SS City of Midland 41, Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives Ernest Beimer photographic collection.
Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake and the Mason County Historical Society, which operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum, Historic White Pine Village and the Rose Hawley Archives in downtown Ludington.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
On Tuesday, Nov. 29, 1966, a storm struck the Great Lakes that resulted in the sinking of the SS Daniel J. Morrell on Lake Huron. The 603-foot freighter broke apart, taking 28 of its 29 crewmen. During that same storm, two days previous, the SS City of Midland 41 carferry, part of the C&O fleet based in Ludington, went aground while entering Ludington harbor.
The storm brought snow and winds with gusts registered at 75 mph to the Ludington area, driving the 407-foot City of Midland into sand about 500 feet south of the piers in the harbor. The water in that area was dredged to 18 feet. The Midland had a draft of 20.5 feet.
“As soon as the Midland touched bottom, Capt. Henry Gates (1902-1972) of Manitowoc ordered the tanks flooded, thus settling the ship securely on the sand,” stated an article in the Monday, Nov. 28, 1966 edition of the Ludington Daily News, written by Paul S. Peterson. “This maneuver protected the vessel from serious pounding by the heavy sea which could have caused serious damage to the ship.”
The Midland, or “41” as it was affectionately called, was parallel to the channel and wasn’t blocking any other ship movements.
The storm had begun building in Ludington at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27, 1966. It disrupted electrical service in several areas of Mason County. It even blow out windows of two storefronts in downtown Ludington, City Drug Store and Sears.
The barometer reading was measured at 29.04 at the Mason County Airport.
The storm caused Mason County Eastern School District in Custer to close for the day, but the other three districts in the county remained open.
Theodore A. Winkel, superintendent of the C&O steamships, reported that the 41 had left Manitowoc, Wis. at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27 and rode out the storm without any trouble. The ship carried 128 passengers, 58 crew members, 47 automobiles and train cars. The number of passengers was high for a late fall run, but many were returning from the Thanksgiving weekend.
The City of Midland 41 was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. of Manitowoc, Wis. and began operating in 1941. It was the last carferry built by Manitowoc Shipbuilding and it was the 10th and last Lake Michigan carferry built by the Pere Marquette Railway (the others being the Pere Marquette 17, 1901; PM 18 (I), 1902; PM 19, 1903; PM 20, 1903; PM 18 (II), 1911; PM 21, 1924; PM 22, 1924; City of Saginaw 31, 1929, and City of Flint 32, 1930.
The only other C&O carferry that operated during the storm was the City of Flint, which was operating along the western Lake Michigan shoreline, likely between Manitowoc and Kewaunee. The other ships remained tied up. The PM 21 and the SS Badger stayed in Ludington. The City of Saginaw was held up in Milwaukee, and the Spartan stayed in Manitowoc.
On Tuesday, the C&O had reported that it had abandoned all plans for attempting to free the Midland on its own power. The 145-foot tugboat, John Purves from Sturgeon Bay, Wis. was called to assist, but was waiting out the winds before crossing Lake Michigan.
“Winkel stressed the point that the double-hulled Midland is in no danger nor is there any danger to the passengers or the crew,” a Nov. 29, 1966 Ludington Daily News article stated. “The Midland, however, is running a little low on some food staples. The ship reported it is now short on meat, eggs, milk, etc. The vessel has enough fuel to maintain heat and electricity throughout the ship and its 60 staterooms.
“C&O officials studied the possibility of getting supplies to the ship but gave up the idea entirely. The heavy seas are running over the north breakwall and causing a tremendous surge of out-going current. It would be impossible to bring a small boat even to the lee side of the Midland.”
The John Purvess moored in Oct. 2025 at the Door County Maritime Musuem in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
The John Purvess
The John Purvess was a 145-foot tug owned by Roen Steamship Line of Sturgeon Bay. It operated with 1,800 hp, twin screw engines. The vessel was built as a steamboat by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. at Elizabeth, NJ and originally named the Butterfield. In 1922 it was purchased by Newaygo Tug Line and brought to the Great Lakes. It was later sold to Consolidated Water Power & Paper Co. In 1942, it was renamed the LT-145 and used by the U.S. Army during Word War II to supply the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. It returned to Consolidated Water Power & Paper Co. in 1945 and was named the Butterfield again. In 1957, Roen Steamship Co. acquired it, converted its engines from steam to diesel and renamed it the John Purves.
