- Date
- 1958-11-18
- Kind
- Disaster
- Wreck of
- Carl D. Bradley
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- maritimeshippingdisastershipwrecks
- Media
- Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision
Summary
The Carl D. Bradley foundered on 18 November 1958 after reporting distress about twelve miles southwest of Gull Island Light. The Coast Guard’s official 1959 action records 35 people aboard, two survivors, eighteen bodies recovered, and fifteen missing.
The disaster had a direct Beaver Island aftermath documented in separate records: island residents aided communications and search work, raised relief money, and held a Mass for the dead and bereaved. A 1959 Lake Survey effort then investigated a hull believed to be the wreck.
Location and map claim
The Coast Guard reference is a distress position rather than a surveyed wreck position, so no precise geometry is asserted. The 1978 History Map’s southwest- of-Gull-Island placement is consistent with that official description. Its additional 638-foot measurement and “largest Great Lakes ship to sink until the Edmund Fitzgerald” comparison require a separate vessel specification or contemporary source and remain unverified in this record.
See also
Sources
- Official primary source records the 18 November 1958 foundering, a distress position twelve miles southwest of Gull Island Light, 35 aboard, two survivors, eighteen bodies recovered, and fifteen missing.
- Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.Places the sinking southwest of Gull Island and gives the correct date and two-of-35 survival outcome; its 638-foot and “largest until Edmund Fitzgerald” statements are not supported by the inspected Coast Guard action.
- Warren J. Toussaint, “May Day—May Day,” reposted in “Sinking of the Carl D. Bradley 1958,” Beaver Island Forum, September 3, 2007.The forum reproduces a 1997 Ninth Coast Guard District Shipmates account by a retired Coast Guard corpsman who served aboard USCGC Sundew during the rescue. It adds narrative detail about the storm, the Sundew's departure from Charlevoix, the recovery of two survivors near Gull Island, and the loss of the other crew; the official 1959 Coast Guard action remains the controlling source for casualty totals and formal findings.forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000964
Added 7 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Sinking of the Carl D. Bradley, 1958”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/sinking-of-carl-d-bradley-1958/, accessed [date], citing U.S. Coast Guard, Commandant's Action on the Marine Board investigation of the Carl D. Bradley, July 7, 1959, Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council, September 1959, pp. 178–179. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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