Sunken History — A Diver’s Journal
The Sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell
Part 3 - The Rescue
by Captain Deb Biniecki

We left off last month with the life raft that held the sole survivor of the sunken Daniel J. Morrell and three deceased shipmates grounded on the rocks within sight of shore.

The three crew members who shared the life raft with Dennis Hale had lost their battle hours earlier. After many miserable hours, he was alone, nearly frozen. He could see the warm glowing lights of a farmhouse on shore. The repetitive flashing of the Pointe aux Barques light illuminated the raft and its occupants with its stark white light. Clad in only boxer shorts, a life jacket and his pea coat over top, Dennis was paralyzed with pain from the frostbite he endured. He had to be only a few hundred feet from shore.

Dennis Hale found himself facing another night on the raft completely alone. Numb with cold he drifted in and out of consciousness. Hale had out of body experiences during which earthly things disappeared. He met deceased family members including his mother who died during childbirth. He also boarded the Morrell and talked to luminous and happy shipmates who were surprised to see him and wondered what he was doing there as it was not his time.

After hours of nothing to eat or drink he was dehydrated and started eating the ice off the collar of his pea coat. Hale recalled seeing a ghostly apparition of an old man who appeared, warning him not to eat the ice. Later he again began eating the ice from his collar and the old man, whom he referred to as Doc, appeared again admonishing him not to eat the ice as it would further lower his body temperature. After this he stopped. He slept, prayed and drifted in and out of consciousness. Miraculously, he made it through another night alive.

The Morrell had not been heard from since the captain communicated with the Morrell’s sister ship, the Townsend, around midnight on Tuesday. It was not until noon the next day when the Morrell failed to report at Detour, Michigan, that Bethlehem Steel informed the Coast Guard that the Morrell and her crew of 29 men were missing. At about the same time, the steamer G.G. Post spotted the body of a man clad in a Morrell life jacket in the lake about eight miles off Harbor Beach. This prompted a search for the Morrell by land and air.

Coast Guard vessels, helicopters and planes searched the area between Pointe aux Barques to Harbor Beach. The dull green water muddied by gale force winds showed no sign of disaster. Huron County Deputy Sheriffs Edward Mroczek and Richard Stokan led search parties along the shoreline. Mroczek recalled spotting the bright red raft off shore and contacted the Coast Guard.

After the first body was found, newspaper reporters along with television and radio stations descended upon Harbor Beach to keep the world informed of the tragedy. Bodies began being collected and brought to the Morgan and Ramsey Funeral Homes to await identification. There was little hope of anyone surviving the disaster.

The Coast Guard helicopter hovered above the raft as it bobbed against the rocks. While counting the bodies, amazingly one feebly raised his hand toward the chopper. They found a survivor! Dennis Hale was barely holding on but was very much alive. Finally, Wednesday afternoon at 3:45, 36 hours after the sinking, he was plucked from the water by a Coast Guard helicopter. The 26-year-old watchman from Ashtabula, Ohio, had somehow managed to survive the subfreezing temperatures in an open raft. He was taken to Harbor Beach Hospital for treatment of hypothermia and frostbite.

It was 24 hours before Dr. Robert Oaks allowed Hale to be interviewed. With his wife, brother and step-mother standing by, he told of the sinking and his experience. He refuted claims that he used the bodies of his shipmates to shield him. He was not lying under them at the time of rescue and could not have used them for cover as ice was constantly forming on the raft. What may have contributed to his survival was his husky physique and the fact that he was lightly dressed and his pea coat over the life jacket provided a barrier from his clothing freezing to his skin.

When questioned about why the Bethlehem Steel Company waited so long to report the Morrell missing, the company spokesman responded that there were no federal regulations requiring regular check-ins, although they usually check in when passing a lake head or locks. The spokesman reported, “All day Tuesday, through our Cleveland office, we tried to contact the ship. But it was reported to us that vessels were arriving at the head of the Lake Huron with their masts and antennas ice-covered or broken, which of course would affect radio communications.”

By Saturday, December 3, the local paper reported that Dennis Hale “suffered no lasting effects” from his ordeal. On Monday, December 5, he was released from the hospital to return to Ashtabula and resume his life. But what could possibly ever be considered normal again after suffering such physical and emotional trauma? While the local paper headlines quickly moved on to other topics, Dennis Hale would spend the next several decades reeling from the disaster.

It was 20 years before Dennis Hale spoke of his experience. Sharing his story was a healing balm for his emotional wounds. He now speaks frequently at libraries, museums and schools about the sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell. He, along with Tim Juhl, and Jim and Pat Stayer, has written a book about his experience, Sole Survivor. He is also the subject of a book written by Andrew Kantar, Deadly Voyage. Dennis Hale visited the site of the sinking for the first time last summer when he was interviewed by the crew from Deep Sea Detectives. You can look for his autobiography on the reflections of a sole survivor, coming out in April.

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