53 years ago today, Coast Guard rescue from the PENDLETON, "The Finest Hours"
I saw in a maritime blog an article, and have read the book, so I posted the below over on SA and hope you may find it of interest here:
Since we talk frequently of rescue of us "rag" sailors by the Coast Guard, and whether they should have been called out, was it a "conveneince" rescue, should they charge money, and the like,
And being a retired Reservist myself, from New England,
I offer this rescue as one of the most daring and least likely to succeed, yet it did. I quote this writeup from Dennis Bryant's maritime blog of today:
Motor lifeboat CG 36500 - rescue of 18 February 1952
The US Coast Guard motor lifeboat 36500 is the only one of the many hundreds that were built between the 1930s and the 1950s to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. On 18 February 1952, during a severe winter storm off Cape Cod, two T-2 tankers, SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton, suffered separate massive material failures and both broke in half. The Coast Guard learned of the SS Fort Mercer casualty and dispatched a cutter and a motor lifeboat. Several hours later, the two halves of the hull of SS Pendleton were observed. The CG 36500 was dispatched with a crew of four volunteers: BM1 Bernard "Bernie" Webber, ENG3 Andrew "Andy" Fitzgerald, SN Irving "Ervin" Maske, and SN Richard Livesey. The survivors of SS Fort Mercer were rescued and brought ashore in trying conditions, but in typical Coast Guard fashion. The bow section of SS Pendleton, with the master and seven crewmembers, eventually sank with no survivors. The stern section, with 32 crewmembers, remained afloat. BM1 Webber maneuvered the CG 36500 alongside and took the crewmembers on board, despite the horrendous seas and the fact that the motor lifeboat was rated for a maximum of twelve persons. The stern section of SS Pendleton sank minutes after the last crewmember got off. BM1 Webber returned slowly and carefully to the Chatham Station, delivering the survivors to an amazed group of local residents, fishermen, and fellow Coast Guardsmen on the pier. Later that year, BM1 Webber and the other three Coast Guardsmen from the CG 36500 were awarded the Coast Guard Gold Lifesaving Medal, the service's highest award. Motor lifeboat CG 36500 continued on active duty until stricken from the rolls in 1968. Three of the four brave men are now deceased. The lifeboat, though, has been fully restored and is lovingly maintained by the Orleans Historical Society at Rock Harbor in Orleans, Massachusetts, not far from where it served in Chatham in 1952. Several books and numerous articles have been published about the incident and a motion picture is now in production.
There's movie coming out on this rescue, shot recently in Chatham, based on the book, "The Finest Hours", which is an excellent excellent read. If there was ever a suicide SAR mission, I think this one was it.
Here are some CG file photos. Check out the fourth one and expand it a bit, it's BM1 Bernie Webber still by the helm on the 36' motor lifeboat after his many passengers have disembarked. His expression, I think, is of a man who can't believe they made it, and can't believe he, they, are still alive. His account in the book is that when he saw 30-some men climb down into his small boat, he struggled with whether to stop some because they'd be dangerously overloaded in this awful storm, that the thought, or realization that came to him was, "Okay, we all live, or we all die", and that thought actually brought him some peace of mind at the time. That he was able to find the Chatham entrance buoy and harbor in those conditions with a broken compass, is an unlikely miracle. Anyway, read the book.
http://www.uscg.mil/...Photo_Index.asp
"Semper Paratus"! And please pardon my pride in having been a very small part of this great service.
I saw in a maritime blog an article, and have read the book, so I posted the below over on SA and hope you may find it of interest here:
Since we talk frequently of rescue of us "rag" sailors by the Coast Guard, and whether they should have been called out, was it a "conveneince" rescue, should they charge money, and the like,
And being a retired Reservist myself, from New England,
I offer this rescue as one of the most daring and least likely to succeed, yet it did. I quote this writeup from Dennis Bryant's maritime blog of today:
Motor lifeboat CG 36500 - rescue of 18 February 1952
The US Coast Guard motor lifeboat 36500 is the only one of the many hundreds that were built between the 1930s and the 1950s to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. On 18 February 1952, during a severe winter storm off Cape Cod, two T-2 tankers, SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton, suffered separate massive material failures and both broke in half. The Coast Guard learned of the SS Fort Mercer casualty and dispatched a cutter and a motor lifeboat. Several hours later, the two halves of the hull of SS Pendleton were observed. The CG 36500 was dispatched with a crew of four volunteers: BM1 Bernard "Bernie" Webber, ENG3 Andrew "Andy" Fitzgerald, SN Irving "Ervin" Maske, and SN Richard Livesey. The survivors of SS Fort Mercer were rescued and brought ashore in trying conditions, but in typical Coast Guard fashion. The bow section of SS Pendleton, with the master and seven crewmembers, eventually sank with no survivors. The stern section, with 32 crewmembers, remained afloat. BM1 Webber maneuvered the CG 36500 alongside and took the crewmembers on board, despite the horrendous seas and the fact that the motor lifeboat was rated for a maximum of twelve persons. The stern section of SS Pendleton sank minutes after the last crewmember got off. BM1 Webber returned slowly and carefully to the Chatham Station, delivering the survivors to an amazed group of local residents, fishermen, and fellow Coast Guardsmen on the pier. Later that year, BM1 Webber and the other three Coast Guardsmen from the CG 36500 were awarded the Coast Guard Gold Lifesaving Medal, the service's highest award. Motor lifeboat CG 36500 continued on active duty until stricken from the rolls in 1968. Three of the four brave men are now deceased. The lifeboat, though, has been fully restored and is lovingly maintained by the Orleans Historical Society at Rock Harbor in Orleans, Massachusetts, not far from where it served in Chatham in 1952. Several books and numerous articles have been published about the incident and a motion picture is now in production.
There's movie coming out on this rescue, shot recently in Chatham, based on the book, "The Finest Hours", which is an excellent excellent read. If there was ever a suicide SAR mission, I think this one was it.
Here are some CG file photos. Check out the fourth one and expand it a bit, it's BM1 Bernie Webber still by the helm on the 36' motor lifeboat after his many passengers have disembarked. His expression, I think, is of a man who can't believe they made it, and can't believe he, they, are still alive. His account in the book is that when he saw 30-some men climb down into his small boat, he struggled with whether to stop some because they'd be dangerously overloaded in this awful storm, that the thought, or realization that came to him was, "Okay, we all live, or we all die", and that thought actually brought him some peace of mind at the time. That he was able to find the Chatham entrance buoy and harbor in those conditions with a broken compass, is an unlikely miracle. Anyway, read the book.
http://www.uscg.mil/...Photo_Index.asp
"Semper Paratus"! And please pardon my pride in having been a very small part of this great service.
