User blog:Glflegolas/The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

This post does not directly pertain to the Lord of the Rings or the mod, but I thought it might be kind of interesting for any people who know some history about the Great Lakes, and for anyone who likes Gordon Lightfoot.

On this day, thirty-nine years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald went out in a gale on Lake Superior. She never returned to port, none of the crew ever made it off, and no bodies have ever been recovered from the wreck. To date, all that has been found is an oil slick and some debris, and the Fitzgerald remains the largest ship to have ever sunk on any of the Great Lakes.

The storm that sank the Fitzgerald featured winds of 130 km/h [80mph] and wave heights up to 10 m [30 ft]. That may not sound like a lot for those of you who have sailed the seven seas (waves on the open sea can reach heights of 30m [100ft] or even higher) but the waves on the Great Lakes are much steeper than any waves that ever come on the open sea. The Fitzgerald was facing these waves with about 1 meter of freeboard (the distance from deck to the water) and a load of taconite (iron ore) that weighed around 25'000 metric tons. To top it all off, the Fitzgerald was around 217 meters long. Waves of that height would have had a wavelength of approximately 50 meters -- they would be capable of lifting only the bow and stern, while leaving the centre unsupported. This is what happened to the Fitzgerald, and it broke apart and sank.

Although the focus of tomorrow will be the soldiers lost during the many wars the West has fought over the years, today is the day of the wreck of the Fitzgerald. Take a moment to remember the countless sailors lost at sea -- over the years, the sea has claimed many more lives than any war.

I guess many of you have been waiting for the song? Well, a link to it is below.



Glflegolas Send a PM 14:54, November 10, 2014 (UTC)