BOAT CREW HANDBOOK – Seamanship Fundamentals
BOAT CREW HANDBOOK – Seamanship Fundamentals Bernard C. Webber, USCG BCH 16114.4 December 2017 Chief Warrant Officer Bernard Webber “I reasoned I was a Coast Guard first class boatswain mate. My job was the sea and to save those in peril upon it.” On 24 January 2009, Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Bernard Challen Webber crossed the bar. During his 20-year career, CWO Webber was the recipient of the Gold Lifesaving Medal and responsible for one of the greatest small boat rescues in Coast Guard history. Born in Milton, MA, on 9 May 1928, Webber began his career at sea in 1944 when he joined the Merchant Marine. After serving in the Pacific, he joined the Coast Guard in 1946. On 18 February, 1952, BM1 Webber was serving at the Chatham Lifeboat Station when a violent winter storm hit New England. Off the coast of Massachusetts, the SS Pendleton , a tanker originally built for the War Shipping Administration, was enroute from Baton Rouge, LA to Boston with a full load of kerosene and oil. At about 0550, in gale force winds, blinding snow and 60 foot seas, the vessel broke in two. In the bow, were the captain and seven crewmen. Thirty-three men remained in the stern section. There had been no time to issue an S.O.S. The stern section drifted south, about six miles off Cape Cod. The bow section was further offshore. As the men of Chatham Station were busy with the rescue of another tanker, radar picked up the two sections of Pendleton. Visually sighted shortly thereafter, it became apparent that aid could only be rendered by use of the 36-foot Motor Life Boat CG-36500.
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