Chatham Bars Inn 2015 Magazine

History’s Greatest CBI’s Top Chef: Maritime Rescue A Day in the Life

Murder Mystery Weekend

20 Must-Dos on the Elbow

ChathamBarsInn 2015–16

R ES O RT AND S PA MAGA Z IN E

FEATURES

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Defying the Sea

Chasing Cole

Suspect No. 5

In 1952, a violent nor’easter tore a 503-foot tanker in two, leaving 33 seamen facing their imminent watery graves off the coast of Chatham. What happened next was – and still is – the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history.

What does a typical day in the life of CBI Executive Chef Anthony Cole look like? Let’s just say the Harwich man has a lot on his plate, between fishing, farming, and feeding a wedding reception of 160 people.

by JEFF HARDER

by CATHERINE SHANNON

A blood-stained suite. A long-ago prom secret. A beautiful young woman found dead. Our writer wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived at CBI’s popular Murder Mystery Weekend, but he certainly didn’t think he’d become this invested.

by MATT BOXLER

8 2015–16

OFFICIAL USCG PHOTO; ELC 1CGD; PHOTO BY RICHARD C. KELSEY, CHATHAM, MASS.

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DEPARTMENTS

Publisher Jessica Kaiser

Editorial

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Ryan Brandt MANAGING EDITOR Catherine Shannon RESEARCH & COPY EDITOR Joni Lacroix FACT CHECKER Roni Reino

Art & Production CREATIVE MANAGER Emily Woodworth ASSOCIATE DESIGNER Aimee Skidds PHOTO EDITOR Kristin Burgess PROJECT COORDINATOR Cora Paradiso AD DESIGNER Holly Hancock PRODUCTION MANAGER Jennifer Legacy

Advertising VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES Ben Morse SALES DIRECTOR Molly Patrick SALES MANAGER Allison Holmberg

17 The Must List

Combing through Lower and Middle Cape’s top to-dos, from the ultimate shellfishing sites to sunset sail tours.

23 Bulletin

New CBI programs you can’t pass up.

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25 Subject Matter

The secret to keeping kids happy is on a 65-year-old piece of paper hidden in the resort archives.

47 Inside CBI

Your complete resort guide.

50 Exit Point

Why Cape surfers prefer winter waves.

For advertising information, please contact

33 Jewell Court Portsmouth, NH 03801 603.610.0533 hawthorncreative.com © Hawthorn Creative 2015 All rights reserved.

COVER PHOTO: Luke Simpson

LUKE SIMPSON

12 Inside This Issue

IN THIS ISSUE Farm Alfresco Besides actually going to dig through the dirt, the next best thing to get up close with CBI’s eight-acre Brewster-based farm is through the new summer and fall Farm to Table Dinner series. Leading up to an event, CBI Executive Chef Anthony Cole carefully devises a family-style meal using only produce from the farm, then serves it at the resort’s airy Beach House Restaurant. So, sure, while you’ll find the farm’s bounty gracing the plates in the resort’s dining outlets, this dinner series comes served with a unique side of Chef Cole’s very own narration.

Behind the Scenes

The Cape Playhouse Back when Broadway’s finest left Manhattan’s A/C-free halls to beat the heat at the Cape’s coastline, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, and other stars graced the stage of the country’s oldest professional summer theater in Dennis. (The seats are original pews from its earlier incarnation as a nineteenth-centur y church.) That legacy continues today, with New York City thespians starring in six productions over the span of 12 weeks each summer, with 2015’s lineup of My Fair Lady and The Drowsy Chaperone. See more things we love in “The Must List,” page 17.

Hollywood Comes a Callin’

In December of 2015, Disney took over Chatham to film The Finest Hours based on the 1952 SS Pendleton rescue mission (see “Defying the Sea,” page 27).

“This year, we received six film requests,” says Chatham Police Chief and nine-year resident Mark Pawlina. “In the past, we’ve had requests from National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Happy Madison Productions, Honda, and more. We’re a very scenic and popular destination.” But it’s not just the scenery Disney was looking for; authenticity was key to re-create this Cape Cod rescue, down to interviewing the last remaining survivors and authors Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias who wrote a book of the same title.

Stay Posted ChathamBarsInn.com, 508.945.0096 #chathambarsinn

@ChathamBarsInn

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instagram.com/chathambarsinn

pinterest.com/chathambarsinn

Use this hashtag to search or mark your own memories at CBI.

(MAN) LUKE SIMPSON; (BUILDING) PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAPE PLAYHOUSE

Things We Love

THE

MUST LIST Stops, shops, and surprises on the Lower and Middle Cape.

by JEFF HARDER

JANET FIELDS

In Plane View Stick’n Rudder Aero Tours, Chatham At low tide, you’ll be lucky to spot its shadow. But from a 1,500-foot altitude from your perch in a Cessna 172, the 441-foot underwater SS James Longstreet – a crippled vessel in Cape Cod Bay that the Navy once used for target practice – is distinctly viewable. It’s just one of the landmarks you’ll glimpse during these tours (which are as short as 15 and as long as 55 minutes), departing from the Chatham Municipal Airport.

Cont’d.

chathamairport.com/sightseeing.html, 508-945-2363

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THE MUST LIST Mug Shot Scargo Pottery & Art Gallery, Dennis A generation of Cape Cod potters learned their craft from the late Harry Holl, and his legacy lives on in his gallery and studio by Scargo Lake on the eastern edge of Dennis. Secluded among pine trees and surrounded by an array of original Holl signature fish-shaped bird feeders, the low-slung, indoor-outdoor space is chock-full of dishes, mugs, vases, sculptures, and more, made by the hands of Holl and his daughters who use their father’s original clay and glaze formulas. scargopottery.com, 508-385-3894

A Different Scoop

Seaside Sounds

When you’ve had enough of plain Jane chocolate, pack a waffle cone with this rainbow of offbeat flavors.

