Gales of November: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 Years Later

This year there are many fiftieth-year memorials of the tragic sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald with the loss of all 29 crewmen in eastern Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. A recent article by Tanda Gmiter refers to the wreck of the Fitzgerald as a cultural phenomenon, due largely to Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting ballad that still gets airplay five decades after the tragedy.

Especially dear to my heart is the private ceremony held every year for the families of the lost crew members at Whitefish Point in MI’s upper peninsula. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society hosts this ceremony in the shipwreck museum, and livestreams it for the public.  Here is the link to the livestream, which begins at 6:30 PM eastern time. You will want to see the Fitzgerald’s bell, retrieved in 1995, being rung during the ceremony as each crew member’s name is read. You may also want to take in the ever-changing view of the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and Lake Superior from the online weather cam at the point.

Here are some especially noteworthy memorial activities:

• An outdoor public memorial ceremony at Whitefish Point at 2 pm on November 10 for the general public. If you are thinking of attending, be advised this is an unsheltered ceremony in a remote spot on the shore of Lake Superior with limited parking and few amenities available.
• A book signing on November 9 at 1 pm at Whitefish Point, marking the official release the new, expanded edition of my favorite book on the Fitzgerald, The Legend Lives On.
• Lightfoot wrote, “in a musty [later “rustic”] old hall in Detroit they prayed at the Maritime Sailor’s Cathedral.” He was referring to the Rt. Rev. Richard Ingalls ringing the bell 29 times at the historic Mariner’s Church of Detroit, founded in 1842. Every year since 1975 the church has remembered the lost crew of the Fitzgerald, and this year is no exception.
• The Minnesota Historical Society will sponsor its annual memorial ceremony on November 10 that will include lighting the beacon at the Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior near Beaver Bay, MN.
• Bestselling author John U. Bacon has published a new book on the Fitzgerald with a familiar title, The Gales of November.

We’ve written previously about the Fitzgerald tragedy and the love of God. Also about how the Fitzgerald losing its anchor in January 1974 reminds us of biblical imagery about an anchor for our souls. This year we’ll explore the biblical roots of Lightfoot’s haunting wind imagery, found in six of the seven stanzas of the song:

That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed when the gales of November came early. (Stanza 1)

And later that night when the ship’s bell rang, could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’? (Stanza 2)

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound, and a wave broke over the railing.

And ev’ry man knew, as the captain did too, ’twas the witch of November come stealin’.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait, when the gales of November came slashin’.

When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain, in the face of a hurricane west wind. (Stanza 3)

Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minute to hours? (Stanza 5)

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know, with the gales of November remembered. (Stanza 6)

Superior, they said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early! (Stanza 7)

Coming Back from Some Mill in Wisconsin

As the Fitzgerald was being loaded in Superior WI on November 9, a storm was brewing over Texas—cold air from the Rocky mountains was meeting warm air from Mexico and forming a low pressure cell that would move northeast. The morning forecast for easterly winds at 20-33 knots on Lake Superior that evening was altered in the afternoon to 34-38 knots. Early in the morning of November 10, the forecast changed to winds out of the northeast at 50 knots. The Fitzgerald and the nearby Arthur M. Anderson both decided to hug the north shore of the lake to avoid the waves that would be worsening, especially along the southern shore. The winds shifted to the northwest as the day went on. As the Fitzgerald, with the Anderson trailing, made the turn south toward Whitefish Bay, they were met with quartering seas striking their starboard sides averaging an estimated 20 feet, driven by winds around 60 knots, gusting higher. Just after 6:30 the Anderson reported being battered by two rogue waves that were estimated at 30-35 feet, leading to speculation that the demise of the Fitzgerald shortly afterward was due to the fabled “three sisters,” a series of unusually large waves that would hit a ship in short succession, driving it to the bottom. Be that as it may, although the Fitzgerald radioed the Anderson, “we are holding our own” at 7:10, clearing weather at 7:30 showed they had vanished—”his lights went outta sight.”

