Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History [Paperback]

Robert Frump (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2008

A riveting account of the greatest small-boat rescue in American history.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, the riveting story of a

legendary rescue at sea

 

Bernie Webber was the least likely candidate to execute the greatest small-boat rescue in American history. The trouble-prone son of a Baptist minister, he’d been well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. Until he went to sea. And then, on the night of February 18, 1952, in a raging blizzard off the coast of Cape Cod, Webber, now a young lifeboat coxswain with the U.S. Coast Guard, and his crew performed a miracle. Two big oil tankers had split in two in raging seas, and nothing—not a big cutter, not a sea plane, not a chopper—could reach them in time. Only Webber and his crew of three volunteers had a chance. He knew they would probably die on this mission. They were, after all, in an unassuming thirty-six-foot rescue boat that didn’t even have a name but for the “CG 36500” on its side. But he loved this boat—and he knew the inauspicious Coast Guard motto: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” Webber took the CG 36500 out in sixty-foot waves and saved thirty lives. He and his men won the rarely bestowed Coast Guard Gold Medal for Valor and a place in history that shapes the Coast Guard culture to this day.

 

Two Tankers Down tells their story, capturing the full drama of one of the most gripping sea rescue stories of all time.

About the Author

Robert R. Frump is a respected author and journalist with a number of national awards under his belt, including a Polk and part of a Pulitzer. His last book, Until the Sea Shall Free Them, was critically well received, and is currently being reviewed by Disney/Buena Vista. He lives in Summit, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (August 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599213370
• ISBN-13: 978-1599213378
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert R.Frump is a nationally recognized journalist who won several major awards while a journalist and investigative reporter at The Philadephia Inquirer. He grew up in the small farm town of Paxton, Ill, graduated from the University of Illinois and received a master's degree from Northwestern University -- all in journalism. He received, with Tim Dwyer, the George Polk Award, for his reporting on unsafe U.S. ships, and the Gerald Loeb Award for National Business Reporting. He was also a member of an Inquirer task force that won the Pulitzer Prize. He is married to Suzanne Saxton-Frump. They have two daughters, Sarah, a student at Brown University, and Caitlin Dean, a software engineer. He is the former managing editor of The Journal of Commerce.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is misleading?, November 9, 2011

By 

Robert R. Frump "Bob" (Summit, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History (Paperback)

As the author of the book, I'm fine with people not liking my writing style or subject matter, but when it is suggested that the book is misleading and factually incorrect, I feel a need to reply. The two-star reviewer says the book exaggerates the dangers of T-2s and the wrecks and I cannot for the life of me determine what he is talking about, unless he, like many engineers prior to the mid-1960's, believe the steel in these vessels was just fine. Study after study showed that the steel was flawed and tended to crack when cold. The ships were fine above 50 degrees. Below that, some could and did crack in two at the pier. For a detailed accounting of this phenom and the public policies that sent old ships to sea in unsafe conditions, see "Until the Sea Shall Free Them." If the reviewer is suggesting that the rescue itself is overblown, I would say that it is understated and no one could properly capture the huge risks faced by the men on the ship and those moving through the blizzard to rescue them. He does a great disservice to those men who lived and died during the wrecks of the SS Pendleton and SS Fort Mercer. I've noted this in comments several times now, and Amazon keeps removing them. I believe an author has SOME right of reply when the basic facts of the book are at stake. Please keep this comment up, Amazon, or take the ill-informed review down.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Than Just a Retelling of the Story of the Rescue, October 8, 2011

By 

radiationman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History (Kindle Edition)

While the rescues of the crews of the Pendleton and Fort Mercer are the main focus of the book - it's about more than that. The book isn't simply a retelling of the events surrounding the rescue - which the author does a good job of. The book is also a look at the life of Bernie Webber the coxswain of the CG-36500 who displayed outstanding seamanship during the rescue and with the assistance of his crew managed to save the lives of 32 men that day. He went out in conditions that exceeded the limits of his motor lifeboat, packed aboard many more survivors than his boat was rated to carry - and brought them all back to safety.

The story could have begun and ended with the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer - but it didn't. There was more to Bernie Webber than just this rescue. This rescue had a profound impact on Bernie Webber's career - and the way the senior CG leadership treated him in the following years affected his opinions of the service for years to come.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Tankers Down a Great Read, November 26, 2008

By 

Richard C. Hiscoc "R Hiscock" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-Boat Rescue in U.S. Coast Guard History (Paperback)

"Two Tankers Down" is the third book about the T-2 tanker disasters of February 1952, and the only one that delves into the break-up and rescue of the crew of the Fort Mercer. Robert Frump (who wrote "Until the Sea Shall Free Them" about another T-2 disaster in 1983) has done a magnificent job of bringing together all the known facts about the Pendleton rescue and some new information heretofore unknown. "Two Tankers Down" is a great contribution to the literature of marine safety and maritime rescues. Anyone who loves the sea will appreciate this gripping tale.