1. Four Seas Ice Cream, Centerville, fourseasicecream.com

2. Sundae School, various locations, sundaeschool.com

The Beachcomber, Wellfleet Since 1978, this lifesaving-stationturned-restaurant-and-nightclub has been a summertime music haven between the dunes. By day, sandy-toed mobs climb up from Cahoon Hollow Beach to slurp down 1,000 oysters a day.

By night, revelers sip Goombay Smashes – a house specialty – and listen to national acts, like Big Head Todd, G. Love, and Dick Dale. thebeachcomber.com, 508-349-6055

3. Nauset Ice Cream,

4. Cape Cod Creamery, South Yarmouth and Hyannis, capecodcreamery.com

5. Ice Cream Smuggler, Dennis, icecreamsmuggler.com

6. Ice Cream Café, Orleans, icecreamcafe.com

7. Emack & Bolio’s, Chatham, Orleans, and Wellfleet, emackandbolios.com

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Shell of a Good Time

Shellfishing on the Brewster Flats, Brewster Brewster’s tidal flats extend more than a mile from shore and host an array of shellfish – oysters, littlenecks, even the occasional scallop. During July and August (only on Thursdays and Sundays) at Saint’s Landing off Robbins Hill Road, wardens supply rakes and baskets, and you can collect up to 10 quarts of quahogs. Just pick up a one-week non-resident shellfishing permit ($20 per family) at town hall first.

508-896-4546

(POTTERY) KIM HOLL

Eastham, nauseticecream.com

THE MUST LIST Catch of the Day

“Most places that can’t handle complexity won’t touch skate, so when it’s on the menu, it speaks to the quality of the restaurant,” says local chef Toby Hill. Here, Hill and Chatham fisherman Tim Linnell explain the secrets of skate.

Catch It Winter skate – the only skate species fit for dinner plates – is a flat, brown, bottom-dwelling fish that resembles a two-foot-wide stingray (minus the barb tail). In the summer, Linnell makes the 12-mile trip aboard his boat, F/V Perry’s Pride II, to haul in a daily quota of 2,600 pounds of skate wings, the pectoral fins that wind up in the kitchen.

Cook It Skate wings actually don’t taste much different than haddock or other whitefish; however, they’re super perishable, so if you don’t serve it within two days of getting it, you might as well toss it, says Hill.

Eat It Pan-roasted skate wing with caramelized cauliflower and bacon vinaigrette, courtesy of Chef Hill. (makes 4–6 servings) 2 lb.

1 4 slices 1 1 ⁄2 tbsp.

1 ⁄4 c.

1 c.

1 ⁄4 c.

Skate fillets Cauliflower, cut into florets Applewood bacon Onion, chopped Dijon mustard White balsamic vinegar Panko bread crumbs Extra virgin olive oil Salt & pepper

1. Blanch cauliflower in boiling salt water for 3 minutes, then drain.

2. In an oiled sauté pan over medium heat, cook cauliflower until caramelized, adding in salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. In another sauté pan over medium heat, combine bacon, onion, mustard, oil, and vinegar. Cook until onions are caramelized and bacon is crispy.

4. Place bacon mixture in a blender and blend into a paste. Set aside.

5. Coat the skate in bread crumbs. In an oiled sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook the skate fillets until golden brown on both sides (2 to 3 minutes each side).

6. Place cauliflower on a plate, top with skate, and drizzle with bacon vinaigrette.

MEET THE FLEET

Learn more about Chatham’s catch during the “Meet the Fleet” series hosted by a special partner of CBI: the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance (capecodfishermen .org). Here, a local fisherman and chef talk about a particular species in season, how it’s harvested, and cooking with it.

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THE MUST LIST Made on Cape Cod

Iconic products, pieces, and possessions birthed on the elbow of the arm.

Bar Tender This 29-foot custom launch boat was built for CBI by Chatham’s Pease Boat Works & Marine Railway and serves as a daily shuttle from the resort premises to North Beach during the high season.

(SURFBOARD) SCOTT CRIVELLARO; (SOAPS) ANN MILLER; (BEER) TODD MARCUS, BREWMASTER/PRESIDENT, CAPE COD BEER; (SAILBOAT) LUKE SIMPSON

Chatham Bars Inn, chathambarsinn.com

Chicken Pot Pie No vegetables in this signature pie made in Centerville – just flaky crust, creamy gravy, and a massive pile of tender hand-pulled chicken. Even Oprah endorses it.

Cranberry Soap Made in Hyannis by hand and in small batches, this floral-scented bar is flecked with real cranberry for vitamin C and gentle exfoliation.

Centerville Pies, centervillepies.com

Summer House Natural Soaps, summerhousesoaps.com

Sup All-Arounder An 11-foot-long board equally suited to wave riders and yoga practitioners and made in Orleans by surfboard shaper Shawn Vecchione.

Vec Surfboards, vecsurfboards.com

Beach Blonde Ale A mild, golden-colored, year-round release – and a slice of pizza’s best friend – from the lone microbrewery this side of the Sagamore Bridge.

Cape Cod Beer, capecodbeer.com

Silver Screen

Sail Away

chathamorpheum.org, 508-945-0874

chathambarsinn.com, 508-945-6760

Chatham Orpheum Theater, Chatham After a nearly three-decade absence, this cozy century-old movie house on Main Street returned in 2013 with two screens, 6.1 Surround Sound, and 3-D capabilities.

