When the Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Nov. 10, 1975, it was sailing on the Canadian side of Lake Superior. The song that would later make it a legend was penned and sung by a Canadian singer-songwriter. Yet, among the few dozen books about the Fitz, only one was written by a Canadian author who lives on Lake Superior.
Thunder Bay author Elle Andra-Warner’s popular Edmund Fitzgerald: The Legendary Great Lakes Shipwreck has continued in print since its first publication in Canada in 2006. In 2009, it was taken on by Northern Wilds Media just
across the border in Grand Marais, Minn.
In this year of the 50th anniversary of the sinking, Elle reflects the lure of the tragedy for her and for others. As she researched her book, which spends time setting the context for the wreck as well as telling its details, she says the details of other wrecks also fascinated her. Two other earlier wrecks of Great Lakes freighters – the 639-foot Carl D. Bradley on Nov. 18, 1958, on Lake Michigan and the 603-foot Daniel J. Morrell on Nov. 29, 1966, on Lake Huron – were equally devastating in the losses. Only two crew survived the Bradley and one on the Morrell. “There’s more now, I think that has come out about both of those,” Elle says.
Initially, it was her first publisher who asked Elle to write about the Fitzgerald. “It was interesting being asked to write the book and trying to find how to write a book that so many have written about already. Everybody knew the ending of the story. … I wanted people to feel it, not just read it.”
She was intrigued by the small details she found, like the history of the first “Fitz” – the E. Fitzgerald, a wooden schooner-barge that sank on Nov. 14, 1883. It was named for another member of the Fitzgerald family. She also discovered that Gordon Lightfoot’s song was not the first about the wreck. Charles “Charlie” Frederick, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, wrote a country-style song the night he heard about the wreck titled “29 More Men.”
“His didn’t catch on like Gordon Lightfoot’s did,” says Elle, adding that but for the Lightfoot song, “the Fitzgerald would have been just one of those ships that went down without acclaim.”
Elle also talked to family members of the lost crew. “I found the daughter of one of the people who died on the ship. She was providing a lot of information. I asked what she wanted people to know about the Edmund Fitzgerald. She said she wanted people to remember the good things about the crew and that the Fitzgerald was a beautiful ship."
For Elle, whose father was a mariner before he moved the family from Estonia to England and then to Canada, carries the memories a number of her interviews with sailors. She was first on a ship at age 3. Capt. James A. Wilson of the U.S. Marine Board words at the 1992 memorial touched her. The captain noted, says Elle, that “Sailors are fortunate in the gifts they receive. … They have a love for the lakes and the oceans. They face the forces of nature. … The Fitzgerald storm could have been their storm.”
For the book, Elle also talked to U.S. professional divers Terrence Tysall and Mike Zee who did the only scuba dive, 530 feet, to the Fitzgerald wreck.
Capt. Erik Wood explained that sailing through a major storm on Lake Superior is "part skill and part luck." He added, "If the weather is particularly bad, and especially if you are loaded, you get even more tense. Your eyes watch the cargo deck. When you watch it flex and move in accordance with Mother Nature's wishes, you get an uneasy feeling. Got to always remember that you are never in command -- Mother Nature is ... and if she wants your ship, she will take you."