[Capt Keller]

The following year Captain Harold "Hell's Fire" Beagle was promoted to the triple "A" vessel called the Arthur M. Anderson when that vessels skipper retired. As was traditional the captain requested that his crew from the Vorhees be transfered over with him. Which is why I received a phone call from US Steel's Personnel Department asking if I wanted to transfer with Beagle to the Anderson. I was honored that the captain even remembered my name, let alone asked for me personnally, so I agreed right away. As did several others from the Vorhees, but not as many as I would have thought at that time. After all, I needed to get my foot in the door if I was going to make a career of working the Great Lakes. But I'd only been with him for the rough winter season, and only since November 11, 1971 at that before she laid up for the winter in late January in Milwaukee. So I hardly knew anything about the captain.

Fit out was in early April as I quickly learned was normal for ore carriers. And the Arthur M. Anderson was also laid up in Milwaukee, but outside of all the other boats because it had been one of the last to lay up for the winter. We painted the sides of the ship during fit-out as the engineers got the engine rooms fit-out for the season, and cleaned up the boilers, and finished up what repairs as needed doing. Four days after I arrived we got underway, in ballest heading for Duluth, Minn. for our first load of Iron Ore. At 647 feet in length at that time she was also wider than the Vorhees by 10 feet at 75 feet in width. And with her much newer construction, being built in the middle 50's she had no riveting, and was welded through out making her a much stronger vessel over all that the Vorhhees. This girl steered as if she was on rails, and acted the perfect lady in heavy seas as well. She was also the pride of the USSteel Fleet as the Roger Blough was still undergoing construction in Lorain, Ohio at the AmShipBuilding dry dock owned by Steinbrenner at that time. (Which is now a Marina with Condos surrounding it by the way.)

At any length 72 was my first full year aboard a laker as well as my first full Year on the Great Lakes. It was also the year that extended winter sailing became a reality on the Great Lakes, and the year that I acquired my AB ticket. I'd had plenty of time from the Navy to get an Able Bodied Seaman's card, but I didn't want to wait for the red tape to clear as 1971 was fast ending, so I took an Ordinary Seaman's card instead, and wrote for the AB endorsement in 1972 practically teaching most of the Two Week class that took place in Cleveland at the Lake Carrier's building on 25th street when I did. But hell, it was two weeks at home, and I got paid a hundred bucks when I returned with my AB ticket. 1972 was also pretty much the same as 1971 as far as sailing was concerned. But I did learn a great deal about the captain over the course of the year. And one thing that I thought was very important was that his eyes were forming cateracts in them, and limiting his vision.

Now remember this was before the big breakthroughs in eye surgery for cateracts, and the advancements to lazer surgery later on. As it turned out Captain Beagle could barely see 5 feet in front of him, and was actually docking using the radar scope alone, and listening to the distances off over the walky talkies given to him by the mates. Which would explain why the Anderson started to get a few dings in her plating around the bow during 1972. Which thankfully were blamed on Ice Damage the winter of 72-73, and repaired at government costs while the ship was being lengthened to 767 feet. Our tax dollars at work, eh. In any event by late summer I was working as a watchman, and wheeling for the wheelsman when he took a break, or on my own time whenever she was in the rivers, and just loving the fact that USSteel gave one for one summer leave (Unpaid BTW) for every day you worked on the winter run starting from Dec. 17 until the ship laid up.

Captain Beagle never did ice up the Anderson the way he had the Vorhees in 71, but he did crunch a lot of hard ice against her hull trying to up his Tonnage bonus on that Triple "A" at a higher rate of pay. And I assume that he felt quite confident in his abilities right up until the time he ran into the Gary Breakwall in on a clear summer's day coming out of the Gary USSteel Works after undloading there. Too bad his favorite wheelsman didn't tell him that the breakwall was still there, eh?

The hole in the bow was fixed in a few days, but so was Beagle as he was forceably retired, and Captain Jesse "By God" Cooper, formerly captain of the Robert A Fraser (A sister ship to the Vorhees) stepped aboard. He was lean, clean shaven, and smoked a pipe like Captain Edward Snyder that I'd served with on the USS New Jersey during the Vietnam War. A confident man, he was also smart enough to go over his new command from stem to stern, and keel to top mast in the first two weeks of his command. Insisting that the ballest tanks be cleaned out immediately so that; "she can carry more ore instead of all of that mud down there." I made enough overtime on that Job to have a great summer leave on that day for day winter deal to party on dude! And got back just in time for the Gale season.

Stangely enough, the gales weren't all that bad for the next couple years, but the winter sailing season more than took up the slack as we tried to sail 365 days of the year, and almost succeeded. Bernie took some time off, and Captain Benjamin Simo came aboard for awhile, and he was the one who talked me into going to get my license before Jesse "By God" Cooper returned from his leave.

As it turned out, Masters, Mates, and Pilots, the union on the Great Lakes was going to hold a school for those candidates with the required sea time, and credentials for taking their First Class Pilot's examinations that fall. The company upon hearing this offered those qualified to half pay during the duration of the classes, and the other half to all of those who did acquire a Pilot's License when the class was finished. When I told Captain Cooper that I wanted to go he was a little hesitant about endorsing me as he didn't think that I had enough time on the lakes, but when I assured him that I had sea time from the Navy that qualified me he relented at the last minute, and sent me packing. I got off the ship November 3, 1975 to go to school, and the flight home was the bumpiest that I'd ever experianced due to air turbulance. That was one week to the day before the Edmond Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior. And for those who don't know, the Arthur M. Anderson was the ship nearest to the Fitz by only a few miles when she went down, and in fact was probably the last one to have any contact with the living aboard that vessel. When the Anderson made White Fish Bay the Coast Guard was asking if any ships would volunteer to go out and look for the Fitz as they had lost all contact with the vessel in the storm. Jesse "By God" Cooper was one of two ship's captains that complied with that request. The other was the Captain of the Roger Blough.

I talked to Captain Cooper the following spring at fitout, and he told me that as far as he could figure out the Fitz must have scrapped the bottom off of Caribou Island. Probably slamming the hull down on that reef going through those long 20 foot rollers in the process. The Fitz had called Jesse for a radar fix only once as their radar was out, and the Captain had told them then that they were too **** close to Caribou Island as it was. But no captain can run more than his own ship, so when the Fitz slowed down Captain Cooper just kept sailing on in his own vessel heading for the sanctuary of White Fish Bay, and the Sault Ste Marie River system believing the captain of the Fitz had everything under his control.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda, the truth is that there is only one captain aboard any vessel, and he is responcible for everything that goes on aboard his vessel. He can ask for suggestions, but only he has the last say in what happens. If you don't believe me ask Captain Hazelwood, late of the Exxon Valdis who when asked in the courts of Alaska: "Whose responcibility is it," at the front of every question presented to him in that civil court, that he had no choice according to US Coast Guard Regulations, and international law but to answer with: "It is the Captains responcibility." Even though it was the third mate who put her aground in a ten mile wide channel.

As it turns out that was the only storm that I ever missed sailing in since I started working the Great Lakes, and up until my retirement. And I only missed that one by a week. I retired from USSTeel in 81 moving onto other, and hopefully better jobs at sea on the Great Lakes. But they are stories for another time.

Captain John S. Keller