Beyond the refurbished digs, variety is the featured attraction: a first-run Jennifer Lawrence flick, a Hitchcock classic, and a local filmmaker’s documentary could all share space on the marquee. But you can guarantee Jaws to fill the main theater’s 151 seats every summer.

Sunset Sail, Chatham Bars Inn When the daylight dims, take a 90-minute harbor cruise with five of your friends aboard the 26-foot Latitude Tadorne Stars & Stripes or the 40-foot Friendship Sloop Stargazer. As the golden-hour sun illuminates Pleasant Bay and North Beach Island, enjoy champagne, a cheese platter, and the underwater acrobatic show by the local gray and harbor seals.

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BULLETIN

Getting with the Programs

Bamboo bikes, future MLBers, and shark hunting – the CBI special offerings (spurred from new exclusive area partnerships) that are coming to a vacation near you.

Fish Tales The Cape Cod Fishermen’s Alliance’s long-running Friday Pier Program brings a seasoned fisherman to talk about what’s being harvested from the sea; their July Dish on Fish fund-raiser at CBI takes it one step further and shows you how to get culinary with the catch.

Pedal Pushers A fleet of Erba Cycles – handmade in Boston, custom made for CBI – is now available for rental. Made from bamboo and sporting trendy baskets, they’re for cruising around Chatham in style.

Pitch Perfect

(BASEBALL PLAYER) KARLY LALIBERTE; (BIKE) HUGUES DARODES DE TAILLY

Kids and teens enrolled in CBI’s children’s programs head to Veterans Field for baseball clinics – provided by the Cape Cod Baseball League – with the home team, the Chatham Anglers. Your kid may just be working with the next Tim Lincecum (yes, he was in this league).

Great White Discoveries The most exclusive offerings of CBI’s unique partnership with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy are the research trips, where guests join the crew to track and tag (hopefully) great whites off the waters of Chatham. Last season, 68 sharks were catalogued.

Art Excursions Thanks to Chatham’s Creative Arts Center, CBI’s children’s programs got a little more colorful. Kids (7 to 12) work with local artists to craft their own watercolor, while teens embark on field trips to the arts center to see the practices of pottery at play.

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SUBJECT MATTER

Poster Child

CBI has been catering to its youngest visitors since before men were walking on the moon. And we have the old program menu that was left in families’ guest rooms from the late 1950s to prove it. by CATHERINE SHANNON 1. The Beach Back then, the quarter-mile swath of sand on the inn’s doorstep served as something of an open-air morning day care. Today, CBI’s kids programming (ages 4 through 12) still centers around the beach with everything from Beach Olympics to pirate-themed scavenger hunts.

2. Creative Offerings While parents enjoyed a pre-dinner drink, kids were supervised with their own “coke-tails” – essentially a soda and ice cream party.

Present-day creative equivalents come in the form of Everybody’s Birthday Party (a giant cake, clowns, balloons, and magic show) and the Black Light Glow Party with glow-in-the-dark dodgeball.

3. Parents’ Time-Out

(PIRATE SHIP, WOMEN) LUKE SIMPSON

For an evening out alone, parents can still book babysitters through CBI’s recommended service or enroll kids in an evening camp session from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

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4. Playtime Experts Like then, program counselors are most often college students majoring in child behavioral studies or a teaching degree. “Their passion is clear, and their energy is contagious,” says Kristin Walsh, CBI’s recreation manager. “The little kids look up to them.”

LATEST & GREATEST The children’s programs roster for 2015.

Beach Buddies, ages 4–6 Art classes with the Chatham Creative Arts Center, swim lessons, camping, cooking with CBI, and more.

Clam Diggers, ages 7–11 Hands-on baseball clinics with the Chatham Anglers, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, fishing, snorkeling, and special arcade nights.

Teen Programs, ages 12+ Soccer competitions, trips to the CBI Farm, bike rentals and rides, teen bonfires with glow games, and clamming expeditions.

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the Sea

DEFY ING

In February of 1952, a crew of barely 20-year-old Chatham Coast Guardsmen departed on a suicide mission, sailing right into the teeth of a merciless nor’easter.

Four hours later, they returned with the greatest maritime rescue ever recorded in US history.

(SHIP) RICHARD COOPER KELSEY

BY J E F F H A R D E R

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F

ive miles off Chatham, in blinding snow, 70-knot winds, and near-freezing ocean, 20-year-old Andy Fitzgerald pointed a searchlight into the darkness. Around him, waves swelled anywhere from 40 to 70 feet. “I didn’t really know how big the waves were,” says Fitzgerald, now 83. “It was snowing so hard you couldn’t really see them.”

It was February 18, 1952, and the CG36500 – a wooden 90-horsepower Coast Guard lifeboat with the profile of a low-top sneaker that engineman Fitzgerald shared with Richard Livesey, Irving Maske, and coxswain Bernie Webber – had been bludgeoned by a nor’easter.

Seas smashed the pilothouse windshield, briefly knocked out the engine, and ripped away the compass, and no one responded to Webber’s radio transmissions as he aimlessly searched for the stern of the SS Pendleton, a 503-foot tanker ship that carried kerosene and home heating oil from Louisiana to Boston that had been torn in two by the storm. The bow had drifted out to sea, and the eight men aboard perished. With the radio destroyed (the Pendleton had been spotted by a plane that was looking for another crippled ship), the stern drifted south with 33 men onboard, waiting for help that might never come.

