SS Pendleton

SS ''Pendleton'' was a Type T2-SE-A1 tanker built in 1942 in Portland, Oregon, United States, for the War Shipping Administration. She was sold in 1948 to National Bulk Carriers, serving until February 1952 when she broke in two in a storm. The T2 tanker ships were prone to splitting in two in cold weather. The ship's sinking and crew rescue (along with the break-up and rescue of its sister ship) is the topic of the 2009 book ''The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind the US Coast Guard's Most Daring Rescue'' by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman. The book inspired the 2016 Disney-produced film '' The Finest Hours'' with Chris Pine, which focuses on the ''Pendleton'' rescue.

Description

The ship was built as yard number 49 by Kaiser Shipyards, Swan Island Yard, Portland, Oregon. Measured at , , , she was long, with a beam of and a depth of . Her propulsion was "turbo-electric" (a steam turbine driving a generator that produced electricity to power a motor that drove the propeller shaft). The turbine was manufactured by General Electric of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It could propel her at a speed of .

History

''Pendleton'' was launched on 21 January 1944 and completed in February. She was owned by the War Shipping Administration. Her port of registry was Portland, Oregon. The United States Official Number 245142 and Code Letters KWAA were allocated. During World War II, ''Pendleton'' was a member of convoy ON 249, which departed from Liverpool, United Kingdom on 18 August 1944 and arrived at New York City on 2 September.

''Pendleton'' was transferred to National Bulk Carriers of Wilmington, Delaware in 1948. In July 1951, ''Pendleton'' ran aground in the Hudson River, New York. She was refloated the next day. The damaged part of the hull would later play a key role in the sinking.

Loss

On 18 February 1952, while en route from New Orleans to Boston, ''Pendleton'' broke in two in a gale south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The break up happened suddenly when the ship nosed down, and because of which, there was no time to send a distress signal as the radio room in the bow was cut off from power in the stern. A United States Coast Guard Consolidated PBY Catalina aircraft was diverted from searching for another T2 tanker, , to search for ''Pendleton'', and located both sections. Originally, the Coast Guard believed only ''Fort Mercer'' broke in two, since it was able to get an SOS off. It was not until the Catalina plane happened upon the bow that the Coast Guard realized that they were dealing with two ships that had broken in two. The Coast Guard motor lifeboat captained by Boatswain's Mate, First Class Bernard Webber was dispatched by commanding officer Daniel Webster Cluff from the USCG station at Chatham, Massachusetts.

''CG 36500'' was pounded by waves going over the sandbar out of the harbor, damaging the boat and leaving it without a compass. The crew pressed on and managed to find the stern section of ''Pendleton'' anyway, daringly rescuing her crew. Webber carefully maneuvered ''CG 36500'' underneath the listing hull and motored the Coast Guard boat back and forth with the waves while ''Pendleton''s crew lowered themselves down the side with a Jacob's ladder. The crew, timing their descent against the rise and fall of the ocean, jumped from the swaying ladder onto the moving deck of ''CG 36500'' while Webber carefully kept his boat under the ladder but clear of the towering metal wall of the broken-up ''Pendleton''.

Nine of ''Pendleton''s 41 crew were lost: eight (including Captain John Fitzgerald) who were on the bow section (which hadn't been part of the rescue), and the ship's cook (ordinary Seaman George C. "Tiny" Meyers) from the stern section, who had selflessly assisted the rest of the crew off the vessel before himself. He was lost when he jumped from the Jacob's ladder, fell into the ocean, and was crushed to death between the ''CG 36500'' and the ''Pendleton'' when the former was hit by a wave and thrown against the ship, killing him instantly. One week later, after its grounding, ''Pendleton''s bow was boarded. Of the eight victims stranded on this section, only one frozen body was recovered, the rest presumed swept overboard.

With the survivors on board ''CG 36500'', a disagreement developed over how to deal with them. Webber eventually decided against attempting to locate and transfer them to , heading for the shore instead. The survivors were safely landed at Chatham.

The rescue of the ''Pendleton'' survivors is considered one of the most daring rescues in the history of the United States Coast Guard. All four crew of ''CG-36500'' were awarded the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal (rather than just the coxswain, the typical treatment). At the time of her loss, ''Pendleton'' was insured for $1,690,000.

The stern ultimately grounded off Monomoy Island, south of Chatham, at coordinates , where it deteriorated through the years, and now lies underwater, while the bow grounded on Pollock Rip Shoal. The bow section was sold in 1953 to North American Smelting Co. for recycling at Bordentown, New Jersey. However, it was stranded on 4 June 1953 in the Delaware River and dismantled there circa 1978 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

References

Further reading

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendleton
Oilers
1944 ships
World War II tankers of the United States
Ships built in Portland, Oregon
Shipwrecks of the Massachusetts coast
Maritime incidents in 1952
World War II merchant ships of the United States
Type T2-SE-A1 tankers