World War II Coast Guard Rescue Cutter Becomes Part Of Environment Artificial Reef

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Coast Guard rescue cutter that gained fame in the bestseller and hit film, "The Perfect Storm," will become part of an environment-enhancing artificial reef off the Jersey and Delaware Coast.

The cutter Tamaroa survived action in the Pacific and went on to rescue helicopter crew members and the crew of a Bermuda-bound boat during the "Perfect Storm." But Jack Hennessey recalls it wasn't fun to sail in heavy weather.

"If you can picture being in 40 foot seas in a bathtub, you'd get an idea of what it was like."

Now Delaware and New Jersey environmental agencies will shortly send the World War II cutter to the bottom as an artificial fishing-ground reef.

"I 'd rather see it be an artificial reef than razor blades," Hennessey said.

But for over 2,000 survivors of the 1956 collision between the luxury liner Andrea Doria and the Stockholm, the Tamaroa will be remembered as the first cutter to race to their rescue. Among the liner's passengers was Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dilworth.