Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

On February 18, 1952, a violent nor'easter raged through New England and two steel tankers were torn in half within hours of each other off the coast of Cape Cod. The SS Pendleton and the SS Fort Mercer, both battered by hurricane-force winds and towering seas, cracked apart in what would become one of the most remarkable maritime rescue operations in U.S. Coast Guard history.

This episode traces the disaster from the first distress calls to the daring small-boat rescues that followed, including the U.S. Coast Guard's response from Chatham, Massachusetts, where a 36-foot motor lifeboat crew set out into near-impossible conditions to save the men trapped aboard the shattered stern sections. You will hear about the chaos of coordinating two simultaneous sinkings and the extraordinary courage of the small crews who braved 60-foot waves and freezing temperatures to bring survivors home.

Joining Rich as a guest is Professor and Associate Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University, Ralph E. Napolitano, Jr., to examine the structural failures that doomed both T2 tankers. Mr. Napolitano is the brother of the host of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, Rich Napolitano.

Sources for this episode include but are not limited to the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation reports for the Pendleton and Fort Mercer, the oral accounts given by Bernard Webber, the United States Naval Institute, the Coast Guard Foundation, the Orleans Historical Society, and the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

A deadly ferry fire in the Philippines

A deadly cargo ship fire in China

A car-carrier fire in China

The dismantling of a Canadian shipwreck

Update about the 1533 wreck of the Bom Jesus

A rescued teenage fisherman

Artifacts from the 1776 Battle of Valcour Island

Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Show notes, transcripts, and merchandise are available at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠

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On the foggy, moonless night of September 8, 1923, fourteen destroyers of Destroyer Squadron Eleven were running south from San Francisco to San Diego at 20 knots, a speed run meant to test the Navy's newest ships and their crews. Less than five minutes after a fatal turn to port, seven of them were wrecked on the rocks of Honda Point, California, in what remains the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy vessels in history.

23 US Navy servicemen lost their lives. They were:

From USS Young

Buchan, Ralph Kenneth

Duncan, Earl

Grady, Everett William

Harrison, Earnest Carl

Jones Ernest

Kirby, Edward Clinton

Kirk, Henry Thompson

Martin, James Tidwell

Morris, Wade Hampton

Overshiner, Gordon Jerome

Reddoch, Clitus Allen

Rogers, Leo Floyd

Salzer, Charles Alfred

Skipper, Hugh Woodfan

Slimak, Joseph John

Taylor, Max H.

Torres, Enrique

Van Schaack, Vern Russell

Young, John

Zakrzewski, August

USS Delphy

Conway, James Wheaton H.

Dalida, Sofronio

Pearson, James Watson

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at ⁠⁠⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠

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From the world of maritime history, marine archaeology, and maritime news, This Week in Shipwrecks beings you the following stories from the past week:

Ten Missing After Cargo Ship Sinks Near Istanbul

A Ferry Disaster Off Cyprus

Another Ferry Goes Down in the Aegean Sea

An 18th-Century Mystery Emerges From the Yucatán

Tugboat Sinks Off South Korea

World War I Shipwrecks Become Part of a Turkish Commemoration

The Titanic Discovery Turns 41

A WWII Hospital Ship Has Become a Marine Neighborhood

Did Archaeologists Find the Graves of the Royal Anne Galley Victims?

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at ⁠⁠⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠

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👉Subscribe on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/spotify⁠

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Faded Luxury: The Sinking of the Principessa Mafalda

On October 25, 1927, off the coast of Brazil, one of Italy's grandest ocean liners took over four hours to sink, in clear weather, calm seas, in daylight, with rescue ships already alongside.

The Principessa Mafalda had carried tens of thousands of Italian emigrants across the Atlantic for nearly two decades, and was a symbol of national pride on the Genoa-Buenos Aires run. But by 1927, she was a tired ship on what should have been her final voyage that was plagued by breakdowns, food spoilage, and a mysterious list to port that nobody explained to the passengers. When her propeller shaft finally failed near the Abrolhos Islands, what followed was four hours of chaos, panic, and preventable death, followed by a government-shaped press cover-up and an official inquiry that never asked the hard questions.

314 people perished that day, including many by shark attack. The wreck has never been found, and a century later, the Principessa Mafalda remains one of history's least-remembered maritime disasters, despite being the deadliest peacetime shipping catastrophe the Southern Hemisphere has ever seen.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at ⁠⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠.⁠

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/spotify

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠

👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

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