It would be an official Edmund Fitzgerald parody if I didn't at least comment, and this was a great idea, well-executed. And the original song does sort of it.

Are you going to open up that can of worms again, Patrick? .... At least, you're adopting the proper somber tone. For a while there, we were almost treating this incident in a jokey manner

Gordon LIghtfoot released his "Fitzgerald" tribute back in the mid-70's (1975?) and I remember thinking it was one of the most melancholy works ever. The closest I ever came to the Great Lakes was a glimpse of Lake Erie on the way to Niagara Falls but I've no idea as to how gigantic Lake Superior was and is. The one thing, never knowing or hearing TOS, is that the "Edmund Fitzgerald" was that old. If commissioned in 1959, that meant it had 16 years of service. One wonders how that compares with the longevity of other vessels in Lake service.

I was attending college in South Bend, Indiana the night the Fitzgerald was lost. As I recall, it was raining heavily there, too. The next morning I saw the news reports. The sinking would have faded from most people's memory were it not for Gordon Lightfoot. Commemorative ballads were the popular medium in early days for reporting and recalling significant events. Jimmy Driftwood's "The Battle of New Orleans" is modern example of that tradition. The controversy over frivolous retellings, of which I am guilty, I resolve, in my own mind at least, by limiting parodies on the subject to once a year, and adopting a somber or serious original melody. My research turned up the story about the christening champagne bottle failing to break, which was regarded as a bad omen. Over the centuries, thousands of ships have been lost on the Great Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald is the one that is remembered, which I suppose means something, perhaps a reminder of the others who vanished from the surface and from the public awareness. I think I missed a tribute last year due to health reasons. I hope I will still be around to write one in 2020. That gives me a year to find a suitable original melody. Thanks to all who read this tribute.