FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Bernard C Webber ~ 20 March 2023

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[Kathy in Alaska]

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~ Hall of Heroes ~

Bernard C. Webber
All info and photos from this website.

           

One of the Coast Guard's legendary heroes, Senior Chief Petty Officer Bernard C. Webber (USCG Ret) died at his home in Melbourne, Florida Saturday, January 24, 2009. He is survived by his widow, Miriam (Pentinen) Webber, a daughter, Patricia Hamilton and her husband Bruce, two granddaughters, Leah and Hilary Hamilton of Shamong, NJ and North Eastham, a son, Bernard E. Webber and a grandson, Shane Webber of California.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Bernard C. Webber is one of the "Chatham Legends".

On February 18, 1952, he took the CG36500 out of Chatham Station with three volunteers-Seaman Ervin Maske, Seaman Richard Livesey and Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Fitzgerald, an Engineman, responding to the tanker Pendleton, which had broken in two off Chatham in a storm. Seaman Maske was at Chatham Station awaiting transport to the Lightship Stonehorse but remained ashore because the Coast Guard deemed the seas too rough to transport him. He volunteered, along with the two Chatham Coast Guardsmen who volunteered to accompany Mr. Webber.

The Coast Guard crew faced 60 foot waves, hurricane force winds and blizzard conditions to rescue 33 sailors who survived the shipwreck. While the CG36500 was leaving Chatham Harbor, her compass and windshield were smashed and the rescue boat began shipping water. They persevered, and by dead reckoning they finally sighted the stern section of the Pendleton, where the ship's crew was awaiting rescue. They only lost one man-the ship's cook, George D. "Tiny" Myers,

The four who manned the rescue boat all received coveted Coast Guard Gold Life-saving Medals for their heroism in what is considered by maritime historians to be "The Greatest Small Boat Rescue in Coast Guard History." Of the four, only Engineman Fitzgerald is still alive.

Senior Chief Webber was born in Milton, MA in 1928, the son of the late Rev. A. Bernard Webber and Annie Knight Webber. He was one of four sons --all of whom served in the U.S. Military during World War II-- Paul in the Army in Europe, Bob in the Coast Guard and Bill in the Army Transportation Corp.

When he was only 16, Bernie Webber joined the Merchant Marine Service and trained at Sheepshead Bay Maritime School in New York. When World War II ended, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and attended "boot camp" at Curtis Bay, MD. He was transferred to Cape Cod to serve Lighthouse duty at Highland Lighthouse in North Truro and later went to the Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard. He first saw the CG36500 when he returned to Chatham for a visit. He was transferred to Chatham Station in 1949. After the Pendleton rescue, he transferred to Woods Hole and didn't return to Chatham until 1954 and served there only until 1955.

His final tour of duty at Chatham ended in 1963 when he was transferred to Cross Rip Lightship until it was decommissioned. Mr. Webber was reassigned to the CG Cutter Point Banks out of Woods Hole. From there he and the ship were ordered to Vietnam. When he returned from 'Nam, he was assigned to the Buoy Tender Hornbeam in Woods Hole and finally retired from the Coast Guard as a Senior Chief Petty Officer, serving as a Warrant Bosun (WO1), on September 1, 1966. During his time in this region, he also served at Nauset Lifeboat Station, Race Point Lifeboat Station, aboard a Coast Guard tug out of Southwest Harbor, Maine and the Nantucket Lightship.

Senior Chief Webber met his wife Miriam Pentinen, a native of Wellfleet, when he first served duty in North Truro. They were married July 16, 1950 in Milton in a ceremony performed by his father, Rev. A. Bernard Webber.

After he left the Coast Guard, Mr. Webber served as Wellfleet Harbor Master, reconditioned boats for Nauset Auto and Marine in Orleans, partnered on a charter boat out of Rock Harbor, Orleans. In "retirement" he worked for the National Audubon Society in Maine and later for Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine. He also worked in the marine field for dredging, towboat and salvage companies and even served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In his book, "Chatham: The Lifeboatmen", he wrote: "After 42 years of work on the sea, it became time to come home."

His widow Miriam said that Mr. Webber will be cremated and his remains will be interred with military honors in a family plot in Wellfleet on May 9, 2009.

