[Vision2020] Bell Tolls for Edmund Fitzgerald

[Tom Hansen]

>From  CNN.com -

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Bell tolls for Edmund Fitzgerald

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- The bell at Mariner's Church tolled eight times,
not the usual 29.

Two days after the 31st anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald,
the church broadened its scope Sunday to remember all of the more than 6,000
lives lost on the Great Lakes.

Each year since it happened, the church located near the Detroit riverfront
had held a memorial service to mark the November 10, 1975 sinking of the
729-foot ore freighter in Lake Superior. The highlight of the ceremony was
the ringing of a church bell 29 times, once for each victim of the fabled
tragedy.

But several weeks after last year's ceremony, the church received word that
the Canadian government had approved a regulation restricting divers from
the sunken wreck, which lies in Canadian waters. For families, it was
long-awaited protection for their entombed loved ones.

The news spurred the late Rev. Richard W. Ingalls -- the current rector's
father, who passed away in April -- to suggest a return to memorializing
other maritime tragedies.

"The only sensible way that I could think of to do that was to have one toll
for each of the Great Lakes and the interconnected waterways," said his son,
the Rev. Richard W. Ingalls Jr.

So following a scripture reading Sunday, the bell was tolled five times for
the Great Lakes, a sixth time for the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, a
seventh for the St. Lawrence Seaway and an eighth time for military
personnel whose lives were lost.

"We had a packed house today, probably 350 people," Ingalls said. "And
everybody wanted to talk and meet and so on. It was a good day."

In the Midwest, the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking is the stuff of legend.

After picking up 26,116 tons of taconite iron ore at Superior, Wisconsin,
the Detroit-bound freighter found itself caught in a gale. Meteorologists
who studied it recently said the Fitzgerald was in the worst possible
location, during the worst weather of the storm, with 69 mph winds,
hurricane-force gusts and waves topping 25 feet.

The ship plunged 530 feet to the bottom. Diving expeditions later determined
the freighter had broken into two large sections.

There are various theories for why the Fitzgerald sank, ranging from
improperly fastened hatch covers that flooded the ship to the freighter
breaking apart on the surface in between short sets of massive seas.

Ingalls, who took over as church rector earlier this year from his father,
said he thinks the ship drifted too close to the Six Fathom Shoals and
scraped bottom. He said there's talk of a group of divers going out next
summer to check the shoals for evidence for the first time.

"It seems to make much more sense than some of the other speculations" such
as hatch covers, Ingalls said. "If they didn't actually bottom, it was
probably metal fatigue from the twisting and flexing of the boat under these
huge waves."

Ruth Hudson, whose son, Bruce, died aboard the ship at age 22, attended
Sunday's ceremony from Ohio along with several other family members. She
said she agreed with the decision of the late Bishop Ingalls to change the
ceremony.

"I respect his decision because he was the one who rang the bell 29 times
the morning after the ship went down," she said.

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"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" By Gordon Lightfoot
http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Edmund_Fitzgerald.mp3

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is 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 true 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 Wisconsin
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
And a wave broke over the railing
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 a main hatchway caved 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 put fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke 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
Old 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
And 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, 'til 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 Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early."

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.