![]() “When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin’Īt 7 p.m. Lightfoot’s song mentioned the ship’s cook as it described the doomed vessel’s final hours: I’m just the daughter of the cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald.” “Up there it’s like I’m a famous person, though I’m really not. Johnson made a presentation Saturday at a “Gales of November” conference held to mark its 40th anniversary in Duluth, Minn., and she is scheduled to appear Tuesday at an event in Detroit.ĭuring an interview last month in her apartment, Johnson said she looked forward to returning to the Great Lakes area. She has also spoken often in public about the sinking. Johnson became an active part of the ship’s community of survivors, and has been interviewed many times for books, TV reports and newspaper articles. Pam Johnson said Lightfoot personally persuaded her 15 years ago to begin attending events held each November in the Great Lakes area to memorialize the ship’s crew. She noted that an autographed copy of “Summertime Dream,” Lightfoot’s album containing the song, is among memorabilia she keeps in the fifth-floor, high-rise apartment where she lives with Bill Johnson, her husband of 46 years. “I love Gordon Lightfoot and that song,” the 63-year-old Johnson said in a recent interview. 10, 1975.Ĭanadian singer-songwriter Lightfoot paid tribute to those who died by writing the song, which rose to No. Her father, 62-year-old ship’s cook Robert Rafferty, was among the 29 crew members who all perished when a storm bringing near hurricane-force winds sank the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on the evening of Nov. The song holds special meaning for Abilene resident Pam Johnson. So begins Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead ET and PT.“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down The Dive Detectives episode related to the Edmund Fitzgerald will air March 31 on History Television at 6 p.m. He's not planning to record the song again, but says future concert performances will include new lyrics that reflect the show's findings. Lightfoot's song describes the high seas and has lyrics about a main hatchway caving in, but makes no reference to a rogue wave. "When you experience a sea state of that kind, really the only thing the captain can do is to try and take the waves across his bow or keep his head into the wind," he added. "In terms of the Great Lakes if you look at the depth of the water, the fact that it's fresh water and therefore moving with the wind state or the sea state, a huge wave or a huge series of waves catching the Edmund Fitzgerald either in the trough or on the cliff certainly was a factor in the loss of the vessel," Hearn said. ![]() The Great Lakes are large enough for such a wave to form, he said. A wave that's that much larger exerts tremendous forces when it falls upon an object." "The main issue about a rogue wave is it's abnormally high for the existing sea state. "Technically speaking, a rogue wave is a wave whose height is more than two times significant wave height," he told CBC News. Chris Hearn, director of Memorial University's Centre for Marine Simulation, confirmed that such a wave could have sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Fletchers spoke to experts, meteorologists and maritime historians to make their TV documentary.Ĭapt. The captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald had radioed that he was experiencing near-hurricane-force winds. Lightfoot saw the documentary after agreeing to the use of his 1976 song as part of the soundtrack.įather and son dive team Mike and Warren Fletcher say the most likely cause of the wreck was a rogue wave, a giant wall of water that could have toppled the ship. However, the documentary Dive Detectives, part of a new series created for History Television, disputes that theory. 10, 1975, in what is considered the worst disaster in Great Lakes maritime history.Īn official inquiry into the sinking attributed it to human error - saying the rear hatches had not been properly closed. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. ![]() His ballad about the sinking of the iron ore freighter that led to loss of 29 lives is one of his most famous songs. Gordon Lightfoot says he is ready to change some of the lyrics to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald after seeing a documentary that disputes official findings on why the ship sank.
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