Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances (25 page)

Questioned as to how long a man could live in a heavy sea with a life preserver, Capt. Gellick said it depended on the physical condition of the man and his endurance. He gave 14 hours as the usual limit, and cited the experience of an only survivor of a freighter in the lake whom he knew. With unusual endurance he might remain alive 24 hours he said.

H.E. Heyer, local meteorologist, testified to weather conditions that night. A small craft warning had been issued previous to the
Andaste
’s sailing, the northwest storm warning arriving two hours after she left port.

The local instruments showed a maximum velocity that night of 34 miles an hour, mounting to 35 miles about noon on Tuesday, which was the height of the storm. He has recorded gales of 60 miles an hour here. The barometer registered 20.04 Monday at 9:00 p.m. which would indicate a storm but nothing undue.

Peter Boets, assistant manager of the Construction Materials Co., testified as to the cargo the way she was trimmed and said it was the lightest load of the season drawing 17.6 feet forward and 18 aft. He thought here was no possibility of the cargo shifting.

Edward Roberts who had laid linoleum on the
Andaste
for Baker & Son of this city told of seeing the message container in the captain’s room and an incident when Capt. Anderson had explained its use and how it was a captains duty to record the names and addresses of the crew and if possible the cause of the ship’s disaster should occasion demand. He showed the young man how it was sealed and thrown overboard. The container was marked
S.S. Andaste
and was made of copper, continued Mr. Roberts. This has never been found although wreckage from the captain’s cabin has come ashore here.

The jury was excused at 12 p.m. and the sessions resumed at 1:30 p.m. the inquest was attended by many marine men and officials of the Construction Materials Co. and others interested, filling the supervisors room.

Details emerged, opinions were given, and fingers were pointed. But still, no one really knew what happened to the
Andaste
. The
Grand Haven Daily Tribune
reported the following on September 25:

TRIBUNE WAS ONLY SOURCE

WRECK NEWS

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS CO. GAVE NO REQUEST TO GUARDS FOR SEARCH

INQUEST TESTIMONY ENDED

Holland, Sept. 24. Coroner Gilbert Vander Water said that the
Andaste
jury would not meet again until Monday, Sept. 30, when they would render a decision. The additional time was requested following their arrival here Tuesday night, that they may take due time to consider the mass of testimony submitted at the inquest in Grand Haven yesterday. The jurors are all local business men.

Testimony in the inquest of the sinking of the steamship
Andaste
Sept. 9, with the loss of 25 lives continued Tuesday until 6:00 pm when the questioning of some 20 witnesses was completed. The jurymen, wearied with the mass of testimony, were excused by Coroner Gilbert Vander Water to convene sometime today at Holland to render their decision.

Little was gleaned at to the cause of the disaster. The most striking fact brought out was that the Construction Materials officers did not sound the alarm that the boat was over due until Thursday morning and at no time did they seek the assistance of the Coast Guard in searching for victims.

The inference of this testimony drawn out by the county officials of course was that had the search started immediately after the Monday night storm, when the
Andaste
failed to show at South Chicago Tuesday morning, survivors might have been picked up.

Capt. William Preston of the local station, Capt. Toft of the Holland station and Commander W.M. Wolf of the tenth district whose officers are here, testified on this point. It was 8:30 Thursday before the Guard learned the craft was missing, Capt. Preston said. No word came from the Construction Materials office in Chicago or Ferrysburg, then or later for a search, but published information on the loss brought independent action by the guards.

The
Grand Haven Daily Tribune
was the source of information given by many witnesses as to their knowledge the craft was missing. This led a fish tug captain to search and find the wreckage south of Holland.

Preston told of the local patrol’s cruise to Michigan City and Kenosha, returning here Friday at 9:00 pm. Saturday morning he heard of the location of the wreck. Boats could not go out that day, but had been every day since during which 14 bodies had been recovered.

Stories given out by former employees of the Construction Materials Co. reflecting on the condition of the ship, notably that at Holland by John Ingen, were swept aside by a mass of testimony as to her sea worthiness by federal inspectors, company employees and marine men. As far as the inquest showed, no defects of the boat or likely cargo shifting caused to disaster.

Denial was made by Capt William Preston that he had heard her called the “black coffin” or that she was a tough craft in a storm. He said he had watched her time and again go in and out of the harbor in bad weather and she took the weather in fine shape.

That there were no fire or emergency drills, or wireless aboard was substantial, but neither are demanded by regulations. Drills are optional with the captain and the wireless usually is installed for business purposes, not as a safety measure.

That there were plenty of life preservers and the men had time to don them, that the two life boats were in perfect condition equipped with oars, rudders, flares and life preservers and in working order was shown by testimony from the inspectors, former members of the crew and an officer of the Construction Materials Co.

R.C. Brinkman told the jurymen he telephoned the local Coast Guard station Tuesday afternoon to see if the
Andaste
had cleared here Monday night as he wished to meet her in South Chicago and she had not arrived. Wednesday morning he conferred with officers in the Chicago office and they agreed the boat was laying in somewhere. He endeavored to get a sea plane but was not successful. Both he and R.C. Yeomans made calls to the several Coast Guard stations on the two sides of Lake Michigan inquiring as to the whereabouts of the
Andaste
.

Conflicting reports came in Wednesday night, he said, that the boat had been sighted. However, he got an airplane Wednesday afternoon and circled the lower lake shore line, at times going out some distance into the lake arriving here Wednesday at 5:30 pm. He returned to Chicago that night, where again a message came from Chicago that she had gone up the river.

