[MRM]

They hold a memorial at Split Rock Lighthouse (near Duluth) every year on November 10. They darken the light, read the names and ring the ship's bell. It's the only time the lighthouse goes dark and they allow visitors to walk all the way up to the top of the lighthouse into the lamp room. It is supposed to be very moving. I just heard about it and it's on my bucket list now.

One of the local meteorologists was on the radio talking about the storm. He said that the legend it was as strong as a hurricane is true. It did have more than 70 mile an hour sustained winds and the barometer dropped to hurricane levels. He is a bit of an Edmund Fitzgerald history buff, so he told us what is known about the wreck. Even though the ship was later located in about 550 feet of water, we don't know much about how or why it sank. One theory is that the waves were so big that they engulfed the ship, it lost buoyancy, and went down. A nearby ship reported three "rogue" waves of unusual size about the same time the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, but no one really knows. As the song says, it might have broken up, it might have capsized, or it might have gone down in rough water. The meteorologist said that as bad as the storm was, it really wasn't all that unusually powerful for Lake Superior. But the Edmund Fitzgerald was in the worst possible spot in the storm at the worst possible time.

I was too young to remember when it happened, but I have a vague recollection of hearing about it. I must have been in about junior high when I read a long article about the wreck when it was finally located.

Years later one of my college business groups toured the corporate headquarters of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee. We were allowed into the real board room to imagine ourselves among the captains of industry. I turned and found myself staring into a portrait of a distinguished old man who the name plate said was Edmund Fitzgerald. It seemed like a funny/odd coincidence but the tour guide came over and explained that this was the Edmund Fitzgerald for whom the ship was named. He was the Chairman and CEO of the company at the time and the ship was part of the company's investment portfolio. I read later that he never really got over the loss of the ship and was a damaged man after the wreck.