Edmund Fitzgerald: The song, the survivors, the anniversary

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In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

in the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."

The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine 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."

For that reason, he and the families have always been grateful that Lightfoot's ballad will always spark the memory of the ship and its crew, and that the singer visited the site.

"I had heard that he was hesitant for a while, that he'd heard a rumor that the families resented him profiting from their loss," Farnquist said. "But by and large they never felt that way. They were glad to have the crew remembered."

And, Farnquist said, the song largely captures the facts, the mood and the history of the saga.

"It's a fairly accurate presentation, especially the way he gives different versions of what might have happened," Farnquist said. "The only real glaring error is that he has the ship bound for Cleveland, when in fact it was headed to Detroit. And, in retrospect, considering everything that happened, that's really not all that important."

If you go...

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum:

Open daily from May 1 to Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

18335 N. Whitefish Point Road, Paradise, MI 49768

www.shipwreckmuseum.com or 1-888-492-3747

Admission prices:

Adults: $13

Children 17 and under: $9

Children under 5: free

Family -- two adults and two or more children: $35

Family -- one adult and two or more children: $26

Discounts are available for AAA members, handicapped individuals and members of the Shipwreck Society and Coast Guard (active duty with ID).

Whitefish Point is at the eastern end of Lake Superior, about an hour's drive north of the Mackinac Bridge, which separates Michigan's Upper Peninsula from the lower.

Sault Ste Marie is about 70 miles east of Whitefish Point and has the only commercial airport in the eastern section of the Upper Peninsula, Chippewa County International Airport with service to Detroit.

Sawyer International Airport, near Marquette, Mich., about 130 miles to the west, has flights to Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

(E-mail Karen Allen at kaoh53(at)aol.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)

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