The Finest Hours, SS Pendleton, Cape Cod, February 18, 1952

oil, 24" x 36"

SOLD

The acclaimed 2016 movie The Finest Hours starring Chris Pine told the true story of perhaps the most daring rescue in U.S. Coast Guard history when on February 18, 1952 the Coast Guard Station in Chatham, Massachusetts received a message that WWII era oil tanker SS Pendleton had split in two in 60 foot waves and hurricane winds at sea. Without hesitating a small crew set out in a 30 foot Coast Guard Lifeboat to the ship which they reached and miraculously managed to rescue 32 of the 36 men who had gathered on the broken off stern of the ship. To paint this dramatic painting the artist tracked down the last surviving Coast Guard crew member and reviewed the details of the rescue with him from his perspective. He related how each member of the ship’s crew made way down a Jacob’s Ladder and into the lifeboat as it rose and sunk 30 feet with each wave. Here Sarba re-captured the tense moments aboard the vessel.