“Providence would seem to sleep unless faith and prayer awaken it. The disciples had little faith in their master’s accounts, yet that little faith awakened him in a storm, and he rescued them.”                             Stephen Charnock

February 18, 1952 – Coast Guard Station – Chatham, Massachusetts: The old timers around Cape Cod had never seen a winter storm like this howling nor’easter. Hurricane-force winds whipped up 50-foot seas just off the coast. Several seasoned fishermen who were gathered in a local bar heard the emergency dispatch over the Coast Guard radio. One shook his head and commented, “Boys, in that small boat, in this weather, that’s a suicide mission.”

The distress call to the Coast Guard station had come late in the afternoon. The tanker Pendleton, a 500-foot long, World War II-era tanker loaded with 120,000 barrels of kerosene, had broken in half a mile offshore.

Earlier in the day, 20 miles away, another oil tanker, Ft. Mercer, had been torn in half by the rough seas, and the experienced Coast Guard members were dispatched to the rescue, leaving only an inexperienced crew of four to man the station. They were led by 24-year-old Captain Bernie Webber. At 5:35 pm, Webber and three volunteers were dispatched aboard a 36-foot wooden lifeboat to search for the Pendleton.

Even in the best weather, the shoreline off Chatham and Cape Cod is challenging to navigate with 34 small islands and numerous rocks and sandbars. In a storm, it’s nearly impossible, particularly the sandbar that protects Chatham Harbor.

As Webber’s crew headed for Chatham Bar, they sang Rock of Ages to bolster their courage. They heard the roar of the crashing waves long before they saw them. The first 50-foot wave flipped the small boat 5 feet in the air, shattering the windshield, knocking out the compass, and drowning the engine.

Webber had cuts on his face from the flying glass, but he quickly re-started the engine and powered the boat over the next monster wave. He was the son of a minister, and he prayed for a miracle. He got it. They cleared the treacherous bar. Now, to find the tanker.

In the stern of the Pendleton, 32 sailors were trapped as the two halves of the ship slowly drifted apart and sank. The crew in the stern section, having shot all their flares, hugged, each other, said their goodbyes, and gave up hope of being found in the monster storm.

Webber’s junior crew miraculously found the stern grounded on a sandbar about a mile offshore. Spotting the Coast Guard searchlight, the sailors began appearing at the tanker’s railing 30 feet above the lifeboat. The Coast Guardsmen had not risked their lives in vain.

But now Webber faced a new problem. He needed to transport 32 Pendleton mariners plus the Coast Guard of four on a lifeboat designed for a maximum of 12 passengers. He shouted over the wind to his crew, “Boys, I’m not going to play God and decide who to rescue and who to leave behind. We’re all gonna live tonight, or we’re all gonna die, but we’re not going home without all these men.”

After getting the 32 seamen on the boat, Webber slowly maneuvered the craft towards shore and worried about how to get back across the sandbar. But first, he had to find the bar in the blinding storm, which now showered snow and sleet, and do it without a compass.

Providence was once again with the rescue crew. A crewman spotted the red blinking light of a buoy at Chatham Bar. Then, the crew realized the waves had diminished just enough for them to have a chance. Slowly, carefully, Webber maneuvered the boat over the bar.

The storm had knocked out power in Chatham, making the harbor town invisible from the sea. But the people of Chatham were following the harrowing rescue on their Coast Guard radios. More than 100 braved the storm and parked their cars dockside with their lights pointing seaward. After clearing the bar, Webber and his crew saw the car lights in the distance and limped to the station. It was the final miracle that Bernie Webber and his crew would need on this night.

On May 14, 1952, the Coast Guard awarded Bernie Webber and his crew the Golden Lifesaving Medal, its highest honor. The rescue of the 32 men on the Pendleton remains the largest small boat rescue in Coast Guard history. The CS36500 lifeboat was restored in 1981 and is a museum today in Chatham Harbor – a testimony to duty, courage, and prayer.