The Gales of the Bible Remembered

In biblical imagery, winds and waves depict a wide spectrum of human experiences, both negative and positive. Just as the winds and weather on Lake Superior may be fair or foul, winds in the Bible may bring storms or fair weather, both literally and metaphorically. Here’s some wind/wave imagery to keep in mind:

• The Futility of human life without God. Ecclesiastes repeatedly speaks of our fleeting life in this broken world as striving after wind (1:14, 17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6, 16; 5:16; 6:9; 8:8; 11:4-5; cf. Gen 3:19). Did Kerry Livgren of Kansas have the Preacher in mind when he wrote “Dust in the Wind” in 1977? Maybe Bob Dylan was thinking about the Bible when he spoke of the futile human quest for world peace in his 1960’s masterpiece “Blowin’ in the Wind,” later recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
• Adversity in life. In Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders (Matt 7:24-27), the wind and rain destroy the house built on sand, but the house built on bedrock survives. The two houses picture two types of people—one type hears but does not obey Jesus’ teaching—their houses crumble. The other hears and obeys, and their houses stand firm. Today we still speak of life’s difficulties as stormy headwinds. Do you see your “house” in the parable?
• The instability of a life built on a falsehood. Ephesians 4:14 speaks of Christian maturity as the strength to resist being blown off course in life by false religious teaching. Jude 12-13 has a similar description of deceptive teachers who lure people away from the authentic apostolic tradition in the Bible that was delivered once for all to God’s people (Jude 4).
• God’s power. The four winds picture the power of God over the whole world to judge (Jer 49:36) or bless (Ezek 37:9) people wherever they may be (cf. Ps 1:4; Jer 4:11-13; Dan 7:2; Zech 2:6; Matt 24:31; Rev 7:1). God is sovereign over the entire universe.
• God’s grace. As Jesus taught Nicodemus, wind is a picture of the beautifully mysterious, life-giving work of God’s Spirit (John 3:5-8). These verses and John 20:22 may be alluding back to Genesis 2:7, where God originally breathed life into Adam. In Hebrew and Greek alike the same word can refer to wind, breath, or spirit, depending on the context.

Lightfoot’s song about the loss of the Fitzgerald and its crew plays on the biblical theme of life in this broken world as full of adversity, futility, and instability. His imagery of the Fitzgerald as a “bone to be chewed” and of the wind as the “witch of November come stealin” seems to hint that mysterious evil supernatural forces were at work. Imagine how ancient mariners would have thought of the storms that buffeted their relatively small and primitive ships.

Think about the the storm that overtook Jonah as he fled from his call to preach to Nineveh (Jonah 1-2). The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea (Jonah 1:4); Jonah’s mariners believed the storm was some god or another’s punishment of someone on board. They prayed to their gods and ironically urged Jonah to pray to his god (Jonah 1:6). They cast lots and concluded Jonah was the culprit. Jonah owned up to his guilt and they threw him overboard. The storm immediately stopped, and the pagan sailors offered sacrifices to Jonah’s God.

In Jonah’s case the storm turned out to be part of God’s plan to get him to obey his call to Nineveh. It wasn’t a divine temper tantrum. We shouldn’t think that tragedies like the Fitzgerald’s sinking are due to the guilt of someone on board, or that God capriciously takes delight in such disasters. We have the book of Job to keep us from viewing disasters as divine punishment.

Think of the storm that shipwrecked Paul the Apostle on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea (Acts 27). Paul’s voyage to Rome was caused by persecution. He was imprisoned before his difficult, slow fall voyage with unfavorable winds (Acts 27:7-8). Then his ship was battered by raging northeast euraklyon winds for three days before striking a reef near Malta. By God’s grace everyone onboard made it so shore alive, as Paul had predicted in Acts 27:33-37. Paul had further difficulties on Malta (Acts 28:1-6), but he ministered to people there (Acts 28:7-10) and eventually made it to Rome on another ship, where his ministry continued (Acts 28:11-31). Paul spoke elsewhere of being shipwrecked three times and of being in the water for a day and a night before being rescued or reaching land! Experiences like this are behind Paul’s words in Acts 14:22, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Think of the vicious squall that nearly sank the boat in which Jesus and his disciples were crossing Lake Galilee (Matt 8:18-27). As the storm arose, Jesus was sleeping in the stern of the boat. His disciples panicked and concluded he didn’t care about them and their peril (Mark 4:38). Jesus awoke, stopped the storm, and rebuked them for their lack of faith. We’ve written previously about a similar storm on Lake Galilee when Peter briefly walked on water to meet Jesus before his faith failed and Jesus had to miraculously save him. (Matt 14:22-33). In both of these stories, Jesus challenges the weak faith of his disciples. Unlike the Fitzgerald’s crew, Jesus disciples survived these storms.

