Takes in what lake Erie can send her
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
With the gales of November remembered
And the good ship and crew was in peril
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
And all that remains is the faces and the names
When supper time came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
When the skies of November turn gloomy
Concluding some terms with a couple steel firms
When the gales of November came slashin'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
In the face of a hurricane west wind
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
They may have broke deep and took water
They might have split up or they might have capsized
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The searches all say they'd have made whitefish bay
The iron boats go as the mariners all know
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
When the gales of November came early
When a wave broke over the railing
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
Lake Huron rolls, superior sings
And every man knew, as the captain did too
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
Does any one know where the love of God goes
And farther below lake Ontario
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in, he said
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
The ship was the pride of the American side
