There were more than 500 T2 tankers built during World War II, and like their sister “Liberty ships,” they served across the oceans. Never meant to last beyond the war years, many were pressed into commercial service when the conflict ended. Unfortunately, some of the T2s were manufactured with brittle steel, and displayed a frightening tendency to break in half when encountering cold weather and heavy seas. On Feb. 18, 1952, the T2 tankers SS Pendleton and SS Fort Mercer both split in half less than 40 miles from each other off the coast of Massachusetts during a heavy storm. Pendleton had broken up south of Cape Cod, Fort Mercer east of Chatham. The U.S. Coast Guard was alerted to Fort Mercer’s emergency, but Pendleton wasn’t able to get off a message in time, and the Coast Guard initially didn’t know it was dealing with two ships in distress, complicated by the fact that there were now four pieces of hull still afloat in the same general area.

Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Bernard C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-36500 from Station Chatham, and his crew, consisting of Engineman 3rd Class Andrew Fitzgerald, Seaman Richard Livesey, and Seaman Ervin Maske, were sent to rescue the newly discovered Pendleton and its 33 surviving crewmembers.

While Coast Guard cutters in extraordinary feats of seamanship rescued crewmembers aboard Fort Mercer, the Coast Guard discovered that Pendleton was in distress, its surviving crew aboard its stern half. Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Bernard C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-36500 from Station Chatham, and his crew, consisting of Engineman 3rd Class Andrew Fitzgerald, Seaman Richard Livesey, and Seaman Ervin Maske, were sent to rescue the newly discovered Pendleton and its 33 surviving crewmembers.

Webber and his crew went out to save the Pendleton’s crew in a 36-foot lifeboat built to carry only 12 survivors. They lost the boat’s compass and windshield to heavy seas before even clearing the harbor, but despite this, fought 70-foot waves, hurricane-force winds, and freezing temperatures to reach the Pendleton and rescue its crew.

“It was so apparent from the beginning that this was an incredible story, really almost beyond belief, and that it needed to be told.”

This is the story told by The Finest Hours, a film from the Disney Company arriving in theaters in January. Directed by Craig Gilespie, The Finest Hours stars Chris Pine (Bernie Webber), Casey Affleck (Ray Sybert), Ben Foster (Richard Livesey), Holliday Grainger (Miriam), John Ortiz (Wallace Quirey), and Eric Bana (Daniel Cluff). Producer Jim Whitaker said in a recent interview with Coast Guard Outlook that he was determined to make the film from the first time he learned of the story.

“My wife was approached by Dorothy Aufiero, my co-producer on the project. [My wife] was working with me at the company and said this would be a great movie. I read the book [The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue, by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman] and just fell in love, basically, and said to the studio, ‘We really have to develop this, it could be an incredible movie.’ It was so apparent from the beginning that this was an incredible story, really almost beyond belief, and that it needed to be told.”

Although born in Maryland, Whitaker grew up on the coast of Nova Scotia, and was immediately drawn to this story of life and death among those who make their living at sea.

“I lived in a very small town on the coast of Nova Scotia and I grew up with a lot of friends whose parents were fisherman. I lived in a place where people lived off the sea and I was very acquainted with the idea that there’re those that live off the sea and then those that protect and help and oftentimes save people who work on the sea. I felt an immediate connection to the idea of telling a story that showed the incredible heroism and selflessness of people in the Coast Guard, because the job is one where they go out and they do everything quite selflessly to save people’s lives. I thought those qualities in a movie were the kinds of qualities I felt it was really, really important to show. I’m pleased with the job that the director has done with the film. Very pleased.”

No effort was spared in trying to re-create the events in a way that was as true to life as possible. The production company worked extensively with the Coast Guard to get the details right, beginning with the screenplay.

“I would say it started with the Coast Guard,” said Whitaker. “We began here at MOPICS [the Coast Guard’s Motion Picture & Television Office] with Capt. [John] Pruitt and [CWO] Mike Lutz. We certainly dug into the details of the events in terms of the history and the facts … which is to say in the completion of the screenplay [we were