The lesson here isn’t that the disciples had more faith than the men on the Fitzgerald—the disciples’ faith was weak, and God only knows the hearts of the men on the Fitzgerald. We all know godly people of faith and piety who are beset with tragedies in this world, and we know scoundrels and hooligans who prosper. The takeaway is that we must be committed to God not only during fair winds and following seas but also during the difficulties that rage at times in all of our lives. Someone has said, “A fair sea never made a skillful mariner.” God uses trials to build our character and shape us into Christ-likeness.

Remember Daniel’s three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Dan 1:6)? They’re better known by their Aramaic names Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego (Dan 3:20). In many ways they’re the stars of the whole book of Daniel. They were delivered from a blazing furnace, not a vicious storm, but their faith still challenges us today. Are we ready to say we will follow Jesus Christ come hell, high water, or even a blazing furnace?

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. (Daniel 3:17-18 NLT)

All That Remains

In the Bible the sea is a dangerous place, a place where mysterious unseen forces can wreak havoc on hapless humans and their flimsy boats. Genesis 1:21 speaks of God creating great sea creatures. Job 41 spoke of the powerful Leviathan (cf. Job 3:8; Ps 74:14; 104:26). Psalm 89:9-10 mentions Rahab, another large and powerful creature in the sea. These poetic references could be hyperbolically describing whales or crocodiles, or perhaps these creatures are symbolic of chaos and evil, as in ancient near-eastern mythology. One of the end-time monsters of the Apocalypse, an archenemy of God’s people, comes from the sea (Rev 13:1).

Ancient Israel was tempted to ascribe these unseen forces to pagan deities, not the mysterious providence of God. Things haven’t changed that much today. Despite all of our modern accomplishments, tragic storms—both literal and metaphorical—continue to cause people to doubt God’s love. As Gordon Lightfoot sang, does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours? Contrast this with the statement that “the sea was no more” in Revelation 21:1. This most likely does not mean that there are no bodies of water in the world to come, but that the sea will no longer be a source of chaos, danger, and evil (Rev 13:1; cf. Dan 7:3). In that day God will tame ancient Leviathan. There will be no more “perfect storms,” like the one that sank the Fitzgerald.

Despite our doubts, the Bible teaches us that God alone controls the waters. Among many passages, Psalm 107:23-32 gives a clear account of God’s providence over seemingly random storms at sea. Although the world seems to be in chaos, God is still on the throne overseeing his creation. When his mysterious providence permits tragedies like the wreck of the Fitzgerald to occur, Jesus’ cross assures us of God’s ultimate love for suffering humanity. Even more, Jesus’ empty tomb assures all those who believe in him of a better world ahead, new heavens and a new earth, where ships and those who sail them are no longer “bones to be chewed” by a wicked “witch of November come stealin’.”

If you’ve made it this far, I trust your interest in the Fitzgerald isn’t only related to Great Lakes history, or due to morbid curiosity over the horrible way the crewmen died. I hope you are thinking sympathetically and prayerfully of the families of the crewmen who still mourn their loss. I hope you and those families alike are mindful of what Jesus once said to a friend who had just lost her brother Lazarus:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” (John 11:25-27 NLT)

Please comment below. How is your anchor holding in the storms of life?

• • • • • • •

Here’s Gordon Lightfoot singing the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1979.

Here’s Billy Strings’ bluegrass jam covering Lightfoot’s song in August 2025.

Here’s a traditional gospel quartet singing an hymn written by W.C. Handy in 1902: “My Anchor Holds, blow your wildest then o gale.” Here’s a very different recent version of the song by Ancient Hymns Revisited.

• • • • • • •

Some went off to sea in ships, plying the trade routes of the world.
They, too, observed the Lord’s power in action, his impressive works on the deepest seas.
He spoke, and the winds rose, stirring up the waves.
Their ships were tossed to the heavens and plunged again to the depths; the sailors cringed in terror; they reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits’ end.
“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.
He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.
What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor!
Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
Let them exalt him publicly before the congregation, and before the leaders of the nation. (Psalm 107:23-32)