Robert Frump,

I am enjoying your book. It brings back memories of my youth.

I was a seventeen year old ordinary seaman aboard the T2 tanker, "Five Forks", at sea when we received the news by radio of the breakup of the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer. Many years have passed and my memory of that day may not be totally accurate. However, I believe we were in the same storm heading north from Texas with a load destined for Portsmouth, NH. Being on the same type ship, I recall how scared we were th… Continue

Melbourne, Fl. (PRWEB) January 26, 2009 -- Bernard C. Webber, who steered his small boat into the impassable waves of Chatham Bar on an impossible mission to rescue the crew of a stricken tanker off Cape Code, died Saturday at age 80 in Melbourne, Florida.

Mr. Webber, one of the U.S. Coast Guard's most fabled and honored rescuers, was stationed in Cape Cod in February of 1952 when two tankers, the Pendleton and the SS Fort Mercer, split in half on the same day in rough weather.

"Bernie Webber… Continue

[ Draft ]Hi....Finally was able to locate some archive info on other damaged ships... These will be jpeg images, digital photos of the archives.

As a kid summering on Cape Cod,I had many occasions to visit the stern of the Pendleton by small boat. I never realized the history behind the hulk and wish to complement Mr. Frump on a well written and tremendiously information read.

One point: On page 100, the fourth paragraph down which depicts Tiny's demise, it is stated "crushed the big man aganist the stern of the Fort Mercer". It was the Pendleton I believe. Thanks

Excellent job.
CTX has added Pendleton and Ft Mercer
entries to our tanker casualty database
http://www.c4tx.org/ctx/job/cdb/search.html.
On page 176, we talk about 18 T2 structural failure
by 1963. So far CTX has located only 8:
Schenectady, Esso manhatten, Sacketts harbor,
Ft Dearborn, Ft Mercer, Pendleton, Pine Ridge,
and marine Sulfur Queen. Wud very much appreciate
if you could point us to the others.