Two Tankers Down: The Greatest Small-boat Rescue In U.s. Coast Guard History

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.

Off the coast of Cape Cod in 1950, a February blizzard tore not one but two oil tankers in half. This is the suspenseful true story of a U.S. Coast Guard captain and his small crew who were called out to rescue the tanker crews without a cutter or chopper or a sea plane. But Captain Bernie Weber knew well the infamous Coast Guard motto: "You have to go out. You don't have to come back." He took a small boat and crew out in 60-foot waves and rescued 30 men. Weber's subsequent gold medal for valor is still revered within the U.S. Coast Guard, and this thrilling first-ever narrative is a gripping adventure story for fans of The Perfect Storm and The Hungry Ocean.