baileys yacht gesunken

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Maurice Bayley, who survived in a dinghy in the Pacific Ocean for 117 days with his wife, dies aged 85

Just days after a couple set off from the UK to New Zealand their yacht sank. It was the start of an incredible 117 days lost on a raft.

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The husband of a British couple who survived for more than 117 days lost at sea in the Pacific Ocean has died, more than 30 years after their survival story.

Maurice Bailey, along with his wife Maralyn, departed Southampton in a 9.4m yacht named the Auralyn at the beginning of 1973. They had sold all of their belongings to buy the boat and make the journey south.

They had intended to emigrate to New Zealand and begin a new life abroad but their yacht sank.

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The couple made it safely through the Panama Canal and the Galápagos Islands when on March 4, their vessel was struck by a whale off the coast of Guatemala and sank.

The pair evacuated to an inflatable life raft, transferring as many supplies as they could including some food and a compass.

They survived by “almost continually” bailing water out of the liferaft “night and day”, while collecting rainwater and killing turtles, birds and fish with their bare hands for food.

The pair claimed hundreds of animals approached the life raft and followed them on their journey.

Maurice said that the animals were their friends and helped them to alleviate their isolation. Maralyn said: “After so many months with them, we felt just like sea creatures ourselves”.

“They (the animals) were around us all the time,” Maurice told Alvaro Cerezo in a never-before-seen documentary.

“One of the chief things we killed which didn’t please us that much were turtles.

“They are such harmless creatures … we killed it. Decapitated it and killed it.

“ … I didn’t like it at all.”

After their rescue, the pair became vegetarians.

“We thought we wouldn’t kill any more animals or allow any more animals to be killed, so we became vegetarians. I haven’t eaten meat since that event.”

At least seven ships passed the couple during their ordeal but the crews never spotted the couple adrift, and so their boat floated further and further away from land, into remote sections of the Pacific Ocean, all while their life raft deteriorated.

At the beginning of their journey adrift they would read or play card games, but by the end malnutrition and weather conditions made any physical activity proved difficult and dangerous.

The couple drifted 2400km in the raft until they were rescued by a South Korean fishing boat, the Weolmi 306 , on June 30, 1973. The couple were lost at sea for four months.

“Maralyn said, ‘I can hear a ship’, Maurice recalled.

“Sure enough, a ship appeared on the horizon. They saw us, the fisherman saw us. I don’t think when they called the captain he could believe it.

“The sea was our life, the animals were our neighbours. I couldn’t believe that we were going back to human civilisation and we were wondering what civilisation has to offer us now.”

The pair had lost 40kg each while their legs could barely support their weight.

The couple returned to England and wrote a book of their ordeal a year later, 117 Days Adrift .

Maralyn died of cancer in 2002 aged 61 and Maurice lived a solitary life until since his death in December 2018. He lived his last years extremely lonely.

“It’s a lonely life but I’m happy being lonely I think,” he said.

His death went unnoticed until Alvaro Cerezo, who had been in communication with Maurice for years, stopped receiving replies. After some investigating, he discovered his friend had died.

Mr Cerezo is a Spanish explorer who owns Docastaway , the only company in the world that helps people to spend time completely alone on desert islands.

On his journeys to explore new remote islands for his clients, Alvaro has also discovered and lived with many real-life castaways like the Masafumi Nagasaki , David Glasheen or the Vietnamese Tarzan .

Mr Cerezo has released an interview with Maurice from 2016 because he “wanted to do something special for this beautiful couple”.

“Through time, this adventure has fallen into oblivion,” Mr Cerezo told news.com.au.

“Maurice and Maralyn spent four months on a damaged inflatable life raft and they became the longest lasting castaways at sea in a device like that.

“Unfortunately I never had the chance to meet Maralyn. I would have loved it. Maurice was definitely a very special person.”

Mr Cerezo said that since Maralyn’s death, Maurice lived completely alone and cut himself off from society.

“When I say ‘alone’ I’m not trying to exaggerate as Maurice has no one else in this world. It was hard to believe that I was maybe the only person who maintained contact with him until his death.

“Sometimes I called him, other times we wrote to each other via emails. I always insisted on the need to have an alternative contact in case I stopped receiving mail or he didn’t answer my calls. He couldn’t give me this for, though it’s hard to believe, he had no one.

Alvaro Cerezo has created a tribute website for Maurice and Maralyn Bailey. Visit thebaileys.docastaway.com for more information.

To read the full story about the Baileys, visit Alvaro Cerezo’s story on the couple’s 117 days journey.

To read Maurice and Maralyn’s book, 117 Days Adrift, visit booktopia.com.au.

You can follow Alvaro Cerezo’s castaway adventures on his Facebook page .

