Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, the riveting story of a
legendary rescue at sea
 
Bernie Webber was the least likely candidate to execute the greatest small-boat rescue in American history. The trouble-prone son of a Baptist minister, he’d been well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. Until he went to sea. And then, on the night of February 18, 1952, in a raging blizzard off the coast of Cape Cod, Webber, now a young lifeboat coxswain with the U.S. Coast Guard, and his crew performed a miracle. Two big oil tankers had split in two in raging seas, and nothing—not a big cutter, not a sea plane, not a chopper—could reach them in time. Only Webber and his crew of three volunteers had a chance. He knew they would probably die on this mission. They were, after all, in an unassuming thirty-six-foot rescue boat that didn’t even have a name but for the “CG 36500” on its side. But he loved this boat—and he knew the inauspicious Coast Guard motto: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” Webber took the CG 36500 out in sixty-foot waves and saved thirty lives. He and his men won the rarely bestowed Coast Guard Gold Medal for Valor and a place in history that shapes the Coast Guard culture to this day.
 
Two Tankers Down tells their story, capturing the full drama of one of the most gripping sea rescue stories of all time.
1110851510
Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, the riveting story of a
legendary rescue at sea
 
Bernie Webber was the least likely candidate to execute the greatest small-boat rescue in American history. The trouble-prone son of a Baptist minister, he’d been well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. Until he went to sea. And then, on the night of February 18, 1952, in a raging blizzard off the coast of Cape Cod, Webber, now a young lifeboat coxswain with the U.S. Coast Guard, and his crew performed a miracle. Two big oil tankers had split in two in raging seas, and nothing—not a big cutter, not a sea plane, not a chopper—could reach them in time. Only Webber and his crew of three volunteers had a chance. He knew they would probably die on this mission. They were, after all, in an unassuming thirty-six-foot rescue boat that didn’t even have a name but for the “CG 36500” on its side. But he loved this boat—and he knew the inauspicious Coast Guard motto: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” Webber took the CG 36500 out in sixty-foot waves and saved thirty lives. He and his men won the rarely bestowed Coast Guard Gold Medal for Valor and a place in history that shapes the Coast Guard culture to this day.
 
Two Tankers Down tells their story, capturing the full drama of one of the most gripping sea rescue stories of all time.
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Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

by Robert Frump
Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History

by Robert Frump

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Overview


In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, the riveting story of a
legendary rescue at sea
 
Bernie Webber was the least likely candidate to execute the greatest small-boat rescue in American history. The trouble-prone son of a Baptist minister, he’d been well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. Until he went to sea. And then, on the night of February 18, 1952, in a raging blizzard off the coast of Cape Cod, Webber, now a young lifeboat coxswain with the U.S. Coast Guard, and his crew performed a miracle. Two big oil tankers had split in two in raging seas, and nothing—not a big cutter, not a sea plane, not a chopper—could reach them in time. Only Webber and his crew of three volunteers had a chance. He knew they would probably die on this mission. They were, after all, in an unassuming thirty-six-foot rescue boat that didn’t even have a name but for the “CG 36500” on its side. But he loved this boat—and he knew the inauspicious Coast Guard motto: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” Webber took the CG 36500 out in sixty-foot waves and saved thirty lives. He and his men won the rarely bestowed Coast Guard Gold Medal for Valor and a place in history that shapes the Coast Guard culture to this day.
 
Two Tankers Down tells their story, capturing the full drama of one of the most gripping sea rescue stories of all time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781599216478
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
Publication date: 08/03/2008
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author



Robert R. Frump is a respected author and journalist with a number of national awards under his belt, including a Polk and part of a Pulitzer. His last book, Until the Sea Shall Free Them, was critically well received, and is currently being reviewed by Disney/Buena Vista. He lives in Summit, New Jersey.

Table of Contents


Preface     ix
Tanker Men     1
The Lifesavers     8
Cold Steel     24
Discovery     35
Two Down     42
Certain Death     56
Chaos and Order     59
Ping-Pong     64
Orders     68
Stranded     75
The Bar     85
Aground     88
Waterfalls     93
Downward Bound     96
Morning     102
More Orders     113
The Wishbone     118
Home     120
Cleanup     126
The Goading Slur     131
Strange Waters     135
The Thirty-Third Man     140
Fires on the Beach     145
Oldstyle     148
"The Coldest Thing"     154
Bernie's Boat     159
Afterword     165
Acknowledgments     179
Source Notes     181
Bibliography     204
Index     206
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