64 Years Ago Today…Carl D. Bradley Is Lost

[Jimmy Snacks]

 

 

Carl D. Bradley split in half 64 years ago, causing heartache for a Michigan town

 

 

Once known as "the Queen of the Lakes," the Bradley broke in two and sank in Lake Michigan during a violent storm on Nov. 18, 1958.

 

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• Tanda Gmiter | tgmiter@mlive.com

ROGERS CITY, MI - When the Carl D. Bradley broke in two and sank in northern Lake Michigan during gale-force winds on Nov. 18, 1958, it plunged an entire town into grief.

 

The wreck was a devastating blow to Rogers City, a busy port town on Lake Huron, just 40 miles north of Alpena. Of the 35 men on board, 33 died in the Bradley’s wreck - and 23 of them were from this town.

 

When the Bradley went down, it left widows on nearly every street in Rogers City. Fifty-three children became fatherless that night.

 

 

The last of the Bradley’s survivors, Frank Mays, died in 2021. But the tragic details remain of the ship known as “The Queen of the Lakes” that saw its stern suddenly sag and split off, spelling doom for the 639-foot freighter.

 

FROM QUEEN OF THE LAKES TO AN UNDERWATER GRAVE

 

 

After her launch in 1927, the Bradley spent more than 20 years as the biggest ship on the Great Lakes. The self-unloading freighter was the flagship of the Bradley Transportation fleet. It was built to haul limestone from the world’s largest limestone quarry, near Rogers City. Because this was her home port, the Bradley’s crew were mostly based there. Their schedule allowed them to be home every few days between runs.

 

 

On the eve of the ship’s demise, the Bradley was supposed to be on its final trip of the season. The ship had just passed a U.S. Coast Guard safety inspection two weeks before, and had gone to the southern end of Lake Michigan to deliver crushed stone to Gary, Indiana.

 

 

The Bradley’s crew had set a course partway up Lake Michigan and planned to leave the ship for its winter layup in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It was slated to receive a new cargo hold before it went back into service in the spring of 1959.

 

 

But a few hours from that layup destination, Capt. Roland Bryan was told instead to bring the ship back to Rogers City: U.S. Steel wanted a last-minute run to another port.

 

 

At the time, two storm systems were on a path to converge over the Great Lakes. Storm conditions already had kicked in, and there was a gale forecast for winds up to 65 mph.

 

 

Wanting to give the Bradley a bit of protection, Bryan had the ship hug the Wisconsin coast for the first part of the trip. They planned to make the turn for home near the Beaver Island archipelago, then go through the Straits of Mackinac, rounding the tip of the Mitten and heading for home.

 

The wreck happened abruptly about 5:30 p.m., when the Bradley was roughly 12 miles south of Gull Island. Witnesses described hearing a loud bang and feeling a big vibration.

 

 

The crew saw the Bradley’s stern suddenly sag. A mayday was sent out as they abandoned ship. Of the two lifeboats, one could not be launched and the other became tangled in cables, according to witness accounts. The Bradley’s one life raft was thrown clear of the wreck as it sank. Initially, there were four survivors who were able to reach that raft.

 

 

The original bell of the Carl D. Bradley hangs on display at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City. It was replaced with a replica inscribed with the names of all 32 victims.

 

THEN THERE WERE TWO

 

 

A nearby ship saw an explosion from the sinking Bradley and changed course to help. U.S. Coast Guard cutters began heading to the site, but it would be about 15 hours before anyone found the survivors. By then, only two - Frank Mays, a deck watchman, and Elmer Flemming, the first mate - were still clinging to the life raft.

 

 

“I kept saying to Elmer, ‘If we make it till daylight, we’ll be picked up,’ " Mays told The Grand Rapids Press during a 2008 interview.

 

 

By Nov. 19, the wait for survivors turned into a vigil for bodies to be brought back to shore. Accounts tell of people gathering on the beaches in Charlevoix, their car headlights turned on and pointed out at Lake Michigan as the Coast Guard cutters arrived with the two survivors - largely outnumbered by the dead men they also recovered.

 

 

Many of the bodies were never found.

 

 

The Bradley was later discovered in two pieces, sitting 90 feet apart in about 360 feet of water. This matched the witness accounts that it had broken in two in those last moments atop the water, and gave support to the theories that brittle steel and structural issues contributed to the wreck.

 

 

In the raw days that followed the sinking, grief gripped Rogers City. News accounts described funerals on every street. A memorial service on land was matched on the Great Lakes, with every freighter stopping to drop anchor at noon on a certain day to pay their respects.

 

So why does the Bradley tend not to stay in the forefront of people’s minds like the famous Edmund Fitzgerald, another big freighter that went down in a similar Great Lakes storm in 1975?

 

 

“The Edmund Fitzgerald gets lots of attention, because of the Gordon Lightfoot song and the speculation on what caused it to sink. However, the Bradley sinking claimed more lives, featured an unbelievable night of four men clinging to a small raft and the thrilling rescue attempt,” said Eric Gaertner, a news leader for MLive in Grand Rapids who wrote a book about the wreck called “Torn in Two: The True Story of the Carl D. Bradley Sinking and the Challenges for Those Left Behind.”

 

 

“While conducting interviews and researching the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley, the thing that struck me was the sheer loss of human life for one small town. An overwhelming majority of the 33 men who died in the tragedy were from Rogers City, a town of about 4,000 at the time. It’s difficult to comprehend that a visitation service inside the local high school gym featured 15 caskets.”

 

 

This Saturday, an annual memorial service for the crew and bell-ringing ceremony will be held at the Rogers City Theater at 1 p.m. It’s being presented by the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in that town, and will be followed by a showing of “The Men Long Forgotten,” a new film about the ship, its crew and the tragedy that will forever be remembered by Rogers City.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Jimmy Snacks