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Brit who survived 117 days lost at sea on raft with his wife has died aged 85

Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's yacht sank after a 39ft sperm whale crashed into the hull 300 miles from the Galapagos Islands, leaving them adrift in a tiny inflatable dinghy in the Pacific Ocean

• 10:03, 3 Dec 2019

A Brit who survived four months lost at sea on a life raft with his wife has died aged 85 - and his incredible story has been featured in a new documentary nearly 50 years on.

Maurice and Maralyn Bailey sold all of their belongings to buy a 31ft yacht, the Auralyn, and departed Southampton in June 1972, intending to emigrate to New Zealand together.

But their boat sank on March 4, 1973 after a 39ft sperm whale crashed into the hull 300 miles from the Galapagos Islands and they spent 117 days stranded on a tiny inflatable dinghy in the Pacific Ocean.

Left with only a few tins of food, a compass and enough water to last just 20 days, the couple had no choice but to eat the raw flesh and drink the blood of turtles, seabirds and sharks in order to survive.

But despite this, hundreds of animals approached their life raft - from dolphins, sharks and killer whales to turtles, marine birds and fish of all shapes and sizes - which the couple came to know as their friends.

Spanish explorer and documentary maker Alvaro Cerezo rediscovered Maurice and Maralyn's unbelievable forgotten story when he first made contact with Maurice, now a widower living in isolation in Lymington, Hants, in 2016.

The 37-year-old, who raised the alarm over Maurice's death in December last year when the old man stopped responding to his emails, has now released a never-before-seen film retelling his friend's astonishing story.

Alvaro, from Malaga, said: "I had been fascinated by Maurice and Maralyn's story since I was little.

"When Maurice recently passed away, I wanted to do something special for this beautiful couple - not only because of their adventure but also because of the way they lived.

"They were people ahead of their time.

"Maurice told me he would go back to life on that life raft if he could. He missed his life with the animals, away from human civilisation.

"Maurice and Maralyn's story reminded me of the movie Life of Pi.

"It felt like a fable where the animals are the leading actors and 'never lose hope' is the great moral.

"Fifty years later, in a period of eco-consciousness and feminism, I thought it was the perfect moment to bring this forgotten story back to life."

Maurice and Maralyn had already made stops in Spain, Portugal, Madeira, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and Panama on their round the world trip before they attempted to sail across the Pacific.

But after the Auralyn was shipwrecked, tides and currents pushed them away from known navigation routes until they ended up in one of the most inhospitable regions of the ocean, where no ships venture.

As inflatable rafts are designed to float for only a few weeks, theirs quickly began to deteriorate and the couple were forced to bail out water and pumped in air every half hour, day and night.

At first they caught and killed animals using a fishing hook Maralyn fashioned from a safety pin, before discovering birds would regurgitate or drop their catches of fish on their raft.

The couple cried every time they had to kill turtles and other creatures to survive - becoming vegetarians as soon as they were rescued.

One day a huge whale stared at Maurice without blinking for half an hour, while floating just a few inches from the raft.

In the film, he described the animals as friends who seemed intent on accompanying them to save their lives, while helping to alleviate their isolation.

Maurice told Alvaro: "After so many months with them, we felt just like sea creatures ourselves.

"The sea was our life, the animals were our neighbours.

"[When we were rescued] I couldn't believe that we were going back to human civilisation. We wondered what civilisation had to offer us now."

After 16 weeks lost in the middle of the ocean, Maurice and Maralyn were rescued by a Korean fishing boat on June 30, 1973 and returned to England, where they set up home in Hampshire.

The couple's story - 117 Days Afrift - was published as a book and became a classic adventure tale in the 1970s and 1980s.

But over time their story was forgotten, and after Maralyn died of cancer in 2002, Maurice was left completely alone as the pair had no children or surviving family.

Alvaro, who is himself a real life Robinson Crusoe as he owns Docastaway, a company that abandons brave holidaymakers on far-flung desert islands to survive alone for days or weeks at a time, tracked down and visited the elderly man in 2016.

He decided to share his documentary about the couple's improbable triumph over adversity as a testament to their beautiful love story.

Alvaro, who while exploring remote islands has discovered other real-life castaways including David Glasheen and Masafumi Nagasaki, said: "Maurice was definitely a very special person.

"It's hard to believe he died with no one.

"He was deeply in love with Maralyn and since she died he lived his last years extremely lonely, far from society and in a very austere way.

"Despite his incredible story, it was hard to believe that I was maybe the only person who maintained contact with him until his death.

"Sometimes I called him, other times we wrote to each other via email.

"I was surprised by the admiration Maurice professed towards his wife, who was his guide throughout life.

"Maralyn was the person who gave him the security he needed to face his life, not just on the raft but day to day.

"She was the person who saved his life."

