Finished reading: The Gales of November by John U. Bacon 📚
It is not always the case that I have a connection to a book that I read, but that is the case with “The Gales Of November” by John U. Bacon. Many people have heard about the Edmund Fitzgerald thanks to Gordon Lightfoot’s song, The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, but I was in fifth grade in a small town in the Upper Peninsula and had seen Lake Superior many times so I’ve always felt a small connection.
Bacon does a wonderful job of providing context, like how shipping on the Great Lakes can be dangerous and a vital part of the U.S. economy. You learn about every one of the 29 men who went down to the bottom of Lake Superior on the Fitz. And for me, I learned about the taconite pellets that I remember being carried through my home town on ore cars, most likely headed to Marquette. We would gather up some of the perfectly round, marble size pellets from the train tracks and use them for slingshot ammo.
In 2014 we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point, which the Fitzgerald was desperately trying to reach on that fateful day in November, 1975. Below is a picture of the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald, it is the only item recovered and brought up from the shipwreck. The site of the wreck is considered a grave and protected by the U.S. and Canadian governments.
No other ship has gone down on the Great Lakes after the Fitzgerald, in part because of technology but largely because the pressures once put on by shipping companies toward the captains to deliver cargo on time has abated against the risk of pushing against Lake Superior when she is angry. Lake Superior is one of those few things in the world that stands up against the ego of men.
