THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

(Gordon Lightfoot)



The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitchigumi

The lady, it's said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy.



With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more

Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty

That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed

When the gales of November came early



The ship was the pride of the American side

Coming back from some mill in Wisconson

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most

With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.



Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms

When they left fully loaded for Cleveland

And later that night when the ships bell rang

Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.



The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound

When the wave broke over the whaling

And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,

T'was the witch of November come stealing.



The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

When the gales of November came slashing

When afternoon came it was freezing rain

In the face of a hurricane West Wind



When supper time came the old cook came on deck

Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya

At 7PM the main hatchway gave in

He said fellas it's been good to know ya.



The Captain wired in he had water coming in

And the good ship and crew was in peril

And later that night when his lights went out of sight

Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.



Does anyone know where the love of God goes

When the words turn the minutes to hours

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.



They might have split up or they might have capsized

They may have gulfed deep and took water

And all that remains is the faces and the names

Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.



Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

In the ruins of her ice water mansion

Ole Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,

The islands and bays are for sportsmen.



And farther below Lake Ontario

Takes in what Lake Erie can send her

The iron boats go as the mariners all know

With the gales of November remembered.



In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed

In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral

The church bell chimed, it rang 29 times

For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.



The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitchigumi

Superior, they say, never gives up her dead

When the gales of November come early.



Copyright Warner Brothers, Inc.

@sailor @wreck

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