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Adrift in the Pacific | Distress Signals

It’s March 1973, and Maurice and Maralyn Bailey are floating on a small life raft in the middle of the world’s largest ocean. Before their yacht sank into the Pacific, they managed to grab some food and supplies, but their provisions won’t last long. Now, their only hope is to be rescued by a passing ship, before it’s too late.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

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Adrift in the pacific | the sinking.

In the summer of 1972, Marilyn and Maurice Bailey decide to leave their quiet lives in suburban England behind, to sail across the world...

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Adrift in the Pacific | Creatures of the Sea

Over 100 days have passed since the Baileys’ yacht sank, leaving them adrift on a life raft in the Pacific ocean. They’ve managed to...

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New episodes come out every Tuesday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Listen ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Join Wondery+ here: https://wondery.app.link/againsttheodds

Luxusjacht sinkt vor Küste Italiens: Video zeigt Untergang

Eine 40 Meter lange Jacht ist am Wochenende im Meer vor Süditalien untergegangen. Alle Bergungsversuche waren vergeblich. Ein Video der Küstenwache zeigt den Vorfall.

Quelle: Reuters

Vor der Küste Italiens ist am Wochenende eine rund 40 Meter lange Luxusjacht gesunken. Das Schiffsunglück ereignete sich am Sonntag im Golf von Squillace, etwa neun Seemeilen vor der Küste von Catanzaro Lido.

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Ein Video vom Schiffsunglück wurde von der Küstenwache veröffentlicht

Luxusjacht versinkt vor der küste süditaliens.

Die rund 40 Meter lange Jacht war unter der Flagge der Caymaninseln vor der Küste Süditaliens unterwegs. Verletzt wurde niemand.

Die Luxusjacht mit dem Namen „Saga“ war Medienberichten zufolge am Wochenende von Gallipoli nach Milazzo im Süden Italiens aufgebrochen. Die „Saga“ sei unter der Flagge der Caymaninseln unterwegs gewesen, bevor sie vor der Küste bei Catanzaro in der Nacht zum Sonntag in Seenot geraten war. Der Kapitän soll daraufhin einen Notruf abgesetzt haben.

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Welcome to Door County

Wisconsin highway 42 to baileys harbor.

It’s true that the fastest way to Baileys Harbor is Highway 57 but we take Highway 42. It’s only a four mile difference but it takes us around two hours longer this way, but it’s time well spent. By the time we get to the Baileys Harbor we are all in vacation mode.

Our first stop on 42 is the Door County Coffee & Tea Company located in Carlsville. It takes about 3.5 hours to get here from home in the northern Chicago suburbs and Door County coffee is the official start of our vacation. I will order a 16 oz. dark roast drip, a 12 oz. skinny vanilla latte, a fruit smoothie, and an oversize chocolate cupcake while my wife and son pick out a half pound of beans for the week. They have at least 20 local named blends to choose from. The Light House, Inn Keepers, and Harvest Blend generally make it home with us.

Outside Egg Harbor Fun Park

After about 10 minutes, and a good shot of caffeine, we are back on 42 driving north towards Fish Creek. After about 6 miles we pull into the Egg Harbor Fun Park for a quick Go-Cart race. I purchase a couple punch passes good for a variety of activities. Today we will use a punch for one go kart race. We will come back during the week for paintball, video gaming and maybe some min-golf.

After about 20 minutes we are back on 42 but just for a mile this time. On the left I see the familiar “Knockin Heads Red” statues at the entrance of the Harbor Ridge Winery . This will be a quick stop, just need to grab a bottle of one of our favorite wines, Carmen’s Last Dance , for the room. We will back later in the week for a wine tasting and some shopping. Their retail store has a variety of fun/comical wine themed gifts.

After about 15 minutes we are back on 42 and in minutes we are driving through downtown Egg Harbor. We are not going to stop now because we will back this way several more times this week. Egg Harbor is our favorite shopping, dining and tasting destination in Door County.

Our last stop before Baileys Harbor is just past Highway E on the right side of the road. You cannot miss Wood Orchard Market , it has a giant apple in front with a peddle cart track around it. We will stop at Wood Orchard every day over the next week for fresh corn, eggs, cherry bratwurst and so much, much more. Today we get three ears of corn, cherry juice, green eggs and some cheese curds. After about 20 minutes of shopping and sampling various local dips and mustard’s we are back on 42 heading north, but only for about half a mile this time. We take right on Highway EE and drive 8 miles east towards Baileys Harbor.

Highway EE is a wonderful Door County road that calmly curves and dips through orchards, farms, cow pastures, and grave yards between Egg Harbor and Baileys Harbor. Going east, EE ends at Baileys Harbor Town Hall, where there is a farmers market on Saturdays through the first weeks of October.

