SS Daniel J. Morrell

SS Daniel J. Morrell was a 603 ft Great Lakes freighter that broke up in a strong storm on Lake Huron on 29 November 1966, taking with her 28 of her 29 crewmen. The freighter was used to carry bulk cargoes such as iron ore but was running with only ballast when the 60-year-old ship sank. When built in 1906, she was the "Queen of the Lakes", being the longest ship then in service on the Great Lakes.

Name
The ship was named for Daniel Johnson Morrell, the general superintendent and manager of the Cambria Iron Company, and a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania.

History
Daniel J. Morrell was built at West Bay City, Michigan, by the West Bay City Shipbuilding Company, for the Cambria Steamship Company, the Cambria Iron Company's marine subsidiary that they had formed earlier that year and launched on 22 August 1906. Cambria chartered both Daniel J. Morrell and her sister ship, SS Edward Y. Townsend, to sail for the M. A. Hanna Company, one of the most experienced vessel management firms on the lakes. In 1930, Daniel J. Morrell and Edward Y. Townsend came under management of the Bethlehem Transportation Corporation.

Sinking
Making the last run of the season with Edward Y. Townsend, Daniel J. Morrell became caught in winds exceeding 70 mph and swells that topped the height of the ship (20 to 25 ft waves). During the early morning hours of November 29, 1966, Edward Y. Townsend made the decision to take shelter in the St. Clair River, leaving Daniel J. Morrell alone on the waters north of Pointe Aux Barques, Michigan, heading for the protection of Thunder Bay. At 02:00, the ship began her death throes, forcing the crew onto the deck, where many jumped to their deaths in the 34 F Lake Huron waters. At 02:15, the ship broke in half, with the remaining crew on the bow loading into a raft. While they waited for the bow to sink, there were shouts that a ship had been spotted off the port bow. Moments later, it was discovered that the looming object was not another ship, but Daniel J. Morrell's aft section, barreling towards them under the power of the ship's engine. The bow then sank, throwing the raft into the lake. In the words of writer William Ratigan, the vessel's stern disappeared into the darkness "like a great wounded beast with its head shot off".

No distress call was transmitted, even as she abruptly sank in 20 foot waves and 60 mile per hour winds. According to Dennis Hale, Captain Crawley had stated that the electrical cable had broken, making a distress call impossible. The men were instructed to shoot flares from the raft as soon as they went in the water. alerting nearby vessels of their situation

In fact, there was a real question whether the Morrell should have been out on Lake Huron during this storm. She was one of only two boats that had not taken shelter. The other ship was stuck in the storm, since coming about was deemed likely to cause a capsizing. Two other lessons from the loss were that hypothermia is the leading killer of sailors and that lifeboats on davits are 'window dressing' — largely useless in such a turbulent sea.

Norm Bragg, who survived the 1953 wreck of the SS Henry Steinbrenner in Lake Superior, was a watchman on board. He helped his crew understand their plight, gave quick advice, and said, "It's been good to know you."

Emergency response
Daniel J. Morrell was not reported missing until 12:15, the following afternoon, 30 November, after the vessel was overdue at her destination, Taconite Harbor, Minnesota. The U.S. Coast Guard issued a "be on the lookout" alert and dispatched several vessels and aircraft to search for the missing freighter.

At around 16:00, on 30 November, a Coast Guard helicopter located the lone survivor, 26-year-old Watchman Dennis Hale, nearly frozen and aboard a grounded life raft with the bodies of three of his crewmates who had managed to climb aboard, but succumbed one by one to the elements. Hale had survived for nearly 14 hours in frigid temperatures wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, a lifejacket, and a pea coat. Afterward, he had more than a dozen surgeries as a result of his ordeal.

The survey of the wreck found the shipwreck in 220 ft of water with the two sections 5 mi apart. The clock on the stern was stopped at 3:28, indicating that the rear of the ship had travelled for almost 90 minutes on its own before sinking.

Aftermath
Damaged irreparably in the same storm, Edward Y. Townsend, after having escaped the same fate as her sister, was discovered to have a large crack in her deck that grew worse; she was declared a total loss and was docked for almost two years. She was deemed unseaworthy, and laid up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Plans were made to tow the vessel to Europe to be scrapped. On her way during tow, she was caught in a strong storm on 7 October 1968, off Newfoundland and snapped in two, foundering in the general vicinity that RMS Titanic had sunk. The German saltie Nordmeer, which had grounded at Thunder Bay Island Shoal on 19 November, was declared a total loss after the additional damage to its bottom caused by the storm.

The destructive force of the November seas and wind were an important factor in this loss, as it has been in many similar incidents on the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard investigation of the sinking of Daniel J. Morrell concluded that she broke in half due to the brittle steel used in her hull which was a "common problem" in ships built before 1948.

Fate of the crew
The remains of 26 of the 28 lost crewmen were recovered, most in the days following the sinking, although bodies from Daniel J. Morrell continued to be found well into May of the following year. The two men whose bodies were never recovered were declared legally dead in May 1967. The sole survivor of the sinking, Dennis Hale, died of cancer on 2 September 2015, at the age of 75.

Similar incidents
In addition to SS Edmund Fitzgerald, other contemporary Great Lakes freighters lost under similar circumstances were SS Carl D. Bradley and SS Henry Steinbrenner.

Details from the song "32 Down on the Robert MacKenzie" from Canadian TV series Due South echo both the sinkings of the Edmund Fitzgerald (total loss of life, and grounding on Six-Fathom Shoal) and Daniel J. Morrell (the stern breaking off and continuing on under its own power, though in the song the stern section of the titular boat immediately rams the severed bow).