, the reduced fetch (open water) in the Lakes, that would normally limit wave height and wind speed, is counteracted by the transfer of kinetic energy from horizontal to vertical because of the closed basins. That translates into steep waves, and also potentially high, depending on the weather conditions. And the weather conditions in the several hours before sinking were brutal, with maybe 25' wave heights. But all the Lakes also have at least decent potential fetch as well, because they all have one fairly long axis. And Erie magnifies all these issues with extreme shallowness. You definitely get some very extreme conditions on the Lakes.

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | November 10, 2009 9:16 PM

a 60-foot ChrisCraft

Damn stinkpot boats. Learn how to sail.

Posted by: Newfie | November 10, 2009 9:55 PM

diz eye win thrdz?

Posted by: atomjack | November 10, 2009 10:30 PM

Psh. You have to go into the real ocean to see waves. When you are in a typhoon on teh South China Sea in 40 foot waves (even if it's a US Navy Destroyer, 290 feet long), if you're crossbeam to the waves, there are guys running everywhere with puke spraying from between their fingers. You have to hold your food down on the table while you are eating. Freezing don't mean jack when the salt spray, 80-degree cooling air (I was a hole snipe- it's way hot down in the engineroom, but not as bad as the fireroom) and puke smell is in the air. At least we never sank...I wasn't in a submarine. I'd prefer drowning in Lake Superior...it's so cold you'd be unconcious sooner. And no sharks.

Posted by: Jonathan Martin | November 10, 2009 10:47 PM

@Newfie: Those were the years between 7th grade and 1st year undergrad for me, and though I often go by "Jon", I've never been a John. Odd!

Posted by: Jim Bouldin | November 10, 2009 11:12 PM

Interesting reading, a numerical reanalysis of the winds and waves through the storm:

http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/87/5/pdf/i1520-0477-87-5-607.pdf

Also:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mqt/fitzgerald/fitzb.php

Posted by: Newfie | November 10, 2009 11:34 PM

Gazeebow Unit link on the sidebar too

Posted by: wiley | November 11, 2009 1:20 AM

"the church bells chimed 29 times"

What will chime (in such circumstances) when Christianity is consigned to the historical dustbin?

On a more cheerful note, the Lefty Whitlam govt. in Oz was dismissed the very next day!

Posted by: daveau | November 11, 2009 8:28 AM

Zan@25-
RBH@33

Thank you for that. The dynamics, unavailable in an acoustic version, seem to replicate the intensity of the storm, and that irritating gutiar hook takes on new life with the twin leads. Very nice. I don't hate that song so much anymore.

Posted by: Faithful Reader | November 11, 2009 10:46 AM

I lived in Sault Ste. Marie, MI, when the Fitz sank-- the storm on land drove the rain horizontal, and walking against that gale was a one-step-at-a-time trick. I am also old enough to remember the sinking of the Cedarville in the Mackinac Straits in 1965. I was too young to remember the Carl Bradley in Lake Michigan in 1958; 23 of her 33 crew were from the small town of Rogers City, MI. The Daniel J. Morell sank in Nov. 1966. I have heard Dennis Hale, the only survivor, speak. Terrifying.

Wrecks like these tend to be local tragedies unless something like Lightfoot's song, or Junger's book The Perfect Storm hit a wider audience. But for the locals, they are indelible.

I will put in a plug for Dan Hall for songs about the Great Lakes-- if the Ballad is offputting, try Hall's "It's Quiet Where They Sleep." http://www.danhall.com/albums.html

Posted by: Erik | November 11, 2009 12:54 PM

I'm not sure how true this is, but I have heard that the reason there are so many wrecks on the lakes is that the lakes are big enough to produce gale and hurricane force winds, but they are not big enough to allow ships to maneuver around the storms. That, and there is little warning.
However, I am not a mariner or a meteorologist, so someone may be able to correct or expand on this.

Posted by: TGAP Dad | November 11, 2009 1:30 PM

I was living in Marquette in 1985 when a Thanksgiving weekend blizzard hit, which the townspeople described as being "just like the one that sank the Fitzgerald." And that storm was quite brutal - hurricane-force northeasterly gusts, 30-foot waves, 3 feet of ice on a road 60 feet from the shore, etc. The combined effect of the folklore and the storm forever etched that song (which I will admit, only a little sheepishly, that I actually like) in my brain.

Posted by: Jim Bouldin | November 11, 2009 8:39 PM

"Given that I actually had family on the 'Fitzgerald and it doesn't bother me, buzz off."

So that gives you the right to control the opinions expressed? And who by the way?