Mr. Brinkman said at no time did he or his associates have any real concern as Capt. Anderson had frequently been overdue citing instances of 25 or even 30 hours, when he had lain in at some place with no reports to the Grand Haven or Chicago office. Hence it was not until Thursday morning that the officers began to be really worried, he continued. He told of getting into communication with the Great Lakes Naval Station to get fliers out. He did not make an appeal to the Coast Guard Stations.

He described the boat, the construction, have the loading, the average free board, at 5.7 feet. He had never known of a like cargo to shift and considered it an ideal load.

R.C. Meech and his wife, Col. Swift and John Kooiker were among those who testified to seeing shiplights about five miles out from the shore five miles north of Getz farm. The lights, they declared, did not move from 2:00 am until 4:00 am and then seemed to go north.

Mr. and Mrs. Meech said they saw wreckage on Wednesday and told of finding an oar and life boat. The oar was produced and identified by Joe Collins as the steering oar from one of the life boats but the boat was found to be an old steel hull of a row boat on the shore all summer.

Inspectors, former and present, and employees of the Construction Co., including John Van Ingen, maintained the boat was in excellent condition, had an ideal load and was a good seaboat.

Collins thought the men had time to get on their life preservers but agreed with Inspector Gellick, if she was caught in the trough on the sea it would have been almost impossible to launch the life boats. The fact that Brown had on rubber boots was no evidence that there was anything unusual as both he and Evans said they had seen him in boots many times.

George Van Arkel of the local Coast Guard said he saw the
Andaste
clear this port Monday, Sept. 9, at 9:03 pm. She was headed west, southwest. He watched her until she was out of sight, about 10 or 12 miles, he thought.

The watches of the Holland patrol saw lights north between 2:00 am and 4:00 am which marine men agreed might have been the ship.

George Van Hall, who had an accurate log of the currents on the days following the disaster and who was the first to report wreckage of the boat, testified it was his opinion the
Andaste
sank 20 or 30 miles from shore. Coast Guards and Capt. Crawford of the
Alabama
are agreed that she did not go down near shore between this port and Holland. They believe the lights seen from the shore and the siren whistles heard there were from some other boat.

Like a phantom ship the
Andaste
seems to have been swallowed up in the lake of darkness that fateful night. Not one witness would venture to give an opinion of what happened and those who know her best affirmed again and again her sea worthiness, adequate lifesaving equipment and ideal loading.

Lawyers for the Construction Materials Co. were in the audience and from time to time suggested questions from the prosecutor for the benefit of the records. The jurors questioned witnesses frequently and C.A. Lokker and his assistant, Hay Den Herder, took turns at every question they could devise to find all important facts concerning the tragedy, there were 22 witnesses.

With questions being answered to the best of the abilities of those involved, and no information of any substance being produced, news coverage of the
Andaste
disaster died down and slowly faded from view. Less than a month after the above article was published, another maritime disaster struck Grand Haven. The gigantic railroad car ferry
S.S. Milwaukee
foundered somewhere between Milwaukee and Grand Haven.

Approximately 2:00 pm on October 21, 1929, the car ferry
Milwaukee
steamed into a storm bound for Grand Haven, and disappeared. The last people to see the Milwaukee were the crew of the
U.S. Lightship 95
, which was anchored three miles outside the Milwaukee Harbor, serving as a lighthouse. They reported the Milwaukee to be “ . . . pitching and rolling heavily as it disappeared into the maelstrom.”

Like the
Andaste
, the
Milwaukee
did not have radio equipment. It was considered routine for the
Milwaukee
to challenge the storm. The theory is that its cargo of two dozen railroad cars broke loose in the gale and crashed through the sea gate, allowing water to come in over the stern, sinking her.

Some of the lifeboats were launched by the crew. One of the lifeboats became a floating tomb for four dead crew members. It was found floating near Holland, 23 miles south of Grand Haven. The bodies of two crew members wearing
SS Milwaukee
lifejackets were picked up by the steamer,
SS Steel Chemist
, off Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the other side of the lake.

On October 27, an empty lifeboat was discovered close to Grand Haven. Nearby, the ship’s message case was discovered with an apparent final message, which read: “Oct. 22, 1929. 8:30 pm. The ship is making water fast. We have turned around and headed for Milwaukee. Pumps are working, but sea gate is bent in and can’t keep the water out. Flicker is flooded. Seas are tremendous. Things look bad. Crew roll is about the same as last payday. A.R. Sadon, Purser”

On October 29, 1929, just 8 days after the sinking of the
Milwaukee
, the steamer
Wisconsin
foundered in a heavy gale off Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a heavy loss of life.

Two days later, Halloween of 1929, the enormous 420 foot freighter the
Senator
was rammed by another ship, the
Marquette
, in dense fog. The
Senator
was reportedly carrying over 200 brand new Nash automobiles, which would be priceless today, if recovered and restored. The
Senator
was discovered by veteran shipwreck hunter and Great Lakes master diver Paul Ehorn, of Elgin Illinois, in 2005.

The
Andaste
is the second largest ship still missing in Lake Michigan. Did she founder close to Grand Haven, coinciding with the testimony of eyewitnesses on shore who saw lights near Port Sheldon the night of the storm? Or did she make it close to her destination, Chicago, before some catastrophic failure happened, plunging ship and crew to the lake bottom? Or, is she somewhere in the middle of the lake, waiting for technology to offer a solution to her mystery. One thing we do know, though, is the
Andaste
is still missing.

CHAPTER FIVE

Dick Lepsy Redux

In 1969, the world was turning upside down, but Dick Lepsy had other things on his mind. His own world was about to turn upside down. His wife and his coworkers sensed he was distracted. What was on his mind? The change, the chaos, the revolution that encompassed the world around him, was also taking place silently, within him.