Your Finest Hours Continued from page 5
water . I checked the temperature of the water . I forget who told me … it was 32 degrees . I thought there ’ d be a couple of guys on this tanker … split in half … and as we are pulling out … I am in that little cockpit on that ( CG ) 36500 … and I look up and there is a whole line of people there . I said … how in the hell are we going to get up there and get them off ?
SR How long did it take you to find the tanker ?
AF I think it was only ... we were about four or five miles away ... so maybe an hour or something like that .
SR What kind of electronics did you guys have on the boat ? Did you just get lucky finding them ?
AF Very little …
JH Did you tell them about the compass … on your way out … do you remember that ?
AF Oh yeah . A big wave came just as we hit the sand bar … it was very dangerous …. But when we hit the bar … nobody liked the bar . But we had to go over the sand bar when we left our station . It was about five miles out I think , or something like that . When we hit it , a wave come up and lifted me up about three or four feet and then right back down .
The way I got on a boat was originally about noontime that day . I was at the station , and I was trying to figure out how I could get on a boat . I really wanted to go out on a rescue …
SR The first rescue you were on was that one ?
Fitzgerald Gets His Chance
Fitzgerald continued his story : Well I went out on a couple where we would rescue people off sandbars . Earlier that day … around noon-time … Melvin ( we called him Gus ) Gouthro came in and he was a level ahead of me as an engineman . And so he would get any job that came … while there were other guys that were a little higher than him , but I hardly ever got to go ,
6 except taking people off sand bars . So , Mel Gouthro comes to me and says … I don ’ t feel good at all . I said : well , there is a bed back there , why don ’ t you go back there and sleep ? And he would have been the next guy to go on any kind of a boat . Two guys went out earlier because it was a bad storm , it was like 72 mph winds … and the waves , where we had the boat , and all that stuff , were like 45 to 60 feet high . Being a dummy , I really wanted to be on that boat , Fitzgerald said . So he went to bed in the station ( Chatham ), where I was then .
About 5:00 in the afternoon , Bernie Webber gets a call from the guy that was in charge of the station . He goes in there , an Admiral or a Captain calls him and says : We want you to go out to that … two tankers have split in half ... one of them split out way away from us … they sent out two cutters to go to them , ( the SS Fort Mercer ). Another tanker split in half about five or six miles away from us , from our station ( the SS Pendleton ). So Bernie gets called into the office , the guy says , we ’ ve been called and told to go out to that tanker that ’ s only five miles from us . Go take the 36500 ( sic ), ( a 36 foot Motor Life Boat , with a capacity of 12 to 15 people . Ed ).
Fitzgerald continued : So we figure there is only a few people at the tanker . Bernie comes to me and he says : Where ’ s Gus ? Because he wasn ’ t going to take me … I was a Third Class Engineman .
I says : Why , what do you want Gus for ? And he ( Webber ) says : Well , I ’ ve been told to go out and get the 36 footer , 36500 , and go out to the tanker and see if we can take anybody off of there , because they had been calling , saying they had problems . They are split in half ...
So , what do you want Gus for ? ( Fitzgerald asked ) I want him to go with me , Webber said .
I ’ m thinking … here is my chance . I said : Well Gus is back there sick .
I am going to go get him , Webber said .
You can ’ t do that , I won ’ t let you do that , Fitzgerald remembers saying . Well , what am I going to do then , asked Webber ? I says : I will go on the boat with you ...
End of Part 1 Please join us next issue for the conclusion of : Your Finest Hours
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