Lightfoot sings that "Superior, they said, never gives up her dead". This is because of the unusually cold water, under 36 ?F (2 ?C) on average around 1970. Normally, bacteria decaying a sunken body will bloat it with gas, causing it to float to the surface after a few days.

Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes, is famously known as the lake that "never gives up her dead." This haunting reputation, immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, is rooted in the lake's extreme cold temperatures. Because the water at the bottom of Lake Superior remains consistently around 2°C to 4°C (36°F to 39°F) year-round, it acts as a massive refrigerator. In most warmer lakes, bacteria in a submerged body will produce gases that cause the body to bloat and float to the surface. However, in the frigid depths of Superior, the bacterial growth is inhibited, meaning those who perish in its waters—such as the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald—often sink to the bottom and remain remarkably preserved for decades rather than resurfacing. This scientific phenomenon, combined with the lake's treacherous storms and vast number of shipwrecks, has cemented its status in maritime folklore as a deep, cold tomb that keeps its secrets and its victims indefinitely in the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes."