SPECIAL EDITION: Honoring a Hero, Remembering the Losses
A Tragic Date - April 30, 1967: It will likely be raining at noon this Sunday, or as the current commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Station Duluth says, "looks like the weather is going to be pretty nautical." But at noon, you will still see a contingent of U.S. Coast Guard members and others standing along the Duluth Ship Canal pier. They will be remembering the loss of four young people – three teenage brothers and 31-year-old Edgar Culbertson, who died in the effort to save them 56 years ago on that same pier. The story of how the boys raced daringly, and innocently, down the pier, avoiding the 20-foot waves of a wild storm that day can be found in the Lake Superior Magazine story "Remembering Coast Guard Hero Edgar Culbertson." For Duluthians of a certain age, it is well known. At the time, the piers could not be closed off, as they can be now, during storms. The teens did not realize the danger, of course, and only knew the thrill of a roiling Lake Superior, by which they'd spent the whole of their short lives. They were swept off the pier and were never found, but on that day three U.S. Coast Guardsmen – U.S. Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate First Class Edgar Culbertson, Boatswain Mate 2nd Class Richard R. Callahan and Fireman Ronald C. Prei – volunteer to attempt a rescue. They tied off one to the other and braved the waves. As the story tells it, "When Ed, in the lead, was near the lighthouse stairs, a huge wave slammed into them, knocking Ed over the side into the water against the pier. Richard and Ron could not pull him up. Richard’s wrist was broken by the taunt line; Ron untethered to try to reach Ed. By the time they reached the beach, Ed had drowned." Ed, along with Richard and Ron, were later awarded the Coast Guard Medal, the highest peacetime medal awarded in recognition of heroism. The Three Brothers Chapel in the First United Methodist Church on the hill (the Coppertop Church) memorializes Ed and the Halversons.
This Sunday (Apr. 30) all of those lost will be remembered in a ceremony, noon-2 p.m., attended by family, friends and members of the U.S. Coast Guard Station Duluth. USCG Station Duluth Master Chief Justin Olson, who assumed command of the station in July 2022, will speak. (Among his earlier assignments was with the USCG cutter Buckthorn out of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) A color guard also will be present, and a USCG rescue boat is expected to sail through the canal during the ceremony along with a local tug. In addition to remembering the tragedy, the master chief will give an update on the USCG cutter Edgar Culbertson named in Ed's honor (see story below). Bravo Zulu to those organizing this remembrance.
Five Flowers: "In the afternoon on April 30 every year, you will find me with four flowers on the North Pier of the Duluth Ship Canal. Three of the flowers are for teenage brothers I never met and one is for my friend, U.S. Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate First Class Edgar Culbertson. I place all four flowers beside a plaque bearing Ed’s name, fastened to the pier." That is how Cap't Tom Mackay (he was a real captain, but always spelled it Cap't) started his story for Lake Superior Magazine about his memories of Ed Culbertson, the tragedy at the piers in 1967 and his campaign to have a plaque replaced on the Duluth Ship Canal pier in memory of Ed, 31, and of the Halverson boys – Eric, 17, and Arthur and Nathan, 16-year-old twins. A plaque placed there in 1967 was removed later when the piers were widened. This year, family and friends of Cap't Tom who visit the ceremony on Sunday may well bring five flowers – one for each of those lost in 1967 and one for the man who worked hard to make sure they were remembered. Tom died unexpectedly in 2021. Raised on Park Point, he and his wife, Liz, continued to live there. He had a lifelong passion for the water that started with the Sea Scouts as a boy, serving in the U.S. Navy from 1926-66 and working as a captain with the Vista
Fleet. He is missed especially for his off-beat sense of humor, including the wry notice on his pickup truck identifying him as a member of "Park Point's Affluent Poor."
A New Incarnation: On Feb. 6, 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Edgar Culbertson (WPC-1137) was launched. It is the Coast Guard's 37th Sentinel-class cutter, and it was named for the hero lost on Lake Superior in 1967. The cutter is homeported far from our Inland Sea at Galveston, Tex., where it was was commissioned on June 11, 2020. The cutters are 154 feet long with a beam of 26.6 feet and a draft (depth) of 9.5 feet. The "fast response" cutters can reach a sailing speed of more than 28 knots (about 32 mph) and generally carry four officers and 20 crew members (or so Wikipedia tells us). All of the Sentinel-class cutters have been named for heroes who served in the U.S. Coast Guard; 66 of the vessels are built, under construction or on contract. We say "Bravo Zulu" for the naming of these cutters … and add a bit of explanation. Bravo Zulu, we understand, is the combination of the Bravo and the Zulu nautical signal flags that have come to mean "Well Done."
Photo & graphic credits: U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Coast Guard / Courtesy Kevin Rofidal; U.S. Coast Guard; Tom Mackay; U.S. Coast Guard; Operation Military Kids