Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995                   TAG: 9507100093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH.                                 LENGTH: Medium

SAVED BELL TOLLS FOR LOST CREW OF ORE CARRIER

Twenty years after the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a gale, relatives of the 29 lost sailors rang the ore carrier's newly salvaged bell Friday for the memory of their loved ones.

In a maritime ritual known as the ``Call to the Last Watch,'' the relatives and sailors from the Canadian navy's HMCS Cormorant rang the bell 30 times - once for each of the Fitzgerald's crew, then once for all lost sailors.

Hundreds of people witnessed the event on the Michigan waterfront in a chill wind and rain reminiscent of the night - Nov. 10, 1975 - when the Fitzgerald sank in a violent storm.

Although ``the weather is dark and gloomy, it's a beautiful day for the families of the Edmund Fitzgerald,'' said Cheryl Rozman, daughter of Ransom Cundy, the ship's watchman, her voice cracking as she choked back tears.

The ship, immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's ballad ``The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,'' lies 538 feet deep in Whitefish Bay.

It was on its way to Detroit from Superior, Wisc., with a cargo of 26,000 tons of iron-ore pellets when it sank. None of the 29 bodies was ever recovered.

A diving team from the Cormorant retrieved the bell last week, and the Canadian province of Ontario presented it to the state of Michigan in a ceremony Friday.

``We can finally breathe a sigh of relief,'' Rozman said. ``We have our bell.''

The mission had some critics. Fred Shannon, who led an exploratory dive to the shipwreck last summer, said removing the bell was unethical. Maritime artist Jim Clary said some Fitzgerald family members wanted the bell to stay put.

But Tom Farnquist, director of the historical society and the museum, said he would not have taken part in the project without overwhelming support from the relatives.

Tony Gomez, a grandson of Oliver Champeau, an engineer on the ore carrier, read a poem asking that the Fitzgerald crew's watery grave be left in peace.

``Place your flowers on the shore. Please don't disturb them anymore,'' the boy implored.