Maritime Decor
Jul. 28th, 2009 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
The Lighthouse Restaurant in Rogers City has a pretty good Italian buffet this week. Or at least it looks good. One of my rules is "No more All-You-Can-Eat."
Well, actually it's more of a guideline.
Anyway, while I was waiting for my fish and chips I noticed I was sitting in front of two life rings they had hanging on the wall. One was labeled CARL D BRADLEY - NEW YORK and the other CEDARVILLE - NEW YORK. They were just another bit of the maritime decor of the place.
Except that Rogers City used to be the home port of the Great Lakes Fleet of United States Steel. Carl D Bradley and Cedarville were ships of that fleet. They operated out of Rogers City for years.
SS Carl D Bradley sank in a storm in 1958. She took 33 of her 35 crewmen to the bottom of Lake Michigan with her. Cedarville collided with a Norwegian freighter and sank in the Straits of Mackinaw, with the loss of 10 of her 35 crewmen, in 1965.
This town was the home of those lost men, who had more of a home than most sailors because the lakes freeze up and all the freighters go into layup over the winter. So that's the loss of 43 husbands, brothers, or sons out of a town population of about 3000.
They remember, in Rogers City. And not just with some decorations on the wall of a restaurant.
Well, actually it's more of a guideline.
Anyway, while I was waiting for my fish and chips I noticed I was sitting in front of two life rings they had hanging on the wall. One was labeled CARL D BRADLEY - NEW YORK and the other CEDARVILLE - NEW YORK. They were just another bit of the maritime decor of the place.
Except that Rogers City used to be the home port of the Great Lakes Fleet of United States Steel. Carl D Bradley and Cedarville were ships of that fleet. They operated out of Rogers City for years.
SS Carl D Bradley sank in a storm in 1958. She took 33 of her 35 crewmen to the bottom of Lake Michigan with her. Cedarville collided with a Norwegian freighter and sank in the Straits of Mackinaw, with the loss of 10 of her 35 crewmen, in 1965.
This town was the home of those lost men, who had more of a home than most sailors because the lakes freeze up and all the freighters go into layup over the winter. So that's the loss of 43 husbands, brothers, or sons out of a town population of about 3000.
They remember, in Rogers City. And not just with some decorations on the wall of a restaurant.
