We Lake Superior folk become blessed with quite an assortment of friends and acquaintances as the years pass by. The lake seems to call all of them back from time to time.

So it was that at the recent “Gales of November” gathering in Duluth, Minnesota, I came across Ed Culbert, an insurance executive and very old friend. (People who succeed in their work, as Ed has, are fun to admire and enjoy, but when they’ve worn out a few seats in fighter aircraft to boot, you really appreciate them. More on that later.)

The “Gales” gathering, larger than usual, observed the 25th anniversary of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Highlight of the meeting was retired U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jimmie Hobaugh, who gave a fascinating recount of the long trip across Lake Superior when he took the Coast Guard Cutter Woodrush out of Duluth on that fateful night the Fitzgerald disappeared.

Chatting with Ed Culbert about the Woodrush proved once again how small the world can be. Turns out that Ed and his wife, Gloria, went to Sitka, Alaska, for the Alaska Days Celebration. “And,” Ed says, “a celebration it was” - since Sitka was the old capital of Russian America, prior to Seward’s Folly and the sale of lands to the United States.

Wandering around the Sitka waterfront on the second day of their visit, Ed saw a U.S. Coast Guard vessel that looked all too familiar. It was the Woodrush! So this is where it wound up, he thought, after leaving Duluth and Lake Superior some 20 years ago. When he was an Air National Guard flight officer, Ed had looked down many a time at the potential lifesaver Woodrush, and he still holds a deep love and respect for it. Gaining a tour of the vessel became his goal, and the couple was aboard by early evening. The Coast Guardsmen were cordial, and Ed admits that he was delighted to be back on the ship.

The Woodrush, here stationed in Sitka, Alaska, was decommissioned March 2, 2001. It may be sent to Ghana in Africa as a coastal patrol boat. JAMES POULSON / SITKA PHOTOGRAPHICS

Most of us more “mature” folks around Lake Superior knew the Woodrush. Launched in Duluth in 1944, it was the last of 39 ocean-going buoy tenders built for logistical and support service during World War II. The 180-foot vessel cost just under $1 million and was commissioned on September 22, 1944.

For its first 35 years, Woodrush operated out of Duluth, conducting search-and-rescue missions and servicing aids to navigation on the Great Lakes. In the late 1970s, the Coast Guard performed major renovation to selected buoy tenders to extend their useful life. As part of this program, Woodrush was sent to Baltimore for equipment and “habitability” improvements. On completion in 1980, Woodrush was transferred to its current home port of Sitka. In 1989, its vintage Cooper-Bessemer engines were replaced with modern ElectroMotive Diesel 645s which are more efficient, easier to maintain, more powerful and more reliable.

On the ship in Sitka, Ed found himself thinking back many years to a memorable trip that he made on the Woodrush to Rock Harbor on Isle Royale with Commander Gil Porter. In a pea soup fog in early June, Woodrush transported Ed with some 60 scouts and leaders who had successfully begged passage to hike the island from end to end prior to the ice going out of the bays.

As Ed learned from his exuberant Sitka tour hosts, Woodrush has done an extremely fine job of caring for Alaska’s southeast coast. Ed found significant improvements. The present hoists are much larger to handle the larger ocean buoys. Lifeboats are bigger and better, and the bridge has up-to-date navigational equipment.

The tour included a look at Woodrush’s new engines, similar to those in railroad locomotives. They serve the original electric motors and propeller assemblies - still running fine after 56 years! The vessel can now carry 43,000 gallons of fuel. Under normal duty, refueling occurs but once in four to five months.

During his special tour, Ed learned that these are the last weeks for this fine ship to serve under the U.S. flag. A new Coast Guard vessel will replace Woodrush. By next summer, its new owner will be the navy of one of the African maritime nations. The crew looks forward to the 30-day passage down the West Coast, making several ports of call, then through the Panama Canal and up to Baltimore. If everything checks out, the ship will cross the Atlantic to its new home in another hemisphere.

Perhaps that was the end of Ed’s story, but he seemed to be holding something back.

“OK, Ed,” I said. “How about the ‘rest of the story?’”

Yes, Ed admits, he holds one other memory of boats like the Woodrush and of rescues.

A young Ed Culbert toasts his last flight as an Air National Guard aviator. JEROME BLAZEVIC

The date was November 14, 1978. The aircraft was a Minnesota Air National Guard RF-4C Phantom reconnaissance jet. The pilot was Captain Timothy Cossalter, and the weapons system operator was Major Edwin C. Culbert. As frequently happened, Ed noted the Woodrush below as they crossed Lake Superior on a training mission. This particular flight was a low altitude photo mission, a key part of their training.

To gain information vital to military successes, reconnaissance aircraft have “their fanny out in the breeze” when taking necessary photos. This day as they descended through the overcast just east of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, Ed checked camera visibility. He found it at 500 feet of altitude, at a speed of 500 miles per hour.

On completion of the photos, Captain Cossalter banked away from the last target toward land only to be confronted with a catastrophic failure of aircraft systems. Extensive training paid off as he told Culbert, “Time to get out!”

Both knew what to do, and they ejected from the jet quickly in a procedure where the rear seat ejects two seconds before the front seat. They hurtled into pitch darkness. Captain Cossalter wound up hanging 30 feet up in a tree after his parachute snagged the branches. He shinnied to the ground and was found in a few hours.

More than a mile and a half away, Culbert hit the ground, sustaining minor injuries. He made camp and was not found until the next morning.

The aircraft was destroyed as it crashed in a remote wooded area nine miles from L’Anse, Michigan.

While Culbert was still missing, rescuers searched everywhere on land … and on water. It was a Coast Guard crew that mounted a diligent search of the adjacent bays looking for that survivor, who to this day appreciates the effort of the search.

After Culbert was found and the men were given care at Sawyer Air Force Base east of Marquette, Michigan, both were sent home to Duluth. And both were back in their aircraft within days.

Today, Ed Culbert is retired from the Air National Guard. Colonel Timothy Cossalter is now commander of the 148th Fighter Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard, Duluth.

And another Duluth veteran is preparing for its newest assignment in a far away land.

Good luck, Woodrush!

A selection of Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link for more information.

Feedback: jrm@lakesuperior.com