SS Pendleton

The ship was built as yard number 49 by Kaiser Shipyards, Swan Island Yard, Portland, Oregon.{{cite web |last1=Visser |first1=Auke |title=Pendleton |url=http://www.aukevisser.nl/t2tanker/id246.htm |website=Auke Visser's Famous T – Tankers Pages |publisher=Auke Visser |accessdate=30 September 2014 }} Measured at {{GRT|10,448}}, {{NRT|6,801}}, {{DWT|16,643}}, she was {{convert|504|ft|0|in|m|2}} long, with a beam of {{convert|68|ft|2|in|m|2}} and a depth of {{convert|39|ft|2|in|m|2}}. Her propulsion was "turbo-electric" (a steam turbine driving a generator that produced electricity to power a motor that drove the propeller shaft). The turbine was manufactured by General Electric of Fitchburg, Massachusetts.{{cite web |url=https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/45/45a0816.pdf |title=Lloyd's Register Steamers and Motorships |publisher=Plimsoll Ship Data |author=Lloyd's of London|year=1945 |accessdate=30 September 2014}} It could propel her at a speed of {{convert|16|kn|km/h}}.

Pendleton was launched on 21 January 1944 and completed in February. She was owned by the War Shipping Administration. Her port of registry was Portland, Oregon. The United States Official Number 245142 and Code Letters KWAA were allocated. During World War II, Pendleton was a member of convoy ON 249, which departed from Liverpool, United Kingdom on 18 August 1944 and arrived at New York City on 2 September.{{cite web |url=http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/on/index.html?onz.php?convoy=249!~onzmain |title=Convoy ON.249 |publisher=Convoyweb |accessdate=1 October 2014}}

Pendleton was transferred to National Bulk Carriers of Wilmington, Delaware in 1948. In July 1951, Pendleton ran aground in the Hudson River, New York. She was refloated the next day. The damaged part of the hull would later play a key role in the sinking.{{cite web |last1=Visser |first1=Auke |title=Pendleton Wreck |url=http://www.aukevisser.nl/t2tanker/id916.htm |website=Auke Visser's Famous T – Tankers Pages |publisher=Auke Visser |accessdate=30 September 2014 }}

File:Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG 36500.jpg]]

{{further|History of the United States Coast Guard#Pendleton rescue}}

On 18 February 1952, while en route from New Orleans to Boston, Pendleton broke in two in a gale south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The break up happened suddenly when the ship nosed down, and because of which, there was no time to send a distress signal as the radio room in the bow was cut off from power in the stern. A United States Coast Guard Consolidated PBY Catalina aircraft was diverted from searching for another T2 tanker, {{SS|Fort Mercer||2}}, to search for Pendleton, and located both sections. Originally, the Coast Guard believed only Fort Mercer broke in two, since it was able to get an SOS off. It was not until the Catalina plane happened upon the bow that the Coast Guard realized that they were dealing with two ships that had broken in two. The Coast Guard motor lifeboat {{ship|Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat|CG 36500||2}} captained by Boatswain's Mate, First Class Bernard Webber was dispatched by commanding officer Daniel Webster Cluff from the USCG station at Chatham, Massachusetts.

CG 36500 was pounded by waves going over the sandbar out of the harbor, damaging the boat and leaving it without a compass. The crew pressed on and managed to find the stern section of Pendleton anyway, daringly rescuing her crew. Webber carefully maneuvered CG 36500 underneath the listing hull and motored the Coast Guard boat back and forth with the waves while Pendleton{{'}}s crew lowered themselves down the side with a Jacob's ladder. The crew, timing their descent against the rise and fall of the ocean, jumped from the swaying ladder onto the moving deck of CG 36500 while Webber carefully kept his boat under the ladder but clear of the towering metal wall of the broken-up Pendleton.

Nine of Pendleton{{'}}s 41 crew were lost: eight (including Captain John Fitzgerald) who were on the bow section (which hadn't been part of the rescue), and the ship's cook (ordinary Seaman George C. "Tiny" Meyers) from the stern section, who had selflessly assisted the rest of the crew off the vessel before himself. He was lost when he jumped from the Jacob's ladder, fell into the ocean, and was crushed to death between the CG 36500 and the Pendleton when the former was hit by a wave and thrown against the ship, killing him instantly. One week later, after its grounding, Pendleton{{'}}s bow was boarded. Of the eight victims stranded on this section, only one frozen body was recovered, the rest presumed swept overboard.

With the survivors on board CG 36500, a disagreement developed over how to deal with them. Webber eventually decided against attempting to locate and transfer them to {{USCGC|McCulloch|WAVP-386|6}}, heading for the shore instead. The survivors were safely landed at Chatham.{{cite web |url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/Pendleton_Webster.asp |title=The Pendleton Rescue |first=W. Russell |last=Webster |publisher=United States Coast Guard |date=December 2001 |accessdate=1 October 2014}}

The rescue of the Pendleton survivors is considered one of the most daring rescues in the history of the United States Coast Guard.{{cite web|title=Pendleton Rescue|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/Pendleton_Index.asp|publisher=United States Coast Guard|accessdate=30 September 2014}} All four crew of CG-36500 were awarded the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal (rather than just the coxswain, the typical treatment). At the time of her loss, Pendleton was insured for $1,690,000.{{Cite news |newspaper=The Times |title=American Shipping Casualties |date=20 February 1952 |page=9 |issue=52240 }}

The stern ultimately grounded off Monomoy Island, south of Chatham, at coordinates {{Coord|41|35|10|N|69|57|45|W|display=}}, where it deteriorated through the years, and now lies underwater,{{cite web|url=http://www.mwdc.org/Shipwrecks/Pendleton.html|title=Pendleton|publisher= MWDC|accessdate=16 October 2016}} while the bow grounded on Pollock Rip Shoal.{{cite web|url=http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/czm/buar/shipwrecks/boats/pendleton.html|title=Pendleton|author=czm|work=Energy and Environmental Affairs|accessdate=4 January 2016}} The bow section was sold in 1953 to North American Smelting Co. for recycling at Bordentown, New Jersey.{{cite web|url=http://www.aukevisser.nl/t2tanker/id246.htm|title=Pendleton|publisher=|accessdate=4 January 2016}} However, it was stranded on 4 June 1953 in the Delaware River and dismantled there circa 1978 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

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• {{cite news |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2018/12/03/andy-fitzgerald-last-surviving-rescuer-men-off-oil-tanker-dies/JDBujPGf7jWUlEQusBTxvM/story.html |title=Andy Fitzgerald, last surviving rescuer of 32 men off oil tanker, dies at 87 |first=Bryan |last=Marquard |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url-access=limited |date=4 December 2018 |accessdate=4 December 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}

{{Type T2-SE-A1 tankers|state=collapsed}}

{{1952 shipwrecks}}

{{Coord|41|35|10|N|69|57|45|W|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendleton}}

Category:Oilers

Category:1944 ships

Category:World War II tankers of the United States

Category:Ships built in Portland, Oregon

Category:Shipwrecks of the Massachusetts coast

Category:Maritime incidents in 1952

Category:World War II merchant ships of the United States

Category:Type T2-SE-A1 tankers