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[lightman]

Thank you for highlighting the peacetime heroism of our often overlooked fifth branch!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, lightman...our Coast Guard is such an important part of our history.

[radu]

Greetings to all at the Canteen!

To all our military men and women, past and present,

THANK YOU
for your service!

[The Mayor]

March 20

Catching Contentment

Bible in a Year:

• Joshua 4–6
• Luke 1:1–20

I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Psalm 131:2

In a psychiatrist’s advice column, he responded to a reader named Brenda, who lamented that her ambitious pursuits had left her discontented. His words were blunt. Humans aren’t designed to be happy, he said, “only to survive and reproduce.” We’re cursed to chase the “teasing and elusive butterfly” of contentment, he added, “not always to capture it.”

I wonder how Brenda felt reading the psychiatrist’s nihilistic words and how different she may have felt had she read Psalm 131 instead. In its words, David gives us a guided reflection on how to find contentment. He begins in a posture of humility, putting his kingly ambitions aside, and while wrestling life’s big questions is important, he puts those aside too (v. 1). Then he quiets his heart before God (v. 2), entrusting the future into His hands (v. 3). The result is beautiful: “like a weaned child with its mother,” he says, “I am content” (v. 2).

In a broken world like ours, contentment will at times feel elusive. In Philippians 4:11–13, the apostle Paul said contentment is something to be learned. But if we believe we’re only designed to “survive and reproduce,” contentment will surely be an uncatchable butterfly. David shows us another way: catching contentment through quietly resting in God’s presence.

Reflect & Pray

When do you most feel content? How could you set aside unhurried time to be quietly present with God today?

Dear God, I rest in You, the deepest well of my truest contentment.

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ Hall of Heroes: Bernard C Webber ~

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[SkyDancer]

~ Hai All! ~

~

~ Welcome To My World ~

I’m Down There Somewhere

[left that other site]

Hi Everybody!

(((HUGS)))

[MoochPooch]

Hi Kathy!

[PROCON]

Good evening, Kathy, thanks for honoring tonight’s Hero!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mooch...is spring is sight? Hope you are not having to contend with snow.

[TigerHawk]

Spent part of my life as a SAT (Saturation, bell, deep sea) diver in and on the North Sea. Reading about 60’ waves has no meaning to anyone who has not experienced them. I have. I was on a 125’ ocean going tug when a Force 10 (almost max for hurricanes on the Brit Beaufort scale) was predicted to hit us. We pulled up anchors and race to Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands. It caught us 6-8 hrs. out. I was indescribable. Looked out a porthole that was filled with grey sky one second, and white foaming sea the next. Our boat was tossed around like a cork in a washing machine. We were not sure we would make it to safe harbor.

These four men LEFT SAFE HARBOR and went out into the storm to save others. They knew what they were facing, and went anyway. These men are true heroes. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have done that.

I salute them all! We all should, and I believe that we do!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...did the pump houses stay warm enough for the night? More cold nights coming?

Hope the strawberry farmers are having luck keeping the strawberries from freezing.

[MoochPooch]

Hopefully winter crept away; we were lucky to have little snow. Just hope we don’t suddenly get a cold Passover.

[radu]

Howdy, Kathy.

Yes, the heaters are doing their jobs in the pump houses and getting a workout this weekend. We had low 20s last night and are supposed to be colder tonight. A gradual warm-up starts tomorrow, thank goodness.
No reports on the news that I saw about the farmers. I guess we’ll hear something in a couple of days on success or lack of. Frosts and freezes are common this time of year so strawberry farmers are prepared to deal with them. It’s just not common for the plants to be blooming this early.

Farming’s a gamble.

We had snow flurries this morning! It didn’t get out of the 30s all day so it’s good the skies cleared.
You’ve had crazy weather. Snow flurries last night, sunshine this morning, clouds for several hours, and now the sun’s poking out again.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Janey...((HUGS)...are you home? Latest passengers delivered and then picked up?

[SkyDancer]

Good Evening Kathy! (((HUGS))) Ya, all delivered and am home. Will have a nice few days to catch up on things.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend, and now all your ducks are in a row for the new week.

[Kathy in Alaska]

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))....hope you and Tippy had a good day.

Lots of sunshine and NO snow or ice.