Historic dive to the Carl D. Bradley

Two Minnesota divers make Lake Michigan history

After two local divers, John Janzen and John Scoles, met the last remaining survivor of a 1950s Lake Michigan shipwreck, they knew they had to dive to the site about 370 feet below the surface.

In 2004 at a diving and shipwreck show in Minneapolis, Janzen of Champlin and Scoles of Farmington met Frank Mays, who was 26 when the freighter Carl D. Bradley sank on Nov. 18, 1958.


CARL D. BRADLEY

The Bradley Transportation Company of Rogers City, Michigan, had the largest self-unloading steel steamer on the Great Lakes built in 1927 and named her CARL D. BRADLEY after the President and Director of the firm. She served in the limestone and coal trades her entire career on the inland seas and set many cargo records in the process. The self-unloading type freighter was not rare on the Lakes at that time. That type of carrier had been in existence since the turn of the century but it had been perfected in the BRADLEY. She was by far the largest carrier on the Lakes at that time as well as being the largest self-unloader. It was a proud day for the citizens of Rogers City when she first steamed into port on her maiden voyage. The majority of her crew were from that small Northern Michigan port and the ship proved her worth to her owners over the next quarter century of her existence. Her days of service came to an end in a violent storm on Lake Michigan on November 18, 1958. She had left the lower Lake Michigan port of Gary bound for Rogers City in ballast and was buffeted by gale force winds almost immediately after her departure. Heavy seas washed over the bow but the BRADLEY held course towards the northern part of the Lake. At approximately 5:30 that evening she broke in two and sank almost immediately off Gull Island.



Wikipedia: SS Carl D. Bradley

Expedition '97 to the CARL D. BRADLEY

Comments: 2 b/w pics of the ship with the 2nd link!