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04/13/2016 08:30 AMNext month, students at North Haven High School will be learning about some of the biggest moments in American history, not from textbooks, but from eyewitness accounts as part of the Eyewitness to History event. The event, held on Friday, May 13, includes 10 historical accounts ranging from World War II to modern day with Sept. 11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Lieutenant Commander Mel Gouthro, a retired U.S. Coast Guardsman, will present the second account: “The Finest Hours: The U.S. Coast Guard Rescue of 1952,” which details the rescue of The Pendleton and Fort Mercer.
“We try to explain our roles to the young people and what we went through for the preservation of this great country and the history of it,” says Mel. “I get to present what we consider the greatest small boat rescue in the Coast Guard history. The boat, 36 feet long, went out in a violent storm with just four men on it. It had a capacity of 12 and we rescued 32 men off that ship.”
The story of the 1952 rescue had been so well-known that it was recounted in a book, The Finest Hours by Casey Sherman and Mike Tougias, which was published in 2009.
According to Simon & Schuster’s website, simonandschuster.com, “It’s the winter of 1952 and a ferocious Nor’easter is pounding New England with howling winds and 70-foot seas. Two oil tankers get caught in the violent storm off Cape Cod, its fury splitting the massive ships in two. Back on shore, four young Coast Guardsmen are issued a suicide mission: Save the lives of the stranded seamen. Sailing a tiny lifeboat into the teeth of the killer storm, the rescue crew soon loses all navigation. With no idea where the stranded seaman are, or how to get back home, the crew stumbles upon the SS Pendleton in the darkness. More than 30 hopeful men appear at the wounded ship’s railings. Can the tiny lifeboat save them all?”
While Mel, who was known as “Gus” at the time, lived the event, he noted that seeing it in print and working with the authors was interesting. Mel met with the authors several times, going over the events surrounding the rescue.
“Talking about it so much, everything comes back to you,” says Mel, who now lives in Massachusetts. “It’s strange that 40 or 50 years after this event, something like this would happen. It was very nice. It brought back some good memories and some not so good memories.”
Several years ago, Mel attended a Coast Guard function and saw Andy Fitzgerald walk into the room. Fitzgerald was a member of the rescue crew, all of whom received a Gold Lifesaving Medal. The pair hadn’t seen each other since Mel left the station 30 years before.
“He hadn’t changed a bit—a little more grey hair—but I said, ‘Hey Fitzy,’ and he said, ‘Nobody’s called me Fitzy in 30 years’,” says Mel, who noted no one had called him Gus since then either.
It was then that Mel had first heard they were considering making the rescue into a movie. A few years later, Mel and Fitzgerald were visiting the set of the movie that told their story. The movie, also called The Finest Hours was released in January 2016 by Walt Disney pictures.
“We were invited to the set a couple times and I’d never seen anything like that,” says Mel. “The rescue scene was very good. It was a good movie.”
With the release of the book and the movie, there has been much excitement about Mel’s story, though right now he is concentrating on his upcoming presentation at North Haven High School where his daughter, Nancy Schreiber, is a teacher. This is the third time Mel will share his story with NHHS students and he has also spoken at several other schools.
“Every year they have that day and it’s pretty nice,” says Mel. “I just try to give them a historic presentation of what this rescue was all about and how we worked with what we had. I try to impress upon them that you follow the orders. If you fail, you fail, but you go out and try.
“[When I give the presentation], the people are quite interested,” adds Mel. “The kids couldn’t have been any more attentive and fascinated. They were genuinely interested. It’s nice to be able to speak to them about how it was our job—that’s what we were trained for.”