Cutter's Costs Add Up Museum Looks Into Reclassifying Bramble to Save Money
by Nicholas Deshais
Port Huron Times Herald

The Port Huron Museum is considering having the Coast Guard cutter Bramble reclassified in an effort to reduce the cost of maintaining the 65-year-old ship.

Per a federal requirement, the Bramble had to adhere to rigorous Coast Guard specifications for five years after the boat was decommissioned in 2003. On May 22, that requirement will expire and the museum will be free to downgrade the ship's status as a fully-functioning Coast Guard vessel.

Dennis Zembala, president of the Port Huron Museum, couldn't say Thursday when the reclassification may happen or how much money it could save.

Since 2003, Acheson Ventures has been paying to keep the cutter up to snuff with no help from the city of Port Huron, which helps fund the museum.

Zembala said the Bramble operates on a $100,000 annual budget, taking into account maintenance, fuel, electricity, insurance and wages for its one paid employee, Mike Popelka, who gives tours of the ship and oversees maintenance.

"Even though you don't see it moving up and down the river, (the

Bramble) is procuring costs," Acheson spokesman Paul Maxwell said.

"We're all looking forward to it be more self-supporting, self-sustaining."

While the Bramble isn't costing the museum any money now, the funding agreement with Acheson was only in place for five years.

"We'd like to make it at least pay for itself," Zembala said, although there's been no indication Acheson plans to back out of the deal.

Aside from paying its operating budget, Acheson also supplies the ship with mooring space at the Seaway Terminal in Port Huron.

The Bramble is one of the museum's four sites and is open seasonally for tours. The first tours of the year were given Thursday.

If the ship's classification changed, the museum may be able to offer more programs, Zembala said. Although no specifics have been worked out, programs could include things such as having children sleep on board the Bramble for a weekend and live the life of an enlisted Coast Guardsman.

"We're looking to reduce the costs of operation and insurance and raise the level of programs," Zembala said.

It took more than 60 years for the Bramble to end up where it is. In 1943, the Zenith Dredge Co. built the ship in Duluth, Minn., and it was commissioned by the Coast Guard on April 22, 1944.

In the second half of the 20th century, the Bramble helped make history.

 From July to October 1947, the ship participated in tests determining an atomic bomb's effect on ships. Called "Operation Crossroads," the Bramble sat 20 miles away from a detonation site and had to be extensively scrubbed after the tests because of the atomized steam that settled on the ship.

In 1957, the Bramble became one of the first surface ships to circumnavigate North America.

On the trip, sailors lounged on Florida beaches; cut through the Panama Canal; coasted around Alaska; broke through Arctic Ice on the Beaufort Sea; and made it back home again within about four months.

The Bramble finally settled in Port Huron in Sept. 1975, after a major renovation involving rebuilding engines and modernization.

Aside from its normal duties -- aiding navigation, search and rescue and icebreaking -- the ship enjoyed a settled life in the Great Lakes.

It made one last hurrah when, for about five months in 1987, the ship performed law enforcement duties in the Caribbean, at one point seizing a vessel with three people and 50 tons of marijuana aboard.

As the ship aged, the Coast Guard began preparations to replace it with its current Port Huron ship, the Hollyhock. People fretted about the Bramble's future and U.S. Rep. Candice Miller made keeping the Bramble in the area her first shot at legislation.

Because the ship was federal property, the Coast Guard couldn't formally transfer ownership of the Bramble without Congress' permission. The ship was estimated to be worth $1.9 million at the time.

Miller introduced the Bramble legislation in January 2003. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan introduced a companion bill in the Senate in April 2003.

The bill finally was signed into law by President George W. Bush in late 2004.