Commemorating the 55th anniversary of the sinking of the freighter Daniel J. Morrell – The Voice

2021-12-06 01:24:15 By : Ms. kath leen

At about 2 am on November 29, 1966, near the tip of the thumb in Lake Huron, Michigan, two loud cannon-like noises shook the 26-year-old Dennis Hale, the bulk carrier Daniel J. Morrell (Daniel J. Morrell) a guard, he woke up from a deep sleep. His book fell off the shelf in his cabin. The light on his bed is broken. The main alarm bell on the ship began to ring.

According to his book "Shipwreck" published in 2010, Hale believes that "something must have gone wrong."

He put on his life jacket and only boxer shorts, and hobbled into the hallway. He walked to the main beam deck.

Norm Bragg was the watchman and survivor of the Henry Steinbrenner shipwreck on Lake Superior in 1953. He told Hale and several other sailors that the freighter was 20- Bend in the 25-foot waves and may have lost the bottom.

Prague told people to tie themselves to a nearby raft.

"You don't want to be separated from that raft," Bragg said.

The raft consists of two 8-foot-long steel barrels connected by 5-foot-long steel supports, and a wooden deck is bolted to the top. The raft is too heavy to lift. The idea is to sit on a raft because the boat sank under it.

"It's nice to meet you." Prague said.

When the raft is floating on the deck of the ship, a pin should be pulled out of the cemented carbide lamp to illuminate the raft.

The deck of the Morrell was covered with snow and ice, and it was slippery.

Hale hurried back to his dark hut and found his coat. Still barefoot, he joined about eight other sailors on the raft. When its steel hull twisted and twisted in the storm, the ship was howling. The men watched in horror as Morrell's one-inch-thick steel deck was torn in half like wet cardboard from starboard to port.

The second half of the cargo ship has left the bow and moved on its own.

"Now, when I look over my left shoulder, I'm looking at Lake Huron because it flogs and dances underneath," Hale said in his book. "When I looked straight ahead from the port side, I saw the stern of the Morrell coming straight towards us, still powered. The water had not reached the boiler because there had not yet been an explosion. The lights on the deck and cargo hold were still on and I could Seeing the cargo hold... I was thinking, God, I hope the stern will not hit the bow and kill us all."

Before Hale knew what had happened, he was thrown into the icy black water of Lake Huron. Panicked and frozen, he could hardly swim. He found a raft illuminated by a carbide lamp in the gap between the huge waves, and walked towards it.

Art Stojek and John Cleary are both sailors in their first year working on the lake and are the only sailors there. They dragged him onto the raft. Moments later, Stojek and Cleary drag Charles H, Forsbender, a wheel called Fuzzy out of the water. Fosbender, 42 years old, from St. Clair.

Before dawn, Stojek and Cleary died on the raft and were hit by waves as high as 35 feet. The first expansion will extinguish the carbide lamp. They were slammed by huge piles of water that they couldn't see all night.

In the 33-degree air, the black 44-degree waves can sometimes feel almost warm on their frostbitten bodies.

The storm abated with dawn.

Fuzzy talked about his wife. "I have been thinking a lot about her. If I can't do it, what will she do without me?"

"I don't want you to leave me, Fuzz," Hale said. "We need to keep each other going. Think about how nice it would be to go home for Christmas."

At noon, after seeing the land, Fuzzy Fosbender slipped away.

Haier almost lost consciousness and experienced a near-death vision, and will be the only survivor among the 29 crew members. According to the Lighthouse Association, until around 4 pm on November 30, a Coast Guard helicopter rescued him from a raft located 300 yards south of the Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse and took him to the Harbour Beach Hospital. Hale has been on the raft for 38 hours.

According to the Milwaukee-based Shipwreck Expedition, today’s Morrell’s bow is located in 200 feet of water approximately 18 miles north of the Port of Austin.

The diving organization said on its website: “The stern part eventually floats over four miles in the bow.” “The iconic features of the bow are the mast, the full cabin, the mushroom anchor and the long swim to the place where the ship broke in half. The stern provides almost everything that can be seen-the lifeboat next to it, the utensils in the kitchen, the lifebuoy on the stairs, and the cabin equipped with instruments and machinery for very experienced and well-trained divers."

Fosbender is buried in St. Clair's Hillside Cemetery. His wife Janice, who died in 2003, is by his side.

Hale died of cancer in 2015.

An exhibition dedicated to Morrell debuted at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Cape Whitefish on the shores of Lake Superior on August 7.

"The main participants in this event are the surviving family members of Daniel J. Morrel," said Bruce Lynn, the museum's executive director. "There are other people coming in, speakers and others. But mainly for the family."

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.

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