When I was around 14, I went to an open house at the Glenview Naval Air Station near my house. They had a P3 Orion submarine chaser plane on display and the Naval airman acting as a tour guide for that plane said that plane we were touring was the one that found the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. A sub chasing aircraft was best suited to find a large body of sunken iron.
I was penpals with my friend who used to live across the street, and after the open house I was writing him a letter, and mentioned seeing that plane and how it located the sunken ship. As I was writing, the Gorden Lightfoot song started playing on the radio in my room tuned to a top 40 radio station. It was the first time I heard that song. I still remember writing in my letter to my friend, "They are playing a song about that ship right now!!!!!".