The Pendleton Disaster off Cape Cod: The Greatest Small Boat Rescue in Coast Guard History

On February 18, 1952, four Coast Guardsmen set out from Station Chatham in a thirty-six-foot motor lifeboat to locate the mortally wounded T2 tanker Pendleton and rescue its crew during a Nor'easter. All four men knew the odds of finding the Pendleton and surviving the storm were slim. Whether by a miracle, luck, fate or able seamanship, amid sixty-foot seas with only a small engine and a single spotlight, the crew of the 36500-Bernie Webber, Ervin Maske, Andy Fitzgerald and Richard Livesey-found the hulk of the Pendleton and rescued thirty seamen, bringing the survivors safely to shore.