But through the din of the storm, Fitzgerald heard a swish and spied something rising from the surf. “I put the searchlight on it, and there was a big hunk of metal, sticking up about 30 or 40 feet in the

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air,” says Fitzgerald, today the last surviving member of that four-person Chatham Coast Guard team. The light illuminated block-like letters on the side: PENDLETON. “Then I thought, ‘Jeez, how are we going to get anybody off that?’”

When the four Coast Guardsmen left Chatham for the Pendleton wreck, few expected them to return from the maelstrom at all, let alone with survivors. Instead, the 36-foot CG36500 came back gorged with 36 passengers. In the aftermath, the rescue ebbed from front-page news to hidden legend, but now, it’s the catalyst for The Finest Hours, a Disney production set to premiere in fall of 2015 based on the 2010 book of the same name. It’s a narrative about heroism, selflessness, and rising to the occasion. “There weren’t any John Waynes out there,” says Barnstable native Casey Sherman, who coauthored the book with Michael Tougias. “These guys were young and they were scared, but they worked together.”

Almost 63 years after the CG36500 limped back into port, Sherman stuffs his hands in his coat pockets while he walks the bluffs above Chatham Lighthouse Beach. The sun-drenched day in November couldn’t be less like a nor’easter, but a biting pre-winter wind skims the indigo waters beyond. Behind, the beacon in Chatham Light spins its predictable automated rhythm, and the neighboring Coast Guard Station campus stays silent. Despite the changes half a

OFFICIAL USCG PHOTO; ELC 1CGD; PHOTO BY RICHARD C. KELSEY, CHATHAM, MASS.

Later, found waterlogged and beached on a sandbar, the broken stern of the SS Pendleton is an eerie reminder of what could have been the same outcome for the men.

THE CAST & CREW The plucky Coast Guard crew and the Hollywood actors who play them in Disney’s 2015 blockbuster The Finest Hours.

(WEBBER, FITZGERALD, LIVESEY, MASKE) RICHARD COOPER KELSEY

century brings, the line of sight toward the ocean hasn’t changed at all – a preview of the roiling sea was inescapable for the quartet that lurched through it. “These guys knew what they were facing, and they went out anyway,” Sherman says.

Webber, Livesey, Maske, and Fitzgerald weren’t seasoned veterans – Webber, a 24-year-old boatswain’s mate first class and son of a Baptist minister, was the most experienced among them. They had never worked as a unit – in fact, none had even met Maske, who was waiting out the storm at the Coast Guard Station before heading back to his lightship. When commanding officer Daniel Cluff ordered Webber – still soaking wet after corralling disabled fishing boats with Livesey – to pick a crew, find the Pendleton’s stern, and retrieve survivors, there was no room for protest. “In those days, the motto of the Coast Guard was, ‘You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back,’” says Fitzgerald. While others looked away, Livesey, Maske, and Fitzgerald stepped forward.

As the CG36500 pressed from Old Harbor into the ocean around dinnertime, whether any survivors would greet them remained an open question. They crossed Chatham Bar, a treacherous area of shifting shoals, and waves tossed and battered the boat. When it emerged with a smashed windshield, no compass, and no sense of direction, Webber aimed for the Pollock Rip Lightship (a moored ship with a beacon in it to act as a lighthouse) to reorient while the seas grew larger around him. “It was a long, slow climb to the top of the waves,” Webber wrote in his memoir. “[Then] we would fall ahead and race down the other side to the point where our forward motion was so fast I would have to reverse the lifeboat in order to slow it down; otherwise, it would bury itself.”

“Remember, Bernie [Webber] had no idea [where the ship was], and he ran right into it,” says Sherman. “He told his guys, ‘We’re gonna

Bernie Webber, coxswain Managed to steer the CG36500 through impassable waves to the Pendleton and back to Chatham.

Andrew Fitzgerald, engineman Restarted CG36500’s scalding-hot engine when the waves knocked it out during the rescue; received several severe burns as result.

Richard Livesey, seaman Alongside Irving Maske, pulled man after man aboard the CG36500 from the ocean.

Chris Pine Star Trek (2009), Unstoppable (2010), This Means War (2012), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Kyle Gallner American Sniper (2014), Jennifer's Body (2009), Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Ben Foster Lone Survivor (2013), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Webber, Livesey, Maske, and Fitzgerald weren’t seasoned veterans.

They had never worked as a unit.

Few expected them to return from the maelstrom at all, let alone with

survivors.

Irving Maske, seaman Returned with crushed black and blue fingers from trying to pull in George Myers, the lone casualty.

John Magaro My Soul to Take (2010), Not Fade Away (2012), The Brave One (2007)

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made it possible. Still, the rescue’s lone casualty cast a pall: George Myers slipped from the Jacob’s ladder into the chop and was crushed between the two vessels. Within minutes of the last survivor coming aboard, the Pendleton’s stern flipped and sunk.

Weighed down with three times its maximum load, the CG36500 squatted in the water while high-ranking officers bickered over the radio about the lifeboat’s next move – one half-baked plan involved sending the vessel farther out to sea to transfer the survivors onto a cutter ship. Instead, Webber switched off the radio and pointed his boat toward shore – or what he thought was shore. Sailing blindly once again, the crew encountered another miracle in a five-hour adventure full of them: flashing red lights on a buoy, announcing the entrance back to Old Harbor and the Chatham Fish Pier, where townsfolk waited with hot meals and dry clothes. Chatham and the Coast Guard had a new ensemble of heroes.

