CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Casey Sherman
HYANNIS – Casey Sherman calls himself “the accidental author.”
His latest book, “The Finest Hours,” co-authored with Michael Tougias, is set to become a major motion picture to be released by Disney in January 2016. The book tells the story of the Cape’s most famous rescue, the Coast Guard rescue of the men trapped on the Pendleton wreck.
As Sherman tells it, on February 18, 1952, a deadly Nor’easter was tearing through New England. During the storm, two 500-foot oil tankers got trapped off Chatham and both ships cracked in half, 20 miles apart. It was an unprecedented challenge for the US Coast Guard because 84 men were trapped on the bow and stern sections of each vessel.
According to Sherman, at the heart of the book “The Finest Hours” is the story of four young Coast Guardsmen in Chatham who were told to take a 36-foot lifeboat into 60-foot waves with the simple order, “save as many men as you can.”
“They do it and it’s the greatest small boat rescue in American history,” Sherman said.
Sherman calls himself “the accidental author,” because he got into journalism while investigating the death of his aunt, Mary Sullivan, a 1962 graduate of Barnstable High School.
She was the youngest and last known victim of the man known as The Boston Strangler.
“It led me to journalism school,” Sherman said. Sherman studied journalism at Boston University and ended up as a correspondent for CBS News in Boston. His work investigating his aunt’s murder led him to write his 2003 book, “A Rose for Mary.”
The book launched Sherman’s career as an author. It was while promoting one of his subsequent books that he found out about the story that became the book “The Finest Hours.”
Having grown up on Sea Street in Hyannis, Sherman as a seventh generation Cape Codder, thought he knew everything about this sandy peninsula.
“Cape Cod is really in my blood. It’s in everything I think, say and do,” he said.
But while doing a book signing on Main Street in Chatham, Sherman heard from his brother, Todd, who had been exploring the town, about a plaque near the Coast Guard station that referred to a rescue in 1952.
The plaque contained only a paragraph but Sherman was so intrigued, he knew it would be his next book. “It was enough to pique my interest and immediately after that book signing, I went to Rock Harbor in Orleans where a 36-foot lifeboat was docked. That was the lifeboat that saved 32 men in February of 1952,” Sherman said.
Sherman talked to a lot of locals who were there when the rescue happened. “I think the reason why ‘The Finest Hours’ has resonated with audiences around the world is because it’s very first person narrative. We were able to get interviews with the heroes, many of whom are no longer with us,” Sherman said.
The hero of the story was 26-year-old Bernie Webber, the son of a Baptist minister from Milton, Massachusetts, who was raised to follow in his father’s footsteps in the pulpit. But he wanted to get as far from the church as possible. He joined the Merchant Marine and later the Coast Guard. “But inside, Bernie was very spiritual,” he said.
Sherman reached out to Webber and he, at first, refused to talk about rescue. But over many months, Sherman kept in touch with Webber and finally earned his trust. After getting to know Webber, Sherman said he had some insight into why Webber at first refused to tell his story.
“He was haunted by what he had gone through during that storm. He never thought about the 32 men that he brought home to their families. He thought about the one man that he couldn’t bring home and to Bernie and the other crew members, it was a failed rescue because of that,” Sherman said.
In researching the book, Sherman ran into another author also writing about the Pendleton rescue. That’s how Sherman ended up collaborating with Michael Tougias on the book.
To hear more from author Casey Sherman about his book, “The Finest Hours,” click on the podcast below.
Speak Your Mind