I'm from a part of the world where shipwrecks are a big deal. I grew up in Michigan, which is the state that looks like a big mitten.
If you're not super familiar with the geography of the United States, you might not know that we're basically surrounded by lakes, as if we decided that our state needed a bunch of moats. (You might also not know that Michigan has a top half, which is actually the better half! It's so pretty up there, and there's a lot more nature to enjoy.)
The lakes in this region are called The Great Lakes, and they touch eight states in the United States as well as Ontario in Canada.
The lakes comprise something like 84% of all of the surface freshwater in North America. They're huge, they're beautiful, and they're very important. But, they're also very dangerous.
The Great Lakes have been a hugely important shipping corridor in this region of the world for hundreds of years. They were crucial for getting supplies to and from early mining settlements, and later on, they facilitated the movement of iron ore in the region that was responsible for the economic boom that began there in the 19th century. Even today, over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped on the Great Lakes every year.
The Great Lakes are useful, and beautiful, and immense, and they are a grand feature of nature in all its glory and terror. The lakes are prone to severe storms suddenly coming out of nowhere and destroying ships of all sizes. Thousands of vessels and tens of thousands of lives have been lost on the Great Lakes in recorded history.
The largest freighter ever wrecked on the Great Lakes was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank 47 years ago today, on November 10, 1975. I could tell you about it myself, but somebody has already done a much better job of that than I ever could.
Folk musician Gordon Lightfoot wrote the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976 to remember what would become the last major shipwreck in the Great Lakes — and more importantly, the crew that lost their lives on Lake Superior on that day.
If you've never heard it before, I think you should give it a listen.
Here's the version with lyrics, if you may need those:
And here's a version with a very emotional accompanying video, but no included lyrics. It also includes audio of real radio transmissions from that day, which never fail to make me tear up a little bit. It also includes real footage of the submerged wreck, real photos of the men and their families, and the lists of the crew members who passed away. It's an absolute masterpiece of old footage.
There are a few artistic liberties taken in the song, but the important part of it, the soul of it, is all there.
When I moved away from Michigan, I was surprised at how few people knew about the song and the history of the wrecks. Something about this song in particular connects me to this tragedy in a way that I have trouble connecting to other tragedies. Maybe it's because it was so close to home? I can't say for sure, but I hope you connect to it a little bit today, too.
I hope the song helps you find a little peace for anybody in your life who may have departed sooner than they were meant to go.