The men, however, quietly deflected that label – they were just

Webber told his guys, “We’re gonna hit something tonight: We’re either gonna hit the side of the vessel or we’re gonna reach England, but

we’re not stopping until we hit something.”

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RICHARD COOPER KELSEY

hit something tonight: We’re either gonna hit the side of the vessel or we’re gonna reach England, but we’re not stopping until we hit something.’”

When the searchlight illuminated the broken steel of Pendleton – with the severed end under water, the stern tilted upward rising out of the sea at almost a 20-degree angle – survivors, which Webber described resembling tiny ants, appeared at the railings on the starboard quarter. One by one, they climbed down a Jacob’s ladder, jumping from its rungs either into the frigid waters or onto the CG36500 as it made pass after pass. Webber told Fitzgerald that he briefly considered cutting the trip short, carrying his passengers back to port, then coming back out for the remaining survivors later. “Then he thought, ‘I can’t make another trip like that. We’re going to take everybody off there, and we’ll all live, or we’ll all die,’” Fitzgerald recalls. “I agreed with him.”

Climbing aboard the CG36500, restored by the Orleans Historical Society and now resting in its winter berth on Meetinghouse Pond, it’s easy to see why Webber thought about a second trip: The boat is only meant to carry a dozen people, and it’s a claustrophobe’s nightmare. The face of your flat-screen TV is probably bigger than the hatchway into the engine room.

Richard Ryder, coxswain of the boat’s modern incarnation and a Chatham native who remembers listening to the actual Pendleton rescue on his dad’s CG radio receiver, says roughly 15 survivors were crammed into its forward compartment. Crossing the deck to the pilothouse means clutching a handhold and stepping very, very carefully through a rope-margined choke point. The boat is like a 36-foot seat in coach.

Yet, somehow, 32 survivors from the Pendleton made it onboard the CG36500, sardined into every corner, even around the scalding engine. Years later, Sherman says, the Coast Guard tried and failed to replicate the feat in calm waters – it seems only life-or-death conditions

doing their jobs, they said. Fitzgerald’s own wife didn’t know about his role for the first three years of their relationship. (“Nobody ever asked about it,” he says.) And even after leaving the Coast Guard in 1966, Webber was haunted by Myers’s death. “Bernie never considered it a successful rescue because he didn’t think about the 32 men he brought home; he thought about the one man he couldn’t bring home,” Sherman says. Whether the result of survivor guilt, modesty, or time, the story of the Pendleton rescue fell into obscurity.

Now, after more than half a century, the story is back in the spotlight. Back at the fish pier, Sherman sits behind the wheel of his

idling Jeep Wrangler, in plain view of gloveless fishermen mending their boats, gusts rippling across the blue behind them. This is where four men departed into darkness, and where cheerful mobs welcomed their improbable return. When Sherman first pitched The Finest Hours to movie producers, they said they were only interested in stories about superheroes performing extraordinary feats. “My response was that this is a film about superheroes,” Sherman says. “They don’t wear capes and tights; they wear hand-me-down galoshes and foulweather gear.” cbi

THE FINEST HOURS FILM FACTS » Portions of the movie were shot in Duxbury, Marshfield, and Cohasset, but the crucial rescue scene couldn’t be filmed anywhere else than the waters off Chatham.

CAPE COD COMMUNITY COLLEGE

» Allegedly, the movie budget was $80 million, making this the most expensive film ever shot on the Cape.

The 32 survivors eagerly clamor off the CG36500 to touch the shore they thought they’d never see again; (opposite) by the way the four men chatted casually over coffee post-rescue, you’d never know they had just performed a maritime miracle.

» Filming in Chatham was brief and took place from December 5 through 13, 2014, with scenes captured at the Coast Guard Station, Lighthouse Beach, Stage Harbor Road, the fish pier, and a private dock in Stage Harbor.

» Chatham Bars Inn provided housing for most of the 200 members in the production’s cast and crew, including Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. » Production was not permitted to use the restored original CG36500, but current coxswain of the historic boat, Richard Ryder, helped them find a similar vessel and oversaw the replication. » Downtime during production included trips to the 1915 Chatham Orpheum Theater on Main Street, where cast and crew took in films, such as Birdman and Rosewater.

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We tracked Anthony Cole during a typical workday last October and learned that being executive chef at CBI means more than creating immaculate dishes. It means sometimes working 12-hour days, getting your hands in dirt, and hopping on the line across all four restaurants. In short, you’ve got to wear many (chef) hats.

WORDS BY CATHERINE SHANNON / PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE SIMPSON

hef Anthony Cole believes in enjoying the “soup” of your labors. As a young boy, when he would visit his grandmother in the rural outskirts of Quebec, Canada, after a day spent laboring among the rows of rhubarb, tomatoes, zucchini, and carrots in her gardens perched above the St. Lawrence River, he would always be rewarded with a burnt-orange pot with a worn wooden handle on the cottage’s kitchen stove. “It was an ugly pot, but it would contain whatever soup she decided to make that day

from what we had been nurturing in the gardens. It always had the most beautiful smell and signaled the reward after all those chores,” says the 43-year-old. “That soup was the turning point for me as far as being a chef. It embodies my philosophy that food should satisfy your soul, but celebrate hard work and appreciation of what you have.”