The boat was sold to Eder Barge & Towing Co. of Milwaukee in 1974 but went through several owners. In 2003, Andrie, Inc. of Muskegon donated the boat to the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay where it is now a museum boat.
The Purves arrived Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 9:20 a.m. and immediately moved into position to send its lines aboard the grounded Midland. Once the lines were secured and the tug had taken a position just to the north and aft of the Midland, crewmen began draining the tanks which had been flooded to keep the Midland secure as the ship became more buoyant.
Food was brought aboard the carferry late Tuesday afternoon by Ludington Coast Guard personnel using the station’s 44-foot motor lifeboat, 44345.
The coasties rigged a line between their vessel and the 41 and sent food aboard.
By the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 30, the Purves was able to free the Midland.
“To the accompaniment of automobile horns, ship whistles and cheering onlookers, the 407-foot vessel steamed into the channel under her own power,” an Associate Press article, published Thursday, Dec. 1, stated.
“Nearly all the passengers said the three days of being stranded were ‘really kind of fun,’ and had nothing but compliments for the crew of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ship.”
Captain Henry Gates retired the following year. He had began his service with the Ludington carferries in 1941. He died on March 5, 1972 at the age of 69.
The City of Midland continued to operate for the C&O, later known as the Chessie System, until it was sold on July 1, 1983, along with the Spartan and Badger, to businessmen Glenn Bowden and George Towns who had formed Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation (MWT). It continued to operate as a train ferry. In 1987, U.S. Coast Guard inspections showed that the ship’s boiler mounts had deteriorated and needed replacement. The repairs were waived a year but in 1988, MWT made the decision to lay it up and utilize the 410-foot Badger.
In 1991, the Midland, Badger and Spartan were again sold. This time to Holland businessman and Ludington native Charles Conrad who formed Lake Michigan Carferry. Unfortunately, the Midland was not put back into service as a carferry, however. Instead, in 1997, its superstructure was removed and it was converted into a barge and renamed the Pere Marquette 41. It was matched with the tug Undaunted, and the operation became an articulated tug/barge, which continues to operate out of Ludington, now owned by Interlake Maritime Services, the same company that now owns the Badger and Spartan.
The storm
The week leading up to the storm at been mild and the thawing weather and rain put a damper on the second week of Michigan’s deer hunting season. Thanksgiving occurred on Thursday, Nov. 24 that year. During the following weekend, an upper-air trough began to form and deepen over the central United States. At the surface, low pressure in south-central Canada, which had been pumping mild, southerly winds into the upper Great Lakes, began to fill, while new low pressure formed in northern Missouri ahead of the deepening trough in the Plains. The Missouri low became the main system and strengthened rapidly, drawing in cold air from the north. Rain quickly changed to freezing precipitation and then snow from northwest to southeast across upper Michigan. As the storm intensified and lifted northeastward, gale force winds began to hit the region.
With wind gusts over 60 mph, the storm impacted thousands of people throughout northern Michigan, causing power outages across the region.
SS Daniel J. Morrell
Sinking of the SS Daniel J. Morrell
The SS Daniel J. Morrell was built in 1906 by West Bay City Shipbuilding Company in West Bay City (now part of Bay City) for the Cambria Iron Company’s marine subsidiary, Cambria Steamship Company of Cleveland, Ohio, which had formed that same year.
The SS Edward Y. Townsend also built in 1906 for Cambria, but it was built by Superior Shipbuilding Company of Superior, Wis.
Though the Morrell and the Townsend were built at different shipyards, they were considered sister ships as they were nearly identical. They were both 586.5 feet long, 58.2 feet wide, with a depth of 27.4 feet.
Cambria chartered both vessels to operate for the M.A. Hanna Company. In 1930, the two ships came under the management of the Bethlehem Transportation Corporation.
