Home > Work > The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue
1 " Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us. —Thomas Paine "
― Michael J. Tougias , The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue
2 " We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. —George Bernard Shaw "
3 " Brotherhood is the very price and condition of man’s survival. —Carlos P. Romulo "
4 " conquer nature only as we obey her. "
5 " lay scattered on the shore at Old Harbor. Webber and crew used the motor lifeboat CG 36500 to help the fishermen pull the boats off the beach and reattach them to their moorings before the surf damaged them. It was a mariner’s version of herding cattle, but instead of working under the hot Texas sun, they had to perform their "
6 " Brooklyn, New York, and "
7 " It would take another twenty-seven years before the first government-authorized lifesaving stations were erected on Cape Cod. In all, nine stations were built from Race Point in Provincetown to Monomoy Island in Chatham. These two-story wooden structures were put up in the sunbaked dunes away from the high-water mark, thus protecting them from floods. They were painted a deep red and carried sixty-foot flags to make them easily recognizable from the ocean. The stations were manned by up to seven surfmen from August 1 to June 1 of the following year. The station’s keeper kept a watchful eye for the remaining two months. The keeper earned $200 per year for his duties while the surfmen were paid $65 a month. Each surfman, no matter how many years of service, was obligated to pass a strenuous physical examination at the dawn of each new season. Writer J. W. Dalton described the surfman’s weekly routine in his 1902 book, The Life Savers of Cape Cod: “On Monday the members of the crew are employed putting the station in order. "
8 " The article went on to explain that three separate low-pressure systems had "
9 " gun at the Mercer’s bow, just above the waterline “to see what would happen.” Stabile was thinking "
10 " that some of her crew members ascribed to the fact that she was the first American warship to be named after a Navy chaplain, Samuel Livermore. First Class Boatswain Mate Leo Gracie took Webber and a crew on a 38-foot Coast Guard picket boat over the treacherous Chatham Bar "
