37 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank

Was thinking about this ship over weekend and thought  about Gordon Lightfoot's ballad. Decided to look it up and was surprised that it was the 37th anniversary (November 10, 1975) of its sinking in a winter storm.  The Great Lakes can be so unpredictable.  Growing up on Ontario I know how fierce  the lake can be. I was stunned watching this film clip  accompanied by Lightfoot's ballad (see below).  The list of the dead made me thoughtful too.  The range of ages 60-20.  Their portraits at the end of the film. 

I had a teacher/mentor who spent some  younger years as a merchant marine.  He used to talk about how the ship and water taught him a great deal about himself.  I'm sure he joined  the merchant marines with the intention of "seeing the world."     Back in the day, this was the slogan for the Navy too.

I began thinking about the Fitzgerald when I was watching the rescue of most of the members of the tall ship Bounty which was caught in the swirl of  Superstorm Sandy.  That was a remarkable effort.  How far our technology has come.