The Collision of the City of Cleveland III, Part 3
by Wayne "Skip" Kadar

We conclude Kadar's story as he describes the aftermath of the collision between the City of Cleveland III and the Ravnefjeel.

The other two men in the lifeboat with Dewhirst were Mervyn Stouck and Tom Spooner. Stouck had been walking on "B" deck when the collision occurred. He had leg and internal injuries. Spooner had received a deep gash to the head and damage to his internal organs. Spooner would eventually recover from his injuries. Mervyn Stouck died in the Harbor Beach Hospital just hours from the collision.

The group on deck looked about in amazement. The fog slowly lifting allowed them see the full extent of the damage. Robert Cannell, of Benton Harbor, stared down from the top deck in disbelief. Scanning the destruction, he hesitated. Had he seen what he thought? His eyes darted about the wreckage until he saw it again… a hand protruding from the wreckage. The hand belonged to 56-year-old Dick Lybrook, Sales Manager of a Chevrolet dealership in the Benton Harbor area. Lybrook, with a severe injury to his chest, was rushed to the hospital at Harbor Beach for immediate surgery.

The other life boat retrieved the lifeless body of Police Chief Alvin Boyd. Asleep in his stateroom when the collision occurred, his legs were nearly torn from his body. He suffered considerable loss of blood. He was given the last rites by the Reverend O'Neil when his body was returned to the Cleveland.

A check of the ship's cabin assignments revealed that two men were not accounted for. A search of the ship could not find them among the survivors. The missing were Fred Skelley, 43, a Benton Harbor Automobile dealer, and Louis Patitucci, 40, a frozen food salesman from South Bend, Indiana, who accompanied the Chamber.

The City of Cleveland III was built as most passenger ships of that time. The deckwork, all structure above the hull, extended out beyond the width of the hull. On the Cleveland the deck and cabins extended out beyond the hull by 22 feet. When the slow-moving freighter struck the passenger ship, the damage was confined to the deckwork, while the hull remained intact. The large passenger ship was not taking on water and not in jeopardy of sinking.

The wood deckwork of the City of Cleveland III, however, was no match for the steel hull of the Ravnefjeel. The Ravnefjeel was not badly damaged in the collision. She backed off the Cleveland with one of the Cleveland's lifeboats stuck on her deck at the bow.

A lifeboat from the Cleveland, two from the Ravnefjeel, and the Coast Guard motor vessel continued to search the waters for Fred Skelley and Louis Patitucci. The Coast Guard found Patitucci's body, badly broken, floating on wreckage, covered with debris… 12 hours after the collision. After a thorough search the Coast Guard located Fred Skelley's body.

After several hours the Ravnefjeel, proven to have only superficial damage, was allowed to proceed north. Chief Ken Call ordered the City of Cleveland III to the harbor at Harbor Beach. There the ship was inspected to determine its sea worthiness. The following day the Cleveland was found to be damaged but in no immediate danger of floundering. The Cleveland was allowed to proceed to Detroit but ordered not to exceed 8 MPH.

The injured and dead remained in Harbor Beach, under the care of the ship's doctor, Dr. Ozeran, and Dr. Oakes of Harbor Beach. They were later transported back to Benton Harbor.

George Kolowich, President of the D & C Line publicly charged that the freighter had rammed the passenger ship, and demanded the Coast Guard seize the foreign ship before it left the territorial waters of the United States.

Inspectors boarded the City of Cleveland III as it passed through the St. Mary's River at Port Huron; more investigators boarded as the ship arrived in Detroit. The Ravnefjeel was boarded as well, its captain and crew interviewed when the ship docked at Chicago.

A Federal Board of Inquiry was immediately assembled to look into the accident, which claimed 4 lives and injured 20 others. Captain Kiessling testified he did not consider the fog served enough to merit checking the speed of his vessel, and also he surmised the fog signal he heard was from a ship heading south, as was his ship. He admitted the Cleveland was indeed six miles east of the downbound shipping lane, but justified it by saying, since his ship moved faster than freighters it was less dangerous for the Cleveland to take the shorter route, closer to shore, than to dodge other slower downbound traffic. The Captain did confirm that the Cleveland's radar and direction finder were not operational.

The Board of Inquiry found that the Ravnefjeel was not at fault in the collision of the two ships. It was traveling in its assigned shipping lane with its speed checked as the conditions dictated. The Cleveland, though, had elected to leave the downbound lane, trying to make up lost time by traveling the shorter course closer to shore. Also the Captain of the Cleveland was admonished for not following Pilot Rule 13, which requires a vessel on fog signal to reduce speed to bare steerage and navigate with caution.

The crash ended the run of the D & C Navigation Company's record of 98 years without a fatal accident.

The Tigers lost the first game in the double header 4 - 1, and won the second game 10 -9, maintaining its 4 game lead over the Yankees.

The lives of the passengers and crew were forever changed, and four passengers on the City of Cleveland died that day.

For a list of sources, please contact The Lakeshore Guardian.