Crew of the Bradley honored at bell-ringing ceremony on 50th anniversary
by Richard Lamb Advance Editor
After a moving bell-ringing ceremony at Rogers City High School attended by a large crowd, reaction to the ceremony by some who either lived through it, or researched the event, came quickly. As the crowds dispersed following the ringing, the Advance caught up with five men who devoted much time to the memory of the Carl D. Bradley, including the only living survivor of the wreck, and four others who have done extensive research on the vessel, the town, and the tragedy.
FRANK MAYS, WHO with Elmer Fleming, survived the wreck of the Bradley, thinks the ceremony is a fitting way to commemorate the anniversary of the event. ?To me this is a great ceremony that thrilled me when I found out they were going to do it because 50 years, that is a very, very long time. To have something like this come up in Rogers City–it reunited us again. The Carl D. Bradley lay dormant for many, many years until people started to dive on it and then it became more publicized and more people got interested in it. And now, look at tonight, it is fantastic,? Mays told the Advance after the ceremony.
?What really struck me as I sat on the stage and they announced the person?s name as the son of, or the daughter of, or the grandson? I thought about that as my first cousin?s son rang the bell for him. I stood right alongside of him as it was breaking apart,? Mays said. ?Everything that happened that night is burned in my mind. I shall never forget.? Others agreed with Mays? assessment.
?I THINK THIS has been a long time in coming. I know this has got to be a bittersweet moment for the families but I?m glad that these families are getting the recognition and I?m glad that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren are getting a chance to see and hear about this whole event,? said Andrew Kantar, author of ?Black November, the Carl D. Bradley Tragedy.?
?I think it is important for the city and it is also important for the state and for all of the great people who live around the Great Lakes to recognize this and remember it.? He said that judging from the nearly full high school gymnasium that came for the bell-ringing ceremony, people viewed the evening as an important event. He said Dave Erickson, Bill Valentine and other organizers from the Great Lakes Lore Museum in Rogers City did a beautiful job in setting up the ceremony.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, whose book ?The Wreck of the Carl D,? hit bookstores last month, said he came to the ceremony expecting to see something that was very moving. Schumacher, Kantar, Mays, James Hopp, author of ?Mayday! Tragedy at Sea,? and Mark Thompson, author of several local history books offered their works for sale outside the gym. ?I am really taken, as I was when I was researching the book, how this resonated a half-century later. This is something that is engrained in this city. It is something that people will not forget,? Schumacher said.
Schumacher previously wrote about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, arguably the most famous of all freighters to sink in the Great Lakes, but said his book on the Bradley is much different. ?I just signed a book for (Bradley victim) Mel Orr?s great-grandson, so that tells you something. It dawned on me that my Fitzgerald book is about a boat. This book is about a city. I really believe that. This book somehow became a book that was bigger than just about one ship or 33 men that died on a ship or a search and rescue mission or a dramatic tale of survival. It?s a story about a city and that to me is what this is all about,? Schumacher said.
THOMPSON, CURATOR of the Presque Isle County Historical Museum said the ceremony and gathering was very befitting for the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Bradley. Thompson, and the museum?s archives, provided much information for anyone who has researched the history of the Bradley. ?The turnout was fantastic and the memorial service was appropriate,? Thompson said. A common topic of conversation in the hallway after the ceremony, he said, is what people were doing when the event took place back in November of 1958.
?So many of us lived through it. I was an eighth-grader when it happened and I will never forget it. Other than a couple of incidents in Vietnam, it was the most significant event in my life,? he said. ?So many of us shared it. We have all had personal things that were very important to us but here is something that the entire town shared, and that makes it very different for us.?
DIVER JOHN JANZEN and a team of divers removed the original Bradley bell from the wreckage and replaced it with
?I was getting chills onstage. It is wonderful to see all the support from the community for something like this. Of course it is a sad reason that we are here, but I feel really positive after this ceremony. I feel good. I think there are a lot of people that care in this community and that is really a nice thing.?
As for the decision to retrieve the bell from the depths of Lake Michigan, Janzen said he realizes not everyone agreed with it, but he feels convinced it turned out to be the right thing to do. ?I have yet to meet someone who was against it so I think we did the right thing. Not everyone is going to agree, but I think the majority of the people agree. I think we did it in the right spirit,? Janzen said.