The Finest Hours by Michael J. Tougias & Casey Sherman

Post date: May 21, 2019

The unofficial Coast Guard motto is "They say you must go out and try, they don't say anything about coming back!" This motto rang true the night of February 18, 1952. Two of the most heroic Coast Guard sea rescues took place and saved the lives of 70 sailors. New England was being hammered by an immense Nor'easter that day. Two oil takers, the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer, were just off the coast of Cape Cod and were being tossed around by humongous waves, some reaching 70 feet high. The force of the waves was enough to tear the two oil tankers in half. The small 36 foot Coast Guard boat CG 36500 and its four-man crew was sent out into the storm to save the stranded sailors. They did not expected to make it back alive. This is the story of how that crew and boat, along with the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Yakutat, Eastwind, and Acushnet, battled nature and saved these men.