The T2 was one of World War II's workhorse tankers that remained in service even after the war. But the tanker had a deadly flaw hidden in its design and construction. On February 18, 1952, in a freezing gale off Cape Cod, that flaw led to the most daring rescue in Coast Guard history.
The SS Pendleton was headed to Boston when it hit the gale. Twenty miles away, its sister tanker, the SS Mercer, was navigating the same storm.
Suddenly, both 500-foot tankers simply broke in two.
With more than 40 crewmen on each vessel, the Coast Guard mobilized to attempt a rescue. Using an array of life rafts and surf boats, the Coast Guard rescued 38 men from the Mercer.
Meanwhile, a 36-foot Coast Guard motorboat was sent out to the Pendleton. Coast Guard boatswain's mate Bernard Webber commanded the lifeboat. Waves pounded the boat as it went over a sandbar and sustained damage, but the crew pressed on. They found the hulking black stern of the Pendleton listing before them. Webber moved the lifeboat underneath the hull, the small boat tossing in the angry waves that threatened to smash the boat into the tilting tanker stern.
In the stern, 33 crewmen began to climb down a rope ladder while the ship's cook stayed behind to help the others. Below them, the life boat violently rose and fell in the waves. Each man had to time his descent from the swaying ladder to the uncertain location of the lifeboat deck.
As with the Mercer, all crewmen in the stern section were rescued, with the exception of the selfless cook. He was the last down the rope ladder, but when he jumped, waves pushed the boat away and he struck the tanker, which killed him instantly.
Most of the crew on the bow of both ships perished.
The design flaw in the T2 was determined to be both welding techniques and the quality of the steel, which became brittle at low temperatures.
