It was 67 years ago Tuesday that the SS Carl D. Bradley sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan near Beaver Island.
The freighter split in half during a November gale that produced 65 mph winds and 25-foot waves as it was en route to its home port in Rogers City for a hull inspection.
Thirty-three men lost their lives. Two others survived after spending 16 hours in a life raft before they were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in freezing temperatures.
Twenty-three of the 33 crew members who died were from Rogers City. The Bradley was known for transporting limestone from the Calcite quarry in Rogers City, the largest limestone quarry in the world. The quarry is now owned and operated by Michigan Limestone and Chemical Co.
“This is a small town, and it remains a small town,” said Cyndi Hall, vice president of the board of directors at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City. “We look after each other, and when the Carl D. Bradley went down, other wives took care of wives who lost their husbands.”
On Saturday, between 100 and 150 people attended a bell-ringing ceremony at the maritime museum to remember the crew. The community marina also has a commemorative plaque listing the names of all crew members. The northeast Michigan city is home to about 2,800 people, according to the 2020 census
“It’s always an honor to be there for the memorial and the bell ringing,” Rogers City Mayor Scott McLennan told WCMU.
He said the tragedy still resonates in the community and that he remembers classmates who grew up without a father or brother. An estimated 53 children in town lost their fathers in the sinking.
“Everyone pulled together. And I think that is a thread that has stayed with us over the many, many years,” McLennan said. “It’s a story that should never be forgotten.”
Michael Merrick, a retired captain who lives in Rogers City and sailed 42 years on the Great Lakes, said the culture around sailing in bad weather was different at the time.
“A lot of the old-time captains just kept on going in bad weather. They had reputations of being heavy-weather captains,” Merrick said.
Weather technology and safety procedures did not change immediately after the Bradley sank, he said.
It wasn’t until the SS Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior in 1975, Merrick said, that Great Lakes freighters began to shift how they approached storms and heavy seas.
