Edmund Fitzgerald: The song, the survivors, the anniversary

From Post-Tribune (link)

"In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.

"The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald."

-- Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Each summer on the edge of the beach, just out of reach of the pounding waves, a makeshift memorial appears at Whitefish Point. Three homemade tombstones, their markings weathered and faded, are placed into the sand, each marked with a cairn of water-polished stones.

The inscribed names -- Ransom Cundy, watchman; Thomas Bentsen, oiler; Bruce Lee Hudson, deckhand -- are three of the 29 crew members lost in the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Family members originally erected the memorial and now each season the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum staff takes it in to protect it in winter, and reconstructs it each spring. It isn't an exhibit, or even part of the formal Whitefish Point Museum "campus," but visitors adopted it on their own.

As each summer goes on, the "graves" grow, said museum executive director Tom Farnquist. Sometimes visitors leave flowers or mementos, but most often they add to the cairn, searching the nearby beach "for the prettiest stone they can find," and add a stone or two to the mound.

The 29 men who died in the wreck ranged in age from 21 to 63 and came from seven different states. The church bell did chime in Detroit for them, but they are also remembered at Whitefish Point, where family and friends gather on the anniversary of the Nov. 10, 1975, sinking.

Farnquist remembers one year when the weather nearly duplicated that of the fatal night: "The wind was howling, the snow was coming sideways and the power was out. We held the service by candle and lantern light."

He expects a "fair amount" of attention this year when the 35th anniversary arrives -- television networks, camera crews and a larger crowd than usual, but says he isn't sure how long the tradition will continue.

"It's been 35 years now, and the immediate family members are passing on," he said. "The last time I saw some of them, they mentioned that it might be their last trip north."

Painting by Bud Robinson

Posted via email from