Quick family meeting in the car. Do we take a left on 57 and head to the resort and check in? Or do we take a right and make a stop at the Custards Last Stan for bakery and a Door County Cherry Sundae.

Jacksonport – Door County Farmers Market at Lakeside Park

We pull off the side of Route 57, just South of Lakeside Park in Jacksonport, WI. It’s about 10:00am on Tuesday, and the Farmers Market is hoping. We say good morning to people we pass, my wife comments on a cherry pie that a happy looking couple was carrying. As we head into the park we see a good ten to fifteen vendors selling bread, cheese, candles, and all sorts of fruits, vegetables and some unusually big onions.

Big Dog Farms at Jacksonport Farmers Market

After chatting for about five minutes we take a last walk around the market. My wife chats with the some girls at the bakery table. We learned that we need to get to the market first thing in order to get one of their cherry pies. Apparently the couple we passed on the way out purchased the last one (maybe that is why they looked so happy). Instead we bought a baguette, which looked amazing, and then headed back to the car. I am already thinking about the roasted beet and goat cheese salad we will be having for dinner with fingerling potatoes and corn on the cob.

Birch Creek students perform at the farmers market

The Jacksonport farmers market is held at Lakeside Park on Route 57 about, 10 miles south of Baileys Harbor. The farmers market is open on Tuesdays between 9am and 1pm, from mid-May through late October. Lakeside Park has access to a small beach on Lake Michigan, there are a couple picnic tables and a playground. We sometime picnic here on the way back from Whitefish Dunes.

Search for the Best Cherry Pie

Cherries are synonymous with Door County. As you travel up and down and across the Door Peninsula you will be hard pressed not to pass a cherry tree orchard. In late July and early August cherries are ripe and ready to be harvested. Cherry tree branches are dotted red with ripe fruit and even look a little like Christmas tree’s decorated with bright, little ruby red ornaments.

Falcon Orchard Cherry Trees

In August of 2014, my family and I stopped in for lunch at the Cornerstone Pub in Baileys Harbor and started talking to our server. We learned that working at the Cornerstone was his part time job and he was a local farmer, and his wife was a dairy farmer. As we talked he shared a few stories about the different produce he was growing, he leaned in a little closer as to tell us a secret, there was a wonderful baker in the area that made the best cherry pies and the pub had one fresh baked pie left, did we want it? We bought the pie, stopped and got some vanilla ice cream, and brought the pie and the ice cream back to the condo for later. The pie was wonderful and we enjoyed a piece after sunset for the next three days.

Fast forward to 2015, this is where it gets interesting. We decided to head to the Falcon Orchard on Route 42 between Sisters Bay and Ellison Bay to go cherry picking. In 2014 we picked about 10 pounds of cherries, for about eight dollars, but we were later in the season this year and the picking was done. We decided to head north about a quarter mile on 42 to Seaquist Orchard . After playing in the rope maze, we went inside to the baking department and started reminiscing about the cherry pie we bought at the Cornerstone pub the year before. We decided not to buy a pie at Seaquist, but to head back to the pub and see if we could get a cherry pie there.

Cornerstone Pub, Baileys Harbor

When got to the Cornerstone we learned that the baker had moved on and started her own business and that she was actually on the Food Network show Chopped . Unfortunately, no one could remember her name or the business she opened, just that she was chopped from the show and her business was closed. I asked the waitress if she could recommend another place to get a pie. She suggested Sweetie Pies in Fish Creek, but by the time we got there they were closed. Someone we bumped into in the Settlement Courtyard shopping area there said they remembered the Grandmas’ Swedish Bakery in the Rowleys Bay Resort made a good pie, so we jumped back in the car and were off to the other side of the Peninsula to Rowleys Bay.

We got there in about 20 minutes and found the resort and the bakery, unfortunately they had not made pies in several years. They still have incredible cinnamon rolls and coffee cake, which are very popular. We walked around the resort for a bit and decided to drive back to Seaquist to see if they were still open. They were, we picked up a fresh cherry pie and headed back Baileys Harbor. It was good cherry pie and now we had a great story to share. All said and done we traveled 60 miles to find the perfect Door County cherry pie.

Since then we have purchased several pies including one from Woods Market , Sweetie Pies, The Cherry Pit, and Grandma Tommy’s . All of them good but our first pie from the Cornerstone Pub will always remain our perfect cherry pie.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ daughter Chance goes to prom with Halle Bailey’s brother Branson

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ daughter Chance looked pretty in purple at prom.

The rapper and Sarah Chapman’s 17-year-old attended the school dance with Halle Bailey and Chloe Bailey’s brother, Branson Bailey.

“Prom 2k24💜💐✨,” Chance captioned photos of herself posing in a strapless lilac gown with her 18-year-old date via Instagram Thursday.

Branson shared shots to his own account , writing, “take a chance 2k24🔮.”