On Tuesday, November 29, 1966, the two ships were headed north out of the Saint Clair River. The gale blowing over the Great Lakes continued to worsen with winds at 70 knots and waves washing over the ballasted ships at 20 to 25 feet.
Edward Y. Townsend
The storm had already hit Lake Michigan a couple days earlier — and was continuing to hit Lake Michigan on Tuesday, causing the SS City of Midland 41 to ground inside the Ludington pier heads.
The Townsend’s master, Capt. Thomas Connelly, made the decision to seek shelter. The ship radioed that it was turning around and running for the safety of the St. Clair River. The Morrell continued on to Thunder Bay where Captain Arthur I. Crawley believed he would find safe harbor. At 2 a.m., off Pointe aux Barques, the Morrell began to break apart, with many of the crew jumping overboard and drowning in the icy storm-tossed lake.
At 2:15 a.m., the ship broke in half. Dennis Hale and three other crewmen were able to get on a raft. They saw lights approaching and though it was a vessel coming to the their rescue, only to discover it was the stern of their ship, which plowed by them and smashed into its own bow. The bow sank almost immediately and the stern section continued up Lake Huron, finally sinking six miles north in 200 feet of water.
Hale ultimately was the only survivor. He was found by a Coast Guard helicopter 300 yards south of Point aux Barques Lighthouse at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 30. He was wearing shorts, a life jacket and a pea coat. Hale was taken to Harbor Beach Hospital and spent three months recovering from hypothermia, frostbite and other injuries.
The Coast Guard determined that inferior steel and metal fatigue were the causes of the accident.
The Townsend suffered a cracked hull during the storm and was deemed unseaworthy and laid up in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. The ship sank two years later, on Oct. 7, 1968, when it was on its way to the scrapyard.
MV Nordmeer prior to sinking.
Sinking of the MV Nordmeer
In addition to sinking the Morrell, the storm also caused the sinking of the West German-flagged frieghter MV Nordmeer on Lake Huron near Alpena. The ship had actually run aground on a week earlier, on Nov. 19, 1966, on Thunder Bay Shoal due to a navigational error. It was on its first freshwater voyage and was carrying 990 coils of rolled steel bound from Hamburg, Germany to Chicago and Milwaukee. The ship began flooding rather quickly.
Thirty-seven of the 45 crew members abandoned ship and were rescued by the freighter Samuel Mather. They were later transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw and then later flown back to West Germany.
Captain Ernst-George Steinbeck and seven other crew members remained aboard to supervise salvage operations. But, on Nov. 29, the same storm that grounded the 41 and sank the Morrell began distressing the Nordmeer.
Capt. Steinbeck put out an SOS at 3:25 a.m. Communications broke off shortly afterward.
A Coast Guard helicopter was able to remove them moments before the Nordmeer sank.
“The rescue took 28 minutes,” an Associated Press report stated. “For 12 hours before that, the Nordmeer’s master, Captain Ernst-George Steinbeck and seven of his crewmen had borne the brunt of 35 to 40 knot winds at times gusting to 60 knots along the shoal 12 miles east of Alpena.”
The helicopter was piloted by Lt. Lonnie Mixon of Mobile, Ala. The helicopter crew also included co-pilot Lt. Jack Rittichier of Barberton, Ohio, and mechanic David C. Noffiz of Joliet, Ill.
“As the helicopter neared the stricken ship, Cmdr. George Winstein of teh Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw was preparing a sea rescue effort,” the article stated.
“The helicopter made two trips, carrying four men each time.
“‘The keel was broken and the main deck was awash when we left her,’ Winstein said of the Nordmeer. The Mackinaw took the seamen to Alpena.”
The Noordmeer was 471 feet long, 60 feet wide with depth of 28 feet. It was built by Flensburger Schiffs Gesellshaft of West Germany and began service in 1954.
The wreck of the Noordmeer is now protected within the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
The Mason County Historical Society is a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in 1937 that does not receive any governmental funding. It owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum in Ludington, Historic White Pine Village in Pere Marquette Township, and The Rose Hawley Archives and the Mason County Emporium and Sweet Shop in downtown Ludington.
For more information about donating to and/or joining the Mason County Historical Society, visit masoncountymihistory.org.
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