| |
| | NOAA News Online (Story 2633) |
 | | May 18, 2006 — A re-analysis of the weather conditions on Lake Superior during the November 1975 gale when the lake freighter Edmund Fitzgerald went down, killing all 29 aboard, shows a period when the winds and waves were the most extreme, say the NOAA scientists who conducted the review. |
 | | The loss of the 729-foot-long ship and all aboard is immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." The songwriter mentions the weather in the lines "the skies of November turn gloomy," "the gales of November come early," and "face of a hurricane west wind." |
 | | This could result in a hazardous rolling motion for vessels traveling southward, the direction that the Edmund Fitzgerald was heading as it tried to reach the safety of Whitefish Bay, about 15 miles from where it sank. |
| www.noaanews.noaa.gov /stories2006/s2633.htm (684 words) |
|