Today, that attitude wafts through CBI’s own kitchens, where, for the last eight years, Cole has played maestro, overseeing an orchestra-sized staff of 90 in the summer in

the four dining theaters of STARS, The Sacred Cod, The Veranda, and The Beach House Restaurant. While soup isn’t always on the menu here, what you will find are creative dishes that celebrate the hard work of local purveyors from the area: one-man-show fishmongers, like Curtis Collias of South Chatham’s Cape Cod Clam & Seafood Co.; family-run farms, like Jansal Valley Farm in Dartmouth, Massachusetts; beef from Boston butcher houses, like Dole & Bailey; and, of course, basket upon basket of produce coming

from CBI’s own eight-acre Brewster farm (which first opened in 2013).

“His concern is doing justice to the product. And he’s always trying to better understand it,” says Executive Sous Chef Andrew Chadwick.

“One second, he’s at the farm with his hands in the dirt; the next, he’s holding a hunk of beef tenderloin telling you how you’re going to butter poach it so that the whole steak is a perfect medium rare through and through. It’s fascinating to watch him work.”

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A.M.

C H AT H A M C AT C H “I grew up fishing for brook trout near Quebec’s St. Lawrence River, but here on the Cape, it’s a fisherman’s paradise,” says Cole, who always makes time – even if it’s for as long as a half-hour just before work. Here, after dropping off his 9-year-old

How I came to the Cape I had worked for The Ritz-Carlton for 11 years, bouncing from Atlanta, Georgia, to Naples, Florida, to St. Louis, Missouri, when I saw the position for CBI’s executive chef in 2006. My wife, Sarah, and I thought this would be a good place to raise our daughter. We’ve lived in East Harwich since.

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Favorite thing about cooking on the Cape There is this amazing rhythm to seasons here.

In Georgia and Florida, it’s all the same flavors year-round, and you lose track of the seasons.

Here, product is always seasonal, so you get excited about what is coming around the bend.

Favorite spare-time activity I’m an avid snowboarder. I grew up skateboarding, and, in 1987, I was one of the first to pick up snowboarding. I ride a beautiful Burton custom 168.

daughter, Mackenzie, at Chatham Elementary School in late October, he stops by Morris Island to fish for striped bass in Chatham Harbor. “I also make my own flies – something I like to do to pass the winter."

Number-one kitchen “no-no” No tournéed vegetables. It’s a special oblong-shape cut and you waste so much of a good vegetable to get that cut. I don’t like waste.

Favorite item to forage for locally Wild beach plums. They’re a small tart-sweet fruit that grows in the beach dunes. My daughter and I like to hunt for those together. They make great jam.

F I E L D D AY

A.M.

In the evening, Cole e-mails CBI Farm Manager Josh Schiff about what he would like to have the farmhands pick in quantities for the next day’s menu. While that requested produce promptly arrives at the resort about 10 a.m., Cole still stops by CBI’s farm on his way to work, where he surveys what seems ripe or will be

soon. “My main focus is to think about, ‘What’s next?’ I’ll see the baby zucchinis with blossoms and say, ‘OK, they’re not ready yet, but when they are in the next week or two, we could be stuffing them with ricotta cheese and doing a light tempura for an app at STARS.’” He then grabs a

basket and mines a few items, cutting into some right there with a pocketknife to assess its internal structure or taste.

But the main goal is to bring back a handful of things and put it in front of his team during their morning meetings. “That’s how we do our best menu planning.”

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OFFICE DUT Y Before checking in on breakfast in the kitchen, Cole sits down at his office computer in the Main Inn (his desktop background picture depicts a smiling Mackenzie

holding a paper heart) to work on scheduling, but not just for his regular team: “We do six-week culinary internships – line cooks, sushi chefs, banquet cooks,

etcetera – so the wall to my left is a scheduling chart of colored magnets, where I’m basically playing checkers to make sure everyone gets his or her required hours in.”

KITCHEN CO L L A B O R AT I O N Every Saturday in the Charles Hardy Room, Cole meets with just his sous chefs (on the right is Tom Kilbourne, chef de garde manager; not depicted but sitting next to Kilbourne is Andrew Chadwick, executive sous chef). Here, they discuss cooking for upcoming wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, and banquets. Each chef is also given the floor to

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talk about new dishes for the menus in his or her respective outlet. “I’ll say, ‘What about doing something with Nantucket scallops since they’re so sweet right now?’” says Chadwick. “And then chef [Cole] will suggest lacing it with beet puree since the beets are perfect at the farm.

It just snowballs into something beautiful.”

CHECK AND GO Right after that meeting, Cole follows up with Kilbourne, chef de garde manager, about items that need to be prepped in the cold kitchen (“garde” translates in French

to “keeper of the cold food”) for the 160-guest wedding reception of a Boston couple taking place that evening in The Beach House, CBI’s beachfront restaurant.

MANNING THE LINE “I guess I do a lot of checking in throughout the day,” laughs Cole. “A lot,” adds Chadwick.

“Sometimes, it feels like he’s in all the kitchens at once.”

After surveying the line in the kitchen for Sacred Cod, the

tavern-style restaurant that serves classic New England pub fare, Cole hops on any station – grille, sauté, salad prep – that needs extra hands to help get lunch out as smoothly as possible.

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MASTER OF CEREMONY While the wedding reception doesn’t start until 6, Cole and his team are busy hours before in The Beach House kitchen prepping items for the evening, like the red pepper gastric that’s going to be the base of the 160 spinach arugula salads topped with a

P.M.

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vanilla roasted pear and blue cheese turnover. Once those are squared away, it’s onto preparing the tenderloin (Cole’s several-hundred-dollar Japanese steel knives come in handy here), then the vegetarian dish, a butternut squash ravioli served with

braised farm greens and roasted carrots. “It can feel hectic, given the amount of plates we’ve got to get out,” says Cole, “but I give the banquet staff much credit for their energy and great service.”

