Old Coasties recall Arctic mission aboard Bramble

Stories, and a few tears, flowed around the large wooden table that dominates the wardroom aboard the retired U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bramble.

Six members of the 1957 Coast Guard expedition through the fabled Northwest Passage at the top of North America were aboard the Bramble and reminiscing. The Bramble was part of the expedition, along with the Coast Guard cutters Spar and Storis.

Two from each ship came to Port Huron at the invitation of Bob Klingler, owner of the Bramble, for the 59th anniversary of the historic voyage, which was the first through the Northwest Passage by U.S. vessels and the first circumnavigation of the North American continent.

The Bramble is the only surviving vessel: The Spar and the Storis were scrapped.

Ron Kubeck, who lives in Brighton and was aboard the Spar, had a question of his own when asked about his most memorable moment.

"You mean on liberty, or on duty?" he said.

Kubeck has the distinction of — unofficially — being the first person in recorded history to circumnavigate North America by ship. He was in the bow of the Spar when it arrived at its home port, Bristol, Rhode Island, on Sept. 24, 1957. The ship had left Bristol on May 19, 1957, and had traveled more than 14,000 miles.

"We were the first to leave of three, therefore we were the first ship to return," he said. "I happened to be up front at the bow, so I guess that presumably got me to port first.

"All of that which, and $2, will get you a cup of coffee."

Fred Le Palm, who also lives in Brighton, was one the quartermasters aboard the Spar and was often at the helm steering the ship during the historic voyage.

"There are tons of memories, starting with getting shanghaied onto the ship because it was supposed to be a volunteer trip, and had planned on getting married in August," he said. "I had just made third class, and with the third class there was a set of orders going to the Spar.

"So I was married in April and sailed in May."

Retired USCGC Bramble travels for sea trials in Lake Huron

Both the Spar and the Bramble, which was stationed at Miami, had to transit the Panama Canal to join the Storis, which was working out of  Ketchikan, Alaska. They met at Seattle.

Le Palm said he remembered getting stuck in the pack ice.

"There were rumors of packing it in," he said. "Of course, we all felt, 'Good, the trip's over, we're going to fly out of here.'

"But that didn't materialize. The wind shifted and the floe went with it and we got free and went on our way."

James Hiller, who was a young seaman aboard the Storis, vividly remembers being stuck in the Arctic ice.

"I was picked to be on a skeleton crew, and I was only married three weeks," said Hiller, who lives in Clyde Township. "That was my wedding present from the Coast Guard, to go on the Storis — but I did it."

Hiller said he would have remained aboard the Storis during the winter until the spring while most of the crew would have been evacuated.

"They were trying to get us out of there with dynamite, swinging the sinkers, but when we got so close, the Spar was right up against us, we could shake hands with each other, that's how close we were," he said.

Chuch Schmitzer, who lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, was on the Storis with Hiller.

"I report on board the ship in the spring of 1957," he said. "I dropped out of radio school and volunteered to go to Hawaii.

"And it turned out that when you volunteer for overseas duty, they can send you pretty much where they want to send you.

"They sent me to Alaska."

The 1957 voyage was sparked by the Cold War. The United States was constructing the Distant Early Warning Line — a system of radar stations scattered across the Canadian north to warn of attack by Soviet bombers — and needed an escape route east for ships transporting workers and materials.

According to the official history of the mission, the Coast Guard was charged with finding a Northwest Passage suitable for deep-draft vessels; conducting a hydrographic survey of the passage; and dropping navigational aids to mark the passage.

Richard Ginter, of Strongsville, Ohio, was 19 at the time of the voyage.

"This proud one, right here, the Bramble," he said. "I was a seaman and would drive this ship every four hours or so."

He said he recalls steering the ship through narrow lanes of open water with officers on either side looking down and calling out directions.

"I said, 'Give me some more steam,' and right through we went," he said. "Never touched the ice on both sides."

Carl Burchett, of Kendallville, Indiana, also was aboard the Bramble. He said the Bramble also became temporarily trapped in the pack ice.

"We just got between a field of ice going one way and the wind blowing something another way, and we just came up and were sitting on the ice," he said.

"We looked for a skeleton crew and made plans if we had to abandon the ship there, but a few days later the ice moved apart and we just went back in the water."

Hiller said he and the others didn't realize what they had accomplished.

"Being at the age I was, I didn't realize what a historical trip it was," Hiller said. "I just said, 'We're Coast Guard, we gotta do this, and we did."

Bramble shakes out the bugs in Lake Huron

Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGross477

Historic Voyage

The voyage through the Panama Canal and the Northwest Passage around North America started May 19, 1957, when the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Spar left Bristol, Rhode Island. The vessel completed its circumnavigation of the continent on Sept. 24, 1957.

The Bramble met up with the Spar in Long Beach, California, in mid-June. The two ships joined the Storis on June 27 in Seattle. 

The Bramble was the second ship to circumnavigate the continent when it arrived back its home port, Miami, on Oct. 1, 1957.