Rogers City Sailors Memorial

Rogers City Sailors Memorial. . , Since the 1912 opening of the Calcite quarry, the world's largest limestone mine, many residents of the Rogers City area have earned their livings sailing on the freighters that deliver stone from the quarry to ports throughout the Great Lakes., Great Lakes sailors are often away from their families for months at a time, but most returned home safely throughout their careers. Working aboard ships, however, is not without risk, and some have lost their lives., The greatest tragedy to involve sailors from the Rogers City area was the sinking of the S.S. Carl D. Bradley on November 18, 1958. The ship was on its way to Calcite to pick up its final load of the season before going to a shipyard for major repairs when it was caught in a violent storm., Faced with strong winds and towering waves on northern Lake Michigan, the Bradley broke up and sank. Of the 35 men in the crew, 33 perished, 28 of them were from Presque Isle County, 23 of them from Rogers City. , The loss of the Bradley, and the men aboard her, devastated the community , 23 women were widowed, 53 children lost their fathers, and many others lost sons, brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews, and neighbors., Eight years later, the Bradley fleet suffered a second tragic loss. On May 7, 1965, its 5.5 Cedarville collided with the Norwegian vessel Topdalsfjord in the Straits of Mackinac in a heavy fog. , The Topdalsfjord survived the collision, but the badly damaged Cedarville sank in the Straits. Of the ship's crew of 35, 10 perished, nine from Rogers City; 10 women were widowed and 31 children lost their fathers. Rogers City again went into a state of mourning., These anchor and propeller from Great Lakes freighters, and the list of names that accompany them, are here to honor and remember those sailors who lost their lives and are an important part of Rogers City's unique, and sometimes tragic nautical history., To find out more about that history, visit the locations indicated on the map included here.