The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee".
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side,
Comin' back from some mill in Wisconsin.
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most,
With a crew and good captain well-seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms,
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland.
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railin'.
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was 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.

When supper time came, the old cook came on deck sayin',
"Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya."
At seven P.m. a main hatchway caved in. He said,
"Fellas, it's been good t'know ya."
The captain wired in he had water comin' in,
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

[Instrumnental/Guitar Break]

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized.
They may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her.
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors Cathedral.
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee".
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

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