The Finest Hours - The True Story of the US Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue details the unbelievable rescue of the crew from the SS Pendleton off the coast of Maine in 1952.
Trapped by a storm so violent it ripped the massive cargo tanker into two pieces, the crew desperately hung on as the Coast Guard were alerted and a rescue plan initiated - only to find when they arrived at the disaster scene that there was a second cargo ship in the area - SS Fort Mercer - that had also been torn into two pieces! An amazing story of heroism following the leads of each team and the men trapped on board the vessels still afloat. More of a factual, detailed account this didn't draw me into the characters as a novel would have, more of a document of events giving a few paragraphs of history on each person involved and the part they played. They let the actual blockbuster action drive the tale.
Not all of the men caught in the brutal storm survived, but considering the odds, especially with the rescue technology at hand in the early 1950's compared to today, it's amazing that any came home at all. There is also quite alarming detail about the building of war time ships, rushed into production with inadequate materials, that were turned in peacetime from scrap into commercial tankers - knowing they had a history of metal defects - which somewhat explains their high rate of failure.
This wasn't the best sea rescue story I've read, full of dry detail, and recommended only for those who research this kind of thing. For a more exciting version watch the 2016 movie based on this account starring Chris Pine.
2009 / Paperback/ 311 pages
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