The Song

     The song that you heard on the Home page is an MIDI of the song written by Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the wreck of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.  To learn background info about the song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Mr. Lightfoot, and to find lyrics, click here.

Downloadable MIDI Song

     Click here if you would like to download the MIDI format (computerized version) of this popular song by Gordon Lightfoot.

The Remembrance

     There is also a big commemoration each year.  Some of the family members get together and have a service, and at the end, one person, in association of the family/friends of each crew member, rings the restored Edmund Fitzgerald bell once, for each one of the passengers, until it has been rung twenty-nine times.  Then the bell is rung once more for all men lost in shipwrecks.
     The restored bell is at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Point, Michigan. The museum is open everyday of the week from May 12-October 15.

The Consecration of the Gravesite

    On Saturday, July 17, 1999, Mariners' Church in Detroit, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and the families of the lost men on the Fitz, came together to have a final "closure".  This closure would be one that many families could receive less than a week after a loved ones death.  This is having a place considered a gravesite.  The families of the lost Edmund Fitzgerald crew men had to wait twenty four years, but they finally received this closure.  The bell was rung twenty nine times, a service was held, wreaths were cast, and even Gordon Lightfoot was present.  This two hour service was beautiful and probably one of the best memorials to this day.