SS Carl D. Bradley

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) described Carl D. Bradley's design and construction as: ... [a] typical arrangement for self-unloading type vessels with a forepeak and large cargo area, and having propulsion machinery aft.[14] As the largest ship on the lakes, Carl D. Bradley was traditionally the first boat through the Straits of Mackinac when the ice kept the smaller vessels from leaving port.[22] Sailors reported that they picked up sheared off rivets by the bucketful following storms due to Carl D. Bradley's excessive twisting and bending in heavy weather.[25] After leaving Gary, Carl D. Bradley set course for Manitowoc, where she was due to spend her winter layup in dry dock and was to have a new cargo hold fitted.[27] However, when Carl D. Bradley was only a few hours from Manitowoc, she received an order from U.S. Steel to return to Calcite Harbor, as they had scheduled her to deliver another load of stone at the last minute.Not long before Carl D. Bradley's loss, he stated in a letter to a friend that he was well aware that the ship was not in the best condition structurally and should not be out in bad weather.[46] Coast Guard Station Charlevoix also launched a 36-foot (11 m) motor lifeboat in an attempt to reach Carl D. Bradley, but this was ordered back after being mercilessly tossed about on Lake Michigan.The USCG Cutter Hollyhock from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, arrived on the search scene at 1:30 a.m. on November 19 after a seven-hour trip that her skipper described as "a visit to hell."[47] During the night, friends and family members of Carl D. Bradley's crew drove from Rogers City and the surrounding towns to Charlevoix where any survivors would arrive.[44] At 8:37 a.m. on November 19, Sundew located Carl D. Bradley's forward life raft fifteen hours after the sinking and 17 miles (27 km) from the disaster site.[49] Another crew member from Carl D. Bradley, Deck Watchman Gary Strzelecki, was also found alive, but died not long after being rescued.[52] After the ice broke up in the spring of 1959, the United States Army Corps of Engineers located Carl D. Bradley's wreck using sonar equipment aboard MS Williams.[53] Later in 1959, Carl D. Bradley's owners, U.S. Steel, hired Los Angeles-based Global Marine Exploration Company to survey the wreck using the underwater television from the USS Submarex.[56] They concluded that Bryan "exercised poor judgment" when he decided to leave the shelter of the Wisconsin shore and sail into the open lake during the storm.[24][57] However, the Commandant of the USCG, Vice Admiral A.C. Richmond, issued his own report that disapproved the Marine Board's conclusion that Bryan used poor judgment.Richmond noted that his conclusion was supported by the vessel's 31-year history of Great Lakes navigation and the report that it was sailing smoothly prior to its sinking.[44] His report also rejected that hogging stresses caused Carl D. Bradley to sink, instead concluding that she broke up due to "undetected structural weakness or defect.Maritime historian Mark Thompson wrote that the type of steel used in the older vessels may have caused their structural failure:After the Carl D. Bradley sank in 1958, Coast Guard technical experts were aware of the shortcomings of the notch-sensitive and brittle steel that was used to build many ships prior to 1948, but there doesn't seem to have been any program in place to warn the owners or crew of such vessels.[61] In 1968, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) gave notice to the USCG Commandant that the structural failure sustained by SS Edward Y. Townsend, Carl D. Bradley, and Daniel J. Morrell could recur under similar circumstances.Family members of the lost crewmen felt that U.S. Steel used the USCG findings to avoid responsibility for the loss of Carl D. Bradley."[66] Jim Clary, marine author and artist, and Fred Shannon, maritime explorer, led two diving expeditions to the wreck with the goal of proving that the survivors' account that Carl D. Bradley broke apart was accurate.They designed a special battery system and underwater torch and conducted practice dives in a flooded iron mine in Wisconsin.[74] After obtaining the required permission from Michigan government agencies, Scoles and Janzen conducted three dives to Carl D. Bradley in August 2007.They were the first scuba divers to reach the stern of Carl D. Bradley, including long penetration dives inside the ship's engine room.[83] On August 9, 1997, a memorial in Rogers City's Lakeside Park was dedicated to the thirty-three men who lost their lives on Carl D. Bradley and Cedarville.[85] On November 17, 2008, a 50th Anniversary Memorial was held at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City when the bell was tolled to commemorate the crew.It used author Andrew Kantar's book, Black November, as a major source and focused on the repercussions on the small community of Rogers City after Carl D. Bradley sank.