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P.M.

FLOW OF FOOD After entrées are out for The Beach House reception, Chef Cole hurries back to the Main Inn to help expedite dinner in STARS. Here, he’s reading tickets, plating the trays, and passing them off to food

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runners to deliver to the tables, when the restaurant manager comes back to discuss doing something special for a group of locals who were just seated. “We love it when people from our

own backyard come for a special occasion,” says Cole.

“So we’ll send them tasting plates of other items they didn’t order. It’s our way of recognizing them for recognizing us.”

T H E L A S T PA R T Y In the kitchen located between STARS and Sacred Cod, Cole finishes his last to-do before taking his apron off and going home: getting the meal out for a small corporate function in the Harbor View room. Steam pours out of one of the convection ovens as his staff pulls out the fish for the

salmon en croute they are preparing for the party of 25.

The basil-brushed shrimp with lemon-and–olive oil emulsion is already out. Everything is unfolding seamlessly. “I can actually breathe pretty easy here. After the wedding, this is a piece of cake,” says Cole. cbi

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SUSPECT NO.

LUKE SIMPSON

When writer MATT BOXLER attended a Murder Mystery Weekend at Chatham Bars Inn, he envisioned some sort of role-playing melodrama gone mad with awkward exchanges and a cast of flamboyant over-actors. But then he started playing.

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I

(TWO MEN) LUKE SIMPSON

’m lying face down, staring at the floor of my plush and spacious spa treatment room, savoring the long strokes of skilled fingers when – out of nowhere – it hits me: Perhaps the gunshot that killed the beautiful young woman, Harlow McGovern, less than 20 feet from where I stood during last night’s cocktail party in the South Lounge was actually meant for someone else. Victor Klamans perhaps? He was absolutely covered in Harlow’s blood.

But why?

My wife, Ann, and I are suspect numbers four and five among 36 others who have checked in for CBI’s annual November Murder Mystery Weekend, which consists of three group get-togethers (Friday cocktail party, Saturday breakfast, and Saturday dinner) prior to a big reveal on Sunday morning. Any action, i.e. a murder (or two or three), and all clues to the crimes only come into play during these group events, which are investigated in an open forum (audience participation encouraged). However, outside these gatherings, we are free to enjoy the hotel and historic Chatham at our leisure – as well as chat up fellow suspects in an effort to solve the crime. This is a contest, after all, with the grand prize winners receiving a free trip to another Murder Mystery Weekend (not necessarily held at CBI).

Still on the massage table, I’m excited to share my new hunch with Ann, who is finishing her own custom body treatment.

Prior to this weekend, the prospect of becoming a player’s token in a life-sized game of Clue had me envisioning the mundane process of checking off suspicions one by one until arriving at the only solution remaining – à la Colonel Mustard in the

conservatory with a knife. But this…this is much more complex than I expected – a bit of a massaging of the mind in between, well, actual massage treatments. Plus, I’m relishing the fact that Ann and I are finally tackling something together as a team that doesn’t involve taxi service or laundry detergent. We are kneedeep in a homicide investigation.

And my suspicions are growing. Heading for afternoon tea back at the Main Inn, I circle slowly up the steps that wrap around the outdoor pool, spotting John and Courtney Cadogan soaking in the bubbles of the adjoining hot tub. They look suspiciously at me, and I return the stare – maybe for too long of a moment as I almost bump in to a lounge chair. They were the only two among our group of 36 who missed breakfast this morning in order to prepare for an all-day-long spa visit. What were they trying to hide? Once behind closed doors, I scribble their names down on my running list of “suspects.”

As Ann and I prepare for dinner on Saturday in CBI’s Land’s End cottage, we review the clues that have been revealed thus far – largely by our mellifluously eloquent master of ceremonies, Detective Lieutenant Rocco DiCarlo of New Jersey. (Picture a much wittier and funnier version of Andrew Dice Clay: “Is there a doctah heeyah,” he shouts moments after Harlow’s shooting. “Is there a coronah heeyah … hey, I’m trying to expedite things … yo!”)

Our hastily scribbled notes touch on a $50,000 blackmail payment, deep-rooted jealousy, and a reference to a prom

(Counterclockwise, from top left) Just because you’re in the midst of murder, doesn’t mean there won’t be downtime; copious notetaking is critical if you want to win; accusations arise as clues pile up; (opposite) participants play detective at the scene of the crime.

“Neither Ann nor I have the slightest clue who is acting and who is simply acting strangely.”

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incident sometime in the past. Next to the Cadogans, I write down all three members of Moles family: Eleanor; her daughter, Melissa; and daughter-in-law, Melina. None of them were at the cocktail party Friday night (two of whom were apparently delayed by traffic coming from Boston and one who arrived at the hotel separately but was apparently not feeling well enough to attend the reception). I am especially suspicious of Eleanor, whose age is similar to Victor’s – the man next to Harlow who I think the original bullet may have been intended for – making it possible the two shared some sort of long ago prom secret.

Neither Ann nor I have the slightest clue who is acting and who is simply acting strangely. Maryann Patterson, a financial analyst from Norton, Massachusetts, who is attending with her husband, Kevin, to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary, has a more meticulous process. She has created spreadsheets of the 36 suspects and cross references Internet searches with information they’ve garnered on their own over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

“I’m an Excel freak, and I’m a little bit competitive,” she laughs, admitting she wasn’t sure what to expect when she arrived.

“I’m not really outgoing when you first meet me typically, but this sort of puts you at a comfort level quicker than you ordinarily would. It gives you permission to reach out – to stray a little further – when society tells you to act in a certain way.”