Chloe, 25, and Halle, 24, commented on his social media upload with heart emojis, while Chance gushed, “i love youu💜🤍.”

News broke in February that Chance was dating Branson .

The couple’s milestone moment comes one month after Homeland Security raided Diddy’s Los Angeles and Miami houses in connection with an ongoing sex-trafficking investigation.

The music executive has not been charged in relation to the raids.

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Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones’ suit, in particular, claimed Diddy had hired City Girls rapper Yung Miami , 50 Cent’s ex Daphne Joy and Instagram model Jade Ramey as sex workers.

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All three women also have hit back at the prostitution claims .

Amid Diddy’s sex-trafficking probe, his son King has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2022 on a yacht.

Attorney Aaron Dyer denied those charges as well, calling Grace O’Marcaigh’s statement “another lewd and meritless claim” of “manufactured lies and irrelevant facts.”

• Door County
• On the Water

Baileys Harbor Water Hold Tales of Sailing Ships

By Patty Williamson , Door County Living – November 15th, 2012

It is ironic that what would become Baileys Harbor was chanced upon in 1848 by a sea captain who found safe shelter from a storm. In the 164 years since that fortuitous event, there have been more boating tragedies off Door County than in any other location on Lake Michigan, and 61 of the wrecks and strandings have occurred in or near the harbor that saved Captain Justice Bailey’s schooner, the Gazelle , and her load of immigrants.

Baileys Harbor’s bay is approximately 1.4 miles wide by 1.6 miles long with a broad, deep passage and a sandy bottom. Unfortunately, the outer reef that borders the entrances to both Baileys Harbor and Moonlight Bay is covered by very shallow water. It is the final resting place of eight schooners and the stranding site of 23 others. Early in the 19th century, it was recognized as a treacherous spot, and attempts were made to make it safer for the sailing ships that crisscrossed Lake Michigan in the days before steam power.

The first lighthouse, a circular limestone tower 40 feet high, topped with a unique “bird cage”

Photo courtesy of the UW Sea Grant and Wisconsin Historical Society.

lantern that was visible for 13 miles, went into operation in 1853. However, many ships continued to strike the reef, and the lighthouse was taken out of service 16 years later. (Now privately owned, it can still be picked out among the trees on a small island across the bay from Anclam Park.) The Baileys Harbor Range Lights and the Cana Island Lighthouse were built in 1869. Still, ships continued to run into trouble, with all but four of the wrecks and strandings in the Baileys Harbor area occurring after the new lights went into service.

The winter months, especially the “witch November,” were considered the most hazardous. In November 1919, for example, two massive storms accompanied by blinding snow caused a dozen ships to sink in Lake Michigan, with 240 lives lost. In the Baileys Harbor area, however, problems occurred throughout the shipping season. Three schooners, the Peoria , the Pauline and the Itasca were doubly fated, first becoming stranded and later wrecked.

The danger of this passage prompted the United States Life-saving Service to build its second Door County station in Baileys Harbor in 1896, located near the present Baileys Harbor Yacht Club.

The initial crew consisted of Captain Peter Olson, John Christianson, Charles Gaul, Volney Brown, Alfred Ollander, Gustav Egeland, Albert Wilson and Joseph Arle. The life-savers rowed rescue boats for long hours and, if horses were not available, pulled beach carts to wrecks with ropes over their shoulders. They also helped put out fires, released mired animals and took people to and from isolated islands. In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-saving Service were combined under the Treasury Department and named the Coast Guard.

The Christina Nilsson was a namesake of the world-renowned Swedish diva, Christine Nilsson. The ship had gone missing for two weeks in a storm in November 1873, but eventually turned up in Sheboygan. On October 24, 1884, the schooner’s luck ran out on the Baileys Harbor outer reef. She sank in 15 feet of water and immediately began to disintegrate. No help came, but the eight crew members used the ship’s yawl (a small rowboat) to make their way to safety. The cargo of pig iron was eventually salvaged, but the weight of winter ice added to the destruction of the vessel. The wreck lies in shallow water along the west face of the reef and can be viewed at Latitude N45° 03.267’ / Longitude W87° 05.875’.

On August 8, 1896, the schooner Emeline was about 25 miles from the Baileys Harbor life-saving station when a squall put the vessel into a “death roll” that caused her to completely fill with water. Captain Abrahamson and his crew of three escaped in a yawl and were spotted off shore, brought to the life-saving station and given food and dry clothing. Meanwhile, the schooner Charles Foster ,

commanded by Captain Dicke, ran across the abandoned Emeline , saw no sign of life on board and, upon reaching Manitowoc that evening, reported to shipping authorities and the press that he believed all hands had been lost. The next day the Detroit Free Press carried the headline:  “THINKS THEY ARE ALL LOST. The Entire Crew of the Schooner Emeline.”

