1958 — Nov 18, Freighter Carl D. Bradley sinks, Lake Michigan storm, ~Gull Island, MI–33

— 33 Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News.” November 2008.
— 33 Krebes. “Carl D. Bradley Sinking 42nd Anniversary.” Encyclopedia Titanica. 2000.
— 33 Swayze. Great Lakes Shipwrecks “B.”
— 33 Swayze. Shipwreck!…Directory of…Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. 1992, p. 38.
— 33 Thompson. Graveyard of the Lakes. 2006, p. 10.
— 33 USCG. Commandant’s Action…foundering…SS CARL D. BRADLEY, Lake Mich…, 1959.

Narrative Information

Krebs: “The S.S. Carl D. Bradley was once the largest Great Lakes ore boat until, ironically, the Edmund Fitzgerald’s entrance of service the very same year the Brad would be lost displacing her from that hallowed place. The Bradley’s hull was worn out by the time of what was supposed to be her final voyage of the season in November of 1958, and her owners had budgeted an $800,000 overhaul which would have given the ship a brand-new one. Slated to take place once the ’58 season closed.

“Her weakened hull was the prime factor in her destruction on that fatal night in 1958 on Lake Michigan’s storm-roiled waters.

“The Bradley was nearing her destination of Rogers City, Michigan, at 5:31 p.m. on November 18th, when an alarmingly unusual noise compelled Captain Roland Bryan and First Mate Elmer Fleming, in the pilothouse, to look back down the Brad’s spar deck. They saw that the ship was beginning to break apart!

“Fleming sent out mayday call after mayday call, and Bryan urged the crew over the loudspeaker to grab their life jackets, and then gave the “abandon ship” signal on the ship’s whistle.

“At 5:45 p.m., the Bradley broke in two.

“Some of the crew tried to launch one of the lifeboats on the aft deckhouse, but to no avail.
Most of the men had donned life jackets by the time they were plunged into the water as the Brad rapidly went down, but with the water only 36 degrees, and the air in the twenties, death came slowly but surely to many.

“First Mate Fleming and watchman Frank Mays wound up almost on top of the Bradley’s only life raft when they hit the water, and they scrambled aboard it, and tried to pull aboard other crewmen in the water around them, finally getting two men into the raft, watchman Gary Strzelecki, and deckhand Dennis Meredith.

“By the time the Coast Guard cutter Sunew saw the raft the next day, Strzelecki and Meredith had died, and were not even on the raft…Meredith had been lost when the raft capsized during the night and the others had to right it and scramble back in, and Strzelecki had gone into shock and slipped off despite Fleming and May’s efforts to keep him aboard. Tragically, four instead of two could have lived had only the last flare in the raft fired when Fleming spied a nearby ship in the rain and wave-swept darkness shortly after the Brad sank….” (Krebes 2000.)

“Battling 30-foot waves and 65 mph winds , she rode up on a huge wave and broke in two, sinking quickly. The German motor vessel Christian Sartori was first on the scene, but was unable to find any of her crew. Extensive air-sea rescue operation by the Coast Guard yielded just two freezing survivors on a raft 14 hours later. She was bound from Buffington Harbor, IL, for Calcite, MI, and was the 2nd largest vessel ever lost on the Lakes….

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News: “….Today [Nov 18, 2008], the people of Rogers City will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bradley’s loss. The centerpiece for the commemoration will be the recently recovered bell from the vessel. Last summer, divers removed the bell and replaced it with a replica engraved with the names of the entire crew to serve as a memorial marker to those lost. The original bell was returned to Rogers City and restored. It is displayed in a place of honor at the Great Lakes Lore Museum there, where it has remained silent for the last year. Tuesday evening, it will be rung once for each of the crewmembers. The first to ring it will be Frank Mays, the sole remaining survivor.” (Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. Report News (Nov 2008); cites: John Belliveau and Bob Vandevusse from the Holland Sentinel [MI].)

Swayze: “Her homeport of Rogers City, MI was also the home of 33 of her crew. Hull located in Sep ’59 in 360′ of water.” (Swayze. Great Lakes Shipwrecks “B.”)

Sources

Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. “Report News (November 2008).” Accessed at: http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/11-08.htm

Great Lakes Shipwrecks “B.” Accessed at: http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/b.htm

Krebes, Richard A. “Carl D. Bradley Sinking 42nd Anniversary.” Encyclopedia Titanica. 11-18- 2000. At: http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/6937/1300.html?974905246

Swayze, David D. Shipwreck! A Comprehensive Directory of Over 3,700 Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Boyne City, MI: Harbor House Publications, Inc., 1992.

Thompson, Mark L. Graveyard of the Lakes. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2004.

United States Coast Guard. Commandant’s Action on Marine Board of Investigation; foundering of the SS CARL D. BRADLEY, Lake Michigan, 18 November 1958 with loss of life. Wash. DC: Commandant, USCG, July 7, 1959. At: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/docs/boards/carlbradley.pdf
Accessed 11-13-2020 at: https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/docs/boards/carlbradley.pdf