Summary
On New Year’s Eve, two Lansing Shoal Light Station crew members, Lyle Hansberger and David White, left in an open 16-foot boat for Beaver Island. The boat became trapped in drift ice near the north end of Garden Island. After a night in temperatures that fell to 12 degrees, Deputy Bill Welke located them by plane the following morning; the Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter, and the two were treated for exposure at Charlevoix Hospital.
Evidence and limits
The dates are reconstructed from the New Year’s Eve and following-morning sequence in the January issue. The account does not provide an official rescue report, coordinates, helicopter crew, the boat’s ownership, or the names of the other three light-station crew members. It also does not establish the men’s later medical outcomes.
See also
- Lansing Shoal Light Station (1974 source record)
- Lyle Hansberger (Lansing Shoal light-station crew member)
- David White (Lansing Shoal light-station crew member)
- Bill Welke (1971 flying-club instructor)
- Garden Island
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, January 1974, “Men Against The Sea.”Reports Lyle Hansberger and David White leaving Lansing Shoal Light Station at 4:30 p.m. in an open 16-foot oar-powered boat, becoming trapped in drift ice near the north end of Garden Island, and being located the next morning by Deputy Bill Welke in his plane before Coast Guard helicopter assistance; it reports exposure treatment at Charlevoix Hospital but does not identify the helicopter crew or the other three light-station crew members.