November 14, 2001
Bell tolls for mariner lives lost at sea
Maritime Academy observes 26th annual memorial service
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
A healthy young man at 30, suddenly Earl Tulgetske, Jr., was gone.
One wild, stormy November night in 1958, north of Beaver Island, the Carlton Bradley sank in 300 feet of water taking Tulgetske with it. Three men were recovered by a rescue effort hampered by fierce wind and waves; only two of these men survived.
Neither of them were Tulgetske. For Elly Stevens, a widow at 25 with four children under age six, it was a crushing blow.
"My husband's body was never recovered so it took years to find closure," Stevens recalled. "The sad thing was, they wouldn't tell us through the night, I heard it from a girlfriend who used to work in a restaurant in Cheboygan. She heard it from the Coast Guard crew who came in to eat. They couldn't get out for the rescue, it was so bad."
Stevens and her daughter, Susan Warner, came to remember Tulgetske and other mariners lost over the years at the 26th Annual Great Lakes Mariners Memorial Service held Saturday afternoon at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy.
A solemn ceremony, the memorial featured a roll call and tolling of the ship's bell for every former academy graduate lost at sea, plus a wreath released into the waters of West Grand Traverse Bay in their memory.
The memorial is held each year on the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior with all hands lost during a violent storm in 1975. Honoring the memory of those lost is an important part of maritime tradition.
"Each crew member has a story, a story that needs to be told," said Rear Admiral John Tanner, superintendent of the academy. "The young people starting out in the program have to have the depth of understanding of what it is all about."
At least 50 community members came to listen and watch and remember. With direct links to Great Lakes shipping, they live with the storms, remember the losses, share the good times.
"I've been in 25-foot seas in Lake Michigan," said Captain Robert Noffze of Rogers City, who retired last year after 30 years on the lakes. "When I was in my first storm I thought it was fun. As you become older and higher in rank, you have the responsibility of the position. It is not only your own life then, but others."
Captain Dean Hobbs of Traverse City is a graduate of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. He lost a friend on the Edmond Fitzgerald 26 years ago. His wife, Brenda, attended the ceremony with him on Saturday and clearly remembers the morning after the Fitzgerald's sinking. While they were not married yet, she says it was 'inevitable' at that point.
"I heard about the sinking when my clock radio alarm came on with the news," she said. "The night before, I heard a lot of wind and I had called his folks to find out where he was. When I heard one ship went down, I worried about others."
Despite a compelling lesson in being a mariner's wife, the Hobbs were married and will mark their 25th anniversary next spring. Brenda Hobbs does not worry about her husband, now captain of car ferry The Badger.
"In the beginning, I worried because back then communication wasn't what it is now," said Hobbs, who noted there is a close-knit community of maritime family members to turn to for support in the area. "I do think about him when the seasons change but do not dwell on it because it is not a healthy thing to do."
The Hobbs have two daughters in college, who Brenda said have both ridden with their father on the lakes in both summer and winter.
"They know what it is like," Brenda Hobbs said. "They are aware of the danger, and when certain movies come on, like "Perfect Storm," they are just not appealing to them because it is too close to home."