Unaware of their “obituary,” the captain and his crew accompanied the life-savers on a six-hour search for the boat. The wreck was towed to shore, but sank on August 22nd in 21 feet of water off Anclam’s Pier, with her gunwales and two masts showing above the water. The boat was valued at $1,200 and her cargo of tan bark at $800, but because the marine insurer, Lloyds Inland, had rated her unsafe, she was uninsured. The Brann brothers gave Abrahamson $15 for the hull, which paid for his train ticket to Chicago. The crewmen had to fend for themselves.

After the ship’s masts broke off, leaving nothing visible above the water, the ship was considered a

hazard to navigation, and she was dynamited in September 1903, after a Captain Isabell recovered her anchors. What remains of the Emeline can be viewed at Latitude N45° 03.472’ / Longitude W87° 07.056’.

The most publicized wreck in the Baileys Harbor area was the Frank O’Connor , which burned and sank about four miles off Cana Island on October 2, 1919. The steamer had left Buffalo, New York, a week earlier, loaded with 3,000 tons of hard coal to be delivered to Milwaukee.

In late afternoon, smoke alerted the crew to a fire burning fiercely in the windlass room of the forward section of the ship. The October 9th issue of the Door County News carried this report:

“The crew hastily got a stream of water on the spot and attempted to extinguish the blaze which was rapidly gaining headway. Their efforts proved unavailing as the dense smoke and increasing heat drove them from the room. Seeing that it was impossible to save the ship from destruction Capt. William F. Hayes ordered the vessel to be headed for the shore and beached.

“This was attempted but the smoke was so dense and suffocating in the pilot house that the men were unable to stand at the wheel. The relieving tackles were put on, it being the intention to steer the craft in this manner, but the tiller broke and the craft was disabled and at the mercy of the flames, which were then sweeping the forward end of the steamer and rapidly enveloping her, fanned by a strong southeasterly wind.

“Seeing that the vessel was doomed the crew took to the lifeboats. It was a hazardous under-taking launching the small boats, owing to the high sea that was running at the time and the lurching of the burning steamer in the trough of the waves. This was finally accomplished without the loss of a single life.”

Cana Island Light keeper Oscar Knudson and his assistant, Louis Picon, towed the lifeboats to

shore, and the crew of the Baileys Harbor Coast Guard Station took them on to Baileys Harbor.

Gardner Karker of Sturgeon Bay was a member of the 21-man crew. It was his second shipwreck in 15 months.

On October 10th, the Door County Advocate reported that the O’Connor had “probably sunk in deep water.” It was assumed that the wooden-sided ship initially lodged on a reef, then either drifted off and sank or burned to the water’s surface. In either case, it was felt it would be difficult to locate whatever remained. Employees of the Leathem & Smith Towing and Wrecking Company had searched in the vicinity of Cana Island a few days after the boat disappeared but found nothing. Some surmised that it might be near Spider Island, but there was no proof. The origin of the fire also remained a mystery. The 301-foot boat, one of the largest freighters on the Great Lakes, was valued at $25,000 and the cargo at $30,000.

Two months after the O’Connor disappeared, the Buffalo Board of the United States Steamboat Inspection Bureau conducted an investigation of the fire, questioning witnesses at the request of the Milwaukee Board. The December 10th edition of the Advocate reported that, although the vessel was 27 years old, it was considered to be in good condition. However, it had been built by Captain James Davidson, who saved money by constructing the hulls of his ships of wood, rather than steel. Nearly all of them ended up burning, five of them in Door County waters. Captain Hayes, the son-in-law of the ship’s owner, was exonerated of fault in the O’Connor’s loss.

In late August 1920, the Advocate reported that the Labeau Wrecking Company of Toledo had purchased the cargo of the O’Connor for $1,100 and offered a reward to fishermen for finding the wreck. A plane from the Green Bay Aero Club was hired to try to locate the wreck, by then believed to be in about 70 feet of water two miles off North Bay. All efforts were unsuccessful.

In June 1923, Charles Innis a North Bay fisherman, and Chester Smith of Milwaukee located the sunken ship, dragging a 1,000-foot rope tied to two “gasolene launches.” The men announced that, until a definite settlement was reached with the owners of the cargo, the exact location of the O’Connor would not be made public. That fall, the Marine Salvage and Wrecking Company of Milwaukee used centrifugal pumps to remove 700 tons of coal from the sunken ship, but announced that the remaining 2,300 tons had evidently been lost when the hold split.

Innis always believed that more of the cargo could be recovered with more sophisticated means. In the summer of 1935, he heard of Frank P. Blair, a well-known Chicago diver, and employed him and his helper, Hormel “Pat” Horosko. They were able to bring up 100 more tons of chestnut- and pea-size coal, using a sandsucker dredge with a hose small enough for a diver to handle 65 feet below the surface.

