BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Confirmation Bias, and Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 78% saturation with 156 hits. Analysis detected 671 faulty-reasoning hits from 201 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 90.6% and a BS Rank of 94% (1,058 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 93.70% of the article peer group.
As big freighters go, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest, the best and the most profitable ship on the Great Lakes.
Then, on Nov. 10, 1975, facing gale-force winds and 50-foot waves, the ship sank, taking all 29 men aboard her down into the icy depths of Lake Superior.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, in 1971
Though its sinking was tragic, the Mighty Fitz was just one of thousands of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.
And the reason we all know that one?
Of course, it’s the Gordon Lightfoot song.
As the author John U. Bacon admits, were it not for Lightfoot’s stirring ballad, he likely wouldn’t have written his latest book — a definitive account of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Yes, Bacon says, the gales of November did come early that year.
Yes, the ship’s captain and her crew were well seasoned, and their passing was heartbreaking for those left behind, “the wives, and the sons and the daughters.”
Bacon joins us to explore the fascinating story of this memorable maritime disaster.
John U. Bacon is the author of more than a dozen books.
His latest is The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Analysis
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