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\nSS Pendleton<\/p>\n
\nSS Pendleton<\/p>\n
Nearly seventy years ago SS Pendleton, a T2-SE-A1 class oil tanker came to grief bound for Boston, Massachusetts. She encountered a powerful Nor’easter storm generating waves up to 70 feet in height, and basically broke in half. Most of the crew was able to evacuate to the stern section, which amazingly still had power. An aircraft spotted the missing bow, and the Coast Guard dispatched the 36 foot rescue craft CG-36500 to save the 33 survivors.<\/p>\n
Eggs sends.<\/p>\n
The four young Coast Guardsmen barely spoke. It was February 18, 1952, and they were driving from the Chatham Lifeboat Station to the fish pier across town.<\/p>\n
Ervin Maske, Andy Fitzgerald, Richard Livesey and Bernie Webber were about to head into the fist of a New England nor\u2019easter, the winter storm mariners fear most because of its high winds and cold. This particular nor\u2019easter would be one for the history books: up to thirty inches of snow fell across the region between February 17 and 18.<\/p>\n
Only a trace of daylight was left of that miserable day when the four- man crew pulled up to the pier. Their mission\u2013to successfully rescue the SS Pendleton, a large tanker the storm had snapped in half\u2013has become famous among maritime buffs. But before they could save the ship, the crew had to reach the ship\u2013and that is itself an inspiring and terrifying true life story.<\/p>\n
The crew\u2019s orders that February day came from an inexperienced officer in charge, Daniel Cluff, who\u2019d barely set toes in salt water: locate the 503-foot oil tanker Pendleton that had split in two off Chatham, at the elbow of Cape Cod, and was in imminent danger of sinking, possibly with human lives at stake. Under normal conditions, Coast Guard crews train for hundreds of hours before this type of mission, but that evening Bernie had orders to cobble together a crew and search for the Pendleton, so for the first time these untested partners would venture out together. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
BZ Coast Guard. Read the rest of the article here: Yesterdays America<\/a><\/p>\n
Thanks Eggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"