I barely begin my inquisition of the Moles family at dinner when a woman unknown to the group enters The Beach House with a gun. She’s looking for her target when Detective DiCarlo pulls his sidearm. A standoff ensues, and a round of laughter when a dinner guest with a camera flashes the detective in the eyes. DiCarlo shoots the armed intruder, and the hotel staff quickly appears with a luggage cart to wheel her away. “Now take your picture!” DiCarlo quips, kneeling down as if he’s just bagged a deer.

More clues follow, further convincing me that Eleanor fired the shot that killed Harlow. Laughing, she denies my accusations, but before I can press further, DiCarlo leads a group field trip to a private suite upstairs where Geary Leumas has just been brutally stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. He had been sitting at the table next to us moments ago, where we had a nice conversation with him about how he spent many summers in Harwichport as a child (we had absolutely no idea he was, in

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fact, Geary Smith, a professional actor from Maine). We tour the upturned and blood-stained suite, scanning for clues and ultimately finding Geary laid out in the bathtub. We’re back downstairs in time for dessert.

At the final breakfast Sunday morning, Ann and I sit with the unassuming Jim and Marjorie Modena, retired school teachers from the Boston area. They had participated in another CBI Murder Mystery Weekend back in March and had so much fun, they were back for more. I scan the room for where Eleanor Moles is sitting. I had been up until 1 a.m. sketching out a detailed and convoluted solution that pinned it all to Eleanor (many of the guests’ premises that are read aloud afterward show Hollywood script potential). But when Marjorie suddenly – and seemingly out of her character – stands up and angrily approaches Kim to deliver the mystery’s final showdown lines, everyone’s theories suddenly collapse like the old Chatham Light south tower into the sea.

The Modenas, it turns out, didn’t merely attend the last murder mystery weekend here; they were the Grand Prize winners. For this event, though neither had any acting experience whatsoever, they were invited to play a role and received a script two months in advance, along with information detailing who the other actors for the weekend would be.

“I was a little nervous that people would suspect me early on,” Marjorie says afterward. “It became more of a relaxing experience when I saw that I was being crossed off people’s lists the first night. When I asked why this was happening, people said I was too nice to be involved in a murder.”

In the end, Marjorie had, in fact, been at the center of it all – the jealous prom queen runner-up who, 43 years ago, with Geary’s help, had first tried to kill Kim Leumas. Later, with my ego clearly injured and limping over how my carefully workedout solution could be so wrong, I ask Jim how Marjorie was able to pull off such a convincing performance.

“Remember, she was an elementary school teacher,” he whispers. “Marjorie felt she often was acting in front of her class over the 34 years she taught.” cbi

LUKE SIMPSON

“I barely begin my inquisition of the Moles family at dinner when a woman enters The Beach House Grill with a gun.”

Victim number two is wheeled off in a luggage cart; (opposite) the biggest clues are often revealed over sips of chardonnay.

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— 2015–16 —

INSIDE CBI Luxury and New England charm come together in the serene seaside setting of Chatham Bars Inn.

ATTRACTIONS RIGHT OUTSIDE YOUR GUEST ROOM DOOR.

RELISH You know him as CBI’s resident naturalist, leading tours to the 40-acre Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on Morris Island. But Eric Levy is also a lifelong poet and a former student of the famous Cape author and naturalist John Hay.

 With so much to do on property, you really never need to leave Chatham. Select from a stroll down Main Street lined with boutiques, fishing or scenic excursions aboard the resort’s fleet of eight boats, tennis, nature walks, and more.

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INSIDE CBI A RETREAT FOR ADULTS; AN ADVENTURE FOR KIDS.

With a slew of kid programs from baseball clinics to ice cream socials, you can easily indulge in your ultimate Cape Cod vacation, while they indulge in theirs.

RELISH A fleet of new bamboo Erba bikes is available for rental at the resort for a guided trip to CBI’s farm or a historical trip around Chatham.

CUISINE THAT DEMONSTRATES PEAK

 The resort harvests the freshest produce daily from its eight-acre Brewster farm, as well as local seafood and meats to use across the four dining outlets, from the casual New England–style Sacred Cod to the Forbes Four-Star-winning signature restaurant STARS.

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(BOTH PHOTOS) LUKE SIMPSON

FRESHNESS, FINESSE, AND FOUR STARS.

INSIDE CBI RELISH

The spa offers luxury treatments in oversized treatment rooms, and, in summer months, a therapeutic outdoor relaxation pool with private treatment cabanas.

Order up a Cranberry Crush – no, not a drink but an hour-long indigenous body treatment at CBI’s spa, featuring the antioxidant powers of local organic cranberries.

A SPA INSPIRED

BY THE SEA.

From the 20-foot vaulted ceilings of the Boathouse to the blank canvas flexibility of Monomoy, distinctive settings ensure that your wedding, conference, or private group gettogether will be unforgettable.

STUNNING EVENT SPACES THAT WILL TURN HEADS.

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EXIT POINT

Cold-Weather Culture

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surfer tiptoes through the snow past Eastham’s old Coast Guard station en route to Coast Guard Beach near the inlet into Nauset Marsh. Although it’s early in the morning and in the middle of cold winter temps, he’s still not the first in the water

today, evident from the footpath he follows. It’s all a testament to how much better the waves are here in the winter with consistent chest-high to double-overhead sets, not to mention the practically barren beaches. In fact, many serious Cape surfers consider summer their off-season. –CATHERINE SHANNON

LUKE SIMPSON

A

Freezing surf? They wouldn’t have their waves any other way.