FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022
GREAT LAKES MARINE HISTORIAN
& RAILROAD ARTIFACT EXPERT
Special Presentation by John DeBeck
2713 Courtland Street
Duluth, MN 55806
Start Time: 6:00 p.m.
SPECIAL APPEARANCE FOR DULUTH/SUPERIOR REGION RAILROAD ENTHUSIASTS and SHIPPING/SHIPWRECK ENTHUSIASTS!!
***Special Presentation by John DeBeck***
Great Lakes Marine Historian and Railroad Artifact Expert
Will offer a special presentation on behalf of the DANIEL J. MORRELL Research Group
and JM Hobby Supply & Railroad Artifacts on Friday, March 4, 2022 at 6 p.m.
at Nordic Auction, 2713 Courtland Street, Duluth, MN 55806.
DeBeck, a four-time world championship winning women’s basketball coach, now spends his time as a museum director and enjoying his first love—railroads and Great Lakes ships! His research team spent 2018-2020 rewriting history about the third largest shipwreck on the Great Lakes, the 603′ DANIEL J. MORRELL, which broke in half and sank in Lake Huron on November 29, 1966 in its way to Minnesota to load iron ore. Only one man survived, watchman Dennis Hale, who spent 38 hours on a raft wearing nothing but his navy peacoat and his J .C. Penney underwear!
DeBeck was a friend of Hale for 33 years before Hale passed from cancer in 2015. Hale gave presentations around the USA and Canada about his ordeal since 1982, including frequent visits to Duluth and the “Gales of November” event. Many of his friends and family wondered if his passing marked the end of keeping the memory of the MORRELL and its 29 crewmen alive. DeBeck, along with Hale’s widow, began working with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point to donate all of the artifacts and documents from the MORRELL that Dennis had saved, along with other donated artifacts, to construct a new exhibit, which opened in August 2021. In the attempt to locate and reunite all 29 surviving families for the first time ever, new clues and questions emerged. Not satisfied with the existing answers or the result of the Coast Guard Board of Inquiry findings, DeBeck assembled a large research team, and 36 months of study proved the actual cause of the wreck, rewriting history. It also gave closure to the families who had received little, if any information over the previous 55 years.
DeBeck will be present with his new book “The DANIEL J MORRELL, Lost, But No Longer Forgotten” from March 3-5, 2022, as he is also one of the experts giving data on several hundred railroad artifacts up for auction at the annual Nordic Auctions Railroad Artifact Auction on March 5, 2022. He is offering a free presentation to anyone in the Twin Ports area, on Friday evening, March 4, 2022, at 6 p.m. at the Nordic Auctions Event Center, for those who would like to learn about the MORRELL, Dennis Hale, and the new findings. He will present the new facts, a slide show, video, and also offer time for questions. The new book will be available for sale to the attendees at a 20% discount, with proceeds benefiting several museum foundations. Book purchasers will also get a FREE DVD that shows the results of the MORRELL Research Group’s dives to the bow and stern in 2019 and 2020, plus rare video footage from 1966, showing Dennis Hale being rescued by helicopter at the Harbor Beach, Michigan, rescue site!
DeBeck will also be available to answer questions about the auction lots, or other railroad artifact questions, throughout the auction and auction preview days.
Food, drinks, and snacks will be available in the Nordic Auctions Event Center during the March 4 presentation, as well as the auction.
The railroad artifact auction includes hundreds of items from railroads formerly running in the twin ports, as well as from around the USA. A preview of these items can be found online at the following link:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/231973_vintage-railroad-collectors-auction/
For more information, go to www.nordicauction.com or www.jmhobbysupply.com or call 920-857-9670.
