Motor Lifeboat CG-36538 Restoration

History

The Motor Lifeboat CG-36538 was constructed in 1952 and remained in service until 1972. This TRS type boat was the last wood-hulled coastal lifeboat developed by the United States Coast Guard and the first to use laminated wood. The CG-36538 served at the Atlantic Beach Station in New York and then at the Ocean City Station in New Jersey. During its tenure through 1966 at the Great Harbor Inlet Station, the lifeboat was used primarily for winter rescues as well as winter assistance calls.

The boat, which was found tucked in the corner of a Navy warehouse in Yorktown, VA and was one of only a handful still in existence, has seen better days since it left a shipyard in Curtis Bay, MD [Baltimore] in 1952. Thus, the very purpose of the CMMM’s restoration efforts!

Below is the 1952 CG MLB (Motor Life Boat) 36538 when Cape May Maritime Museum began the restoration process in earnest early 2018 and progress as of October 2024, the hull as it was and in the intial phase or restoration, the fully restored helm and Mr. Michael Agrati (left) along with Ed Melega (CMMM President) at Naval Air Station Wildwood Naval Museum. Mr. Agrati served as a crew member on the 36538 while she was in service at CG Station Great Egg NJ (Ocean City)

Every great seaport has a maritime museum. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, San Francisco, even small port towns like Saint Michaels and New Bedford have their own versions of maritime museums where the exploits of their local mariners are preserved and celebrated. Surely, the second most important fishing port on the east coast, Cape May New Jersey, deserves its own maritime museum. Ask anyone who lives, works or plays here on Cape May’s Other Side where our Maritime Museum is located and they will give you a blank stare because, a brick-and-mortar Cape May Maritime Museum simply does not exist…or does it? In a manner of speaking, the nascent “Cape May Maritime Museum” is embodied by a group of dedicated volunteers and a former Coast Guard vessel simply referred to as the: 36538. For the past several years this cadre of volunteers, under the watchful eye of Wayne Adams, has been giving of their time, skills and treasure to restore the Motor Life Boat (MLB) #36538; an important aspect of Cape May’s maritime history.

The story of 36538 actually dates back to a very cold night, February 18, 1952, just off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts during a raging Nor’easter. On that fateful night a 500’ long, World War II era T-2 Tanker named the Pendleton suddenly and inexplicably broke in half. While the officers and crew on the forward half were immediately lost, 33 crewmen on the aft section clung precariously to what was a rapidly sinking hulk. Fortunately for these survivors, a distress call had gone out before the Pendleton broke in half. Even more fortunately, that distress call had been received at the Coast Guard station in Chatham, Massachusetts. There, coxswain Bernie Webber, a Petty Officer 1^st Class, volunteered to attempt a rescue. He did so in the absence of any reliable information as to the Pendleton’s location and in spite of hurricane force winds and enormous seas that were pounding the Cape. By doing so, Webber epitomized the Coast Guard’s unofficial ethos, “you have to go, but you don’t have to come back.” Webber and three other volunteers did come back that night and they did so with 32 of the Pendelton’s survivors. One unfortunate fell into the raging sea and was lost.

Webber effected this daring rescue aboard the Motor Life Boat (MLB) 36500. 36500 was the first vessel produced in the same lifeboat series as Cape May’s 36538. 36’ long, the “36” series was heavily built of cypress on a white oak frame. Double-ended, self-righting and self-bailing a small cabin midships could accommodate a maximum of 20 individuals. The coxswain (Webber) stood in an open cockpit with only a small windshield between himself and the elements. Webber and his three-man crew realized that this would be no pleasure cruise, and that they were risking their lives when they departed Chatham station. The amazing true story of this harrowing rescue was recounted in a 2016 Disney film called, The Finest Hours, starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Holliday Grainger. The film is based on the book, by the same name, written by Michael Tougias. The real star of this heroic rescue, MLB 36500 was retired in 1968, and after restoration, became a museum vessel permantly moored in Rock Harbor, Massachusetts, where it remains as a testament to brave Coastguardsmen, like Bernie Webber, Andy Fitzgerald, Richard Livesey, Ervin Maske and Cape May’s own Master Chief, Wayne Adams, who routinely risk their own lives and go in harm’s way to rescue fellow Americans.

Given the fact that Cape May is regarded as the "Hometown of the Coast Guard Enlisted Corps", it is only appropriate that MLB 36538, a vessel that spent most of its service life between Beach Haven and Cape May remain here in Cape May Harbor. Moreover, it is thanks to the visio, creativity and leadership of Master Chief Wayne Adams, who was the vessel's last "Officer-In-Command", that the restoration of 36538 was undertaken in the forst place. Plans are afoot to "splash" 36358 in the Spring of 2025. Unfortunately, Master Chief Adams will not be on hand to witness the "splash" since he passed away two years ago, but we suspect that the Chief will be watching from above. We hope he approves, Semper Paratus, Chief.