Sundew Ties Up at Rogers City, Bradley's Bell to Ring 33 Times

Rogers City keeps its grief quietly and tends it well. Today it gets something it has never had: the actual vessel that pulled the only two men off the Carl D. Bradley alive.

The former Coast Guard cutter Sundew, now sailing as SUNDEW WLB 404 LLC under private ownership, makes port at Lakeside Park this Wednesday for a public ceremony 67 years after the U.S. Steel steamer Carl D. Bradley went down in Lake Michigan on November 18, 1958, taking 33 men with her. Mayor Scott McClennan will deliver a proclamation. Then the Bradley's bell, salvaged from the wreckage in 2007, will ring once for each sailor lost. Thirty-three times.

The Presque Isle County Historical Museum and the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum arranged the visit. The Sundew's owner, former Minnesota trucking executive Jeff Foster, made the stop possible. For families who have returned to Rogers City every year since the sinking, today is the first time the rescue ship herself has come to them.

Harbor Notes

Walter J. McCarthy was tracking upbound through Detour toward the Soo Locks as of 04:15 this morning, ETA 08:19. Lee A. Tregurtha cleared the Soo downbound last evening and was westbound through the Straits of Mackinac by 04:51 today, the Laud we tracked Thursday now deep into Superior's western reaches.

At the Welland Canal's Lake Ontario end, Algoma Buffalo cleared Port Weller outbound at 05:12 this morning while Algoma Equinox came inbound through the same port just before 02:00, two boats from the same fleet trading places in the dark.

On the St. Clair River, Dorothy Ann was upbound from Grassy Island at 05:55 with a Port Huron arrival expected around 12:58, and the cruise vessel Pearl Mist followed close behind on the same upbound track, ETA 14:08.

The Levels Ledger

Ontario leads the system at 3.70 feet above Low Water Datum, with Erie close behind at 3.04 feet. Michigan sits at 2.18 feet. Superior and Huron are both at 1.85 feet. The lower lakes are carrying the most water, which eases drafts for loaded boats working Erie and the Seaway but does nothing for vessels loading deep at the Soo end of Superior.

Weather on the Water

A slow-moving cold front enters Lake Huron today, bringing showers and a chance of thunderstorms before the boundary stalls and drifts east toward week's end. Waves on Huron are running 2 feet. Superior sits under a 30.0-inch high-pressure ridge that holds through Thursday, waves also at 2 feet, conditions largely settled. Michigan is near flat at 1-foot waves as a decaying front drifts south and weakens. Ontario is also at 1-foot seas under a receding ridge.

Looking Astern

Carl D. Bradley launched in 1927 as the largest vessel on the Great Lakes. She broke apart in a November gale off Gull Island thirty-one years later, and only Frank Mays and Elmer Fleming came off alive, clinging to a life raft for hours in near-freezing water before Sundew reached them. The Bradley's bell was recovered from 360 feet of water in 2007 and has been rung at memorial services since. Today it rings dockside, within sight of a ship that was actually there.

Tomorrow's Watch Walter J. McCarthy was due at the Soo upbound locks at 08:19 this morning; if she cleared on schedule, watch for her stack on Whitefish Bay by midday and on the open lake by tonight.