The O’Connor was accidentally rediscovered in 1990 by a group looking for the lost schooner King and is now the premier dive site in Door County. It is especially popular because its two large boilers and 12-foot propeller are still intact. Its location is Latitude N45° 06.87’ / Longitude W87° 00.73’.

Resting quietly on the flat, sandy lake bottom, the remains of ships dating back to the sail and steam eras harbor tales of tragedy, terror and financial ruin. Today they provide a glimpse into the past for the hundreds of divers who visit them each year.

Door County News issue date:  October 9, 1919

Door County Advocate issue dates:  August 22, 1896; October 3, 1919; October 10, 1919; December 19, 1919; June 29, 1923; September 21, 1923; March 5, 1930; October 18, 1935

Peninsula Pulse issue date:  June 29, 2012

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel issue date:  July 1, 2012

An Underwater Maritime History of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin , Hank Whipple. April 2004

Ships and Shipwrecks in Door County, Wisconsin , Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Arthur and Lucy Frederickson.

University of Wisconsin Seagrant Institute: www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org

Fatal shipwrecks are rare on the Great Lakes these days, but the audience at a program sponsored last summer by the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay got a chilling firsthand report from the sole survivor of one modern-day disaster.

There were 29 crew members on the Daniel J. Morrell when the 603-foot freighter broke in two and sank during a monster storm on Lake Huron on November 29, 1966. Only one man, 26-year-old Dennis Hale, survived. For nearly 30 years Hale was unable to talk about the experience, as he struggled with the guilt of living for 38 hours amid 25-foot waves with 65 mile per hour winds and the air temperature near freezing, while all his shipmates were lost.

When Hale was awakened by a loud noise at 2:00 am, the light above his bunk wouldn’t come on. Groping in the dark, he found only his life jacket and pea coat to throw on over the boxer shorts he’d been sleeping in. Scrambling up to the forward deck, he watched in horror as the huge ship broke in two. The aft section, still powered, plowed into the bow, sending it to the bottom, then steamed on for five miles before sinking.

Most of the crew were immediately swept overboard and drowned, but Hale and three others managed to swim to a lifeboat that had washed off the deck. Within hours the other men, fully dressed, were dead of hypothermia. Hale, with bare legs and feet, drifted on for more than a day and a half. Radio communication was lost when power went out on the Morrell’s bow, so no distress signal was sent. Captains of the fleet of ore freighters owned by Bethlehem Steel were required to call headquarters at 9:00 am each day. When no call came from the Morrell that morning, it was assumed that high winds had damaged the radio antenna, and concern didn’t mount until the ship failed to arrive in port on November 30th. Tragically, the Coast Guard wasn’t notified until noon that day.

By that time, Hale had been adrift for 34 hours. Twice, he sensed the presence of a bearded man in a flowing white robe who urged him to stay alive. “He had the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen,” Hale says. Later, asleep or in a coma, he felt himself passing through a dark tunnel into a beautiful place, where he met his mother, who died when he was born, and shipmates who told him he must return to the raft, “because it wasn’t his time.”

An hour later, he washed onto an uninhabited beach and was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter, searching for bodies from the wreck. Doctors at Harbor Beach Community Hospital in Michigan had no explanation for the fact that he was alive with a body temperature so low that his heart should have stopped.

Hale is the author of Lone Survivor . He expects to have a second book, The Final Chapter , out in 2014.

Great Lakes Shipwrecks: The Sinking of the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell, by Mark Hudziak. http://voices.yahoo.com/great-lakes-shipwrecks-sinking-ss-daniel-6080566.html?cat=37

The Strange Story of Shipwreck Survivor Dennis Hale, by Daniel Morrell. http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/ships/id145.html

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Orr’s-Bailey Yacht Club

The orr’s-bailey yacht club (obyc) is a small, family-oriented yacht club located on the western shore of orr’s island, maine..

OBYC began with a few dedicated sportsmen in 1954, and today is a volunteer-run organization with a membership of 260 (limited by design). Although we have minimal amenities, we welcome cruising visitors at our guest moorings and our sailing school is open to the public.

Situated amid spectacular scenery on Merriconeag Sound in Casco Bay, our anchorage (a designated “special anchorage”) is sheltered except in a strong northwest wind.

The Orr’s and Bailey Islands area is home to the historic landmark cribstone bridge, the only one of its kind in the world, where the tide flows freely through its granite block construction. Also nearby is the world famous Cook’s Lobster House restaurant. Some small shops, restaurants and an outstanding panoramic ocean view are all within a short walk of the club.

