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