Well. I’ve never cried in a museum before, but the Edmund Fitzgerald exhibition at the Grohmann Museum had me in tears yesterday afternoon.

I was making my way through the special exhibit’s gallery, looking at photographs and paintings of the doomed ship, which sank 50 years ago (November 10,1975), when I unexpectedly heard the opening notes of Gordon Lightfoot’s song.

In the far corner is a screen that loops both the song (with video of the ship) and a video-recorded interview with Captain Bernie Cooper of the Arthur M. Anderson, another ship that was 10 miles behind the Fitzgerald out on Lake Superior that night. Cooper was in radio contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald’s captain right up until the time the other ship disappeared from radar. In the video Cooper speculates that the Fitzgerald must have gone down fast, too fast to issue a mayday. Despite the dangerous weather, the Arthur M. Anderson went back out on the lake that night, even after they’d already made it safely to port, to search for survivors.

I don’t know, I’ve heard that song for close to 50 years now, but it never affected me the way it did yesterday, especially watching video of rough seas breaking over the ship while Captain Cooper talked about the two most likely scenarios he could envision behind the ship’s sinking and seeing the photos of the men who died, along with their names, ages, and home cities—all while surrounded by photos, paintings, and models of the Fitzgerald and the Arthur M. Anderson.

Very moving.