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Drone attacks in Moscow’s glittering business district leave residents on edge

People stroll at embankment of the Moscow River in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, with the “Moscow City” business district in the background. The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital’s economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

A couple sit in a park in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, with the “Moscow City” business district in the background. The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital’s economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

Police officers stand near the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital’s economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

People stroll at the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital’s economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

People sit in a cafe in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital’s economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

A view of the damaged building is seen in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Ukrainian drones again targeted Moscow and its surroundings early Tuesday morning, the Russian military reported. Two of three launched were shot down outside Moscow, while one crashed into a skyscraper in the Moscow City business district, damaging the building’s facade. (AP Photo)

Investigators examine an area next to damaged building in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. Ukrainian drones again targeted Moscow and its surroundings early Tuesday morning, the Russian military reported. Two of three launched were shot down outside Moscow, while one crashed into a skyscraper in the Moscow City business district, damaging the building’s facade. (AP Photo)

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The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district dominate the skyline of the Russian capital. The sleek glass-and-steel buildings -- designed to attract investment amid an economic boom in the early 2000s – are a dramatic, modern contrast to the rest of the more than 800-year-old city.

Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power.

The attacks on Sunday and Tuesday aren’t the first to hit Moscow — a drone even struck the Kremlin harmlessly in May. But these latest blasts, which caused no casualties but blew out part of a section of windows on a high-rise building and sent glass cascading to the streets, seemed particularly unsettling.

“It’s very frightening because you wake up at night hearing explosions,” said a woman who identified herself only as Ulfiya as she walked her dog, adding that she lived in a nearby building. Like other Muscovites interviewed by The Associated Press, she did not identify herself further out of fear of retribution or for her personal safety.

Another resident, who gave her name as Ekaterina, said Tuesday’s blast “sounded like thunder.”

“I think for the first time, I got really scared,” she said. “I don’t understand how people in a war zone can live like this every day and not go mad.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian drones outside Moscow and had electronically jammed another, sending it crashing into the IQ-Quarter skyscraper that houses government offices like the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade — the same building that was hit Sunday.

A cordon went up around the building and personnel from the fire department and the Russian Investigative Committee were at the scene. Hours later, residents strolled through the district along the Moscow River or sat on benches in the sunshine. By about 1 p.m. Tuesday, workers were already starting to replace damaged windows.

The business district, a 10-minute subway ride west of the Kremlin, is home to some of Moscow’s flashiest restaurants, offering far-reaching views of the capital and a menu of upscale fare like three types of caviar, shellfish from Russia’s Far East and French cuisine.

But there was no escaping the grim news.

While Russian state television has largely played down the strikes, one channel sandwiched a segment on how Moscow’s air defenses successfully intercepted the drones in between reports highlighting Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in Ukraine that Moscow “is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” without confirming or denying Kyiv’s involvement in the drone attacks that in recent days have struck from the capital to the Crimean Peninsula .

After Sunday’s strike, the Kremlin said security would be ramped up.

Still, the size of the drone that hit the Moscow City district led analysts to question the effectiveness of the capital’s air defenses, suggesting it could have been launched from Ukraine.

“If this is the case, this would be rather embarrassing for Russia’s air defenses. If a drone has been in Russian airspace for hours, air defenses should have picked it up earlier and shot it down earlier,” said Ulrike Franke, an expert in drones and military technology at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

While they haven’t caused much physical damage, bringing the drone campaign to Moscow “blows holes in Russia’s narrative that the war on Ukraine is successful and that it is being prosecuted far away from any consequences for the Russian people themselves,” said Keir Giles, a Russia expert at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“That is something which is going to be harder and harder for Russia’s propaganda machine to explain away,” he said.

A Muscovite who identified himself to the AP only as Eldar summed up the strikes this way: “We attack them, they attack us. And it’s obvious that they will succeed somewhere, and we will succeed somewhere. We should try to strengthen the defense.”

In Odintsovo, where some of the drones were downed about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of the capital, some residents discussed the events on their local Telegram channel.

One woman talked about hearing noises that turned out to be a car or improperly closed trash containers, and seeing what she thought were drones but actually were a flock of birds, a plane and a wind-blown plastic bag.

“How is it possible to live like this?” she asked the group.

“Stop creating panic,” one member admonished her.

“If you hear a noise, be happy because it hasn’t hit you,” added another.

Burrows reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Baileys Harbor Yacht Club

Play in the heart of downtown baltimore, marina info.

Enjoy the spectacular sunsets and lakeside beaches that Door County is famous for - The Baileys Harbor Yacht Club is located on the water in picturesque Baileys Harbor and is only minutes away from all that Door County has to offer. We are on the shore of Lake Michigan surrounded by Tofts Point and the Ridges Sanctuary, an unspoiled Wisconsin wildlife sanctuary and nature preserve. Enjoy our luxurious suites with scenic views of the green Wisconsin forests and the picturesque harbor.

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