Great Lakes shipwreck survivors thrill theater crow

The Rogers City Theater was packed Friday night as the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum hosted a special program about the dangers faced by sailors on the Great Lakes. A blue ribbon panel of survivors and rescuers was on stage to share their experiences about the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley, SS Cedarville, and Daniel J. Morrell. Frank Mays is the last of only two survivors of the Bradley, Dave Erickson was thrown into the water when the Cedarville capsized, and Dennis Hale is the sole survivor of the Morrell.

THE SURVIVORS were joined by Capt. Harold Muth and Medical Officer Warren Toussaint of the U.S. Coast Guard vessel The Sundew, and Boatswain Peter Hahn of the German freighter Weissenburg. Corey Adkins of Channel 9/10 was the moderator of this unique evening of history and heroism. The audience was mesmerized by the first-hand accounts of the panel members. As each man related his experiences, the theater screen behind them displayed images and photographs of the ships, storms, and crewmen of the Great Lakes. The fact that the stories related by these men are an integral part of the history of Rogers City added an element of reality and solemnity to the event. Many local sailors and their widows were among the audience of more than 300 people.

FRANK MAYS described the ordeal of spending 15 hours in the icy waters of Lake Michigan. Capt. Muth of The Sundew added details of the rescue operation and Warren Toussaint talked about the fury of the storm. ?I have never seen the movie The Perfect Storm I don?t have to because I was in one on November 18, 1958,? Toussaint said. Capt. Muth told the audience that finding the two survivors, Mays and Elmer Fleming, was ?like a miracle. We don?t know how they could have survived a storm of that intensity.? Hale recounted his tale of spending 38 hours in an open raft on Lake Huron in November of 1966. He had been sleeping in his bunk when he heard what he thought was the anchor slamming into the bow of the Daniel J. Morrell in heavy seas. In fact the ship was breaking up. Because he had been off duty and sleeping in his bunk when the mishap occurred, Hale was wearing only his undershorts and a life jacket when he went on deck to see what was the matter.

GALE FORCE winds were blowing ice and water in every direction. The storm whipped up 25-foot waves that began crashing over the deck and finally broke the ship in half. Hale recalled watching the stern of the ship steam away as the bow dropped out of sight. Hours later, he would see his shipmates in a dream-like trance while he was lying on the raft. ?I remember seeing each of them standing in the boiler room and smiling at me. When I went to join them one of the fellows told me I could not come along, it was not my time,? he said. Experts say Hale?s lack of clothing probably saved his life; had he been covered in freezing wet clothes, like his shipmates, hypothermia would have claimed his life in a short time. ?The people from the hospital told me it should not have been possible to survive longer than a few hours in those conditions, let alone nearly 40 hours in that water,? he said.

Erickson recounted the final moments of the S.S. Cedarville on May 7, 1965 when it was struck by the Norwegian freighter Topdaslfjord. He was joined in the discussion by Hahn from the German freighter Weissenburg that arrived on the scene just minutes after the ship sank.

?THE CEDARVILLE started out as the ?Harvey.? She was built for Pittsburgh Steel Company in 1927 and hauled iron ore until 1955 when she was sold to US Steel. In the winter of 1955/56 she was converted to a self unloading ore vessel and put in the Bradley fleet,? Erickson said. ?As I stepped out of the galley, Jerome Kierzek was standing by the ship?s railing. He said, ?Hey Dave, look at this,? and he was pointing toward the front of the ship. I could see another ship coming out of the fog headed for our port side,? Erickson said. ?The collision didn?t make much noise but the Cedarville shuddered like she had hit a big wave,? he continued.

?The Topdalsfjord had a reinforced ice breaker bow because she plied the North Atlantic all the time and she got into a lot of ice. When she hit the Cedarville, the force of the collision drove that bow back 11 feet,? he continued. He explained to the audience that the crew attempted to lower a crash tarpaulin over the gaping hole left below the waterline by the force of the collision.

?IT BECAME CLEAR to me the ship was in peril when I saw that tarp get sucked right into the hole like a Kleenex,? Erickson said. Some of the other crewmen from the Cedarville were in the audience and they nodded

in agreement when Erickson recounted his story. ?I jumped into the rear of a lifeboat and someone yelled, ?It won?t release,? so I leaped out of that lifeboat just as the ship groaned and rolled over, taking the lifeboat full of crewmen down with her. ?I felt the water shake as the bow hit the bottom and heard the muffled roar of limestone spilling out of her hull. The captain of the Weissenburg saw the Cedarville disappear from his radar and immediately lowered his lifeboats into the water to search for survivors. He also dropped cargo nets over the side of his vessel so any men in the water could grab onto them.

Erickson mentioned that when he heard the approaching freighter he thought to himself, ?I just survived one ship sinking only to get run over by another one.? The harrowing stories of shipwrecks and rescue operations electrified the audience for more than two hours, including 30 minutes of questions and answers. The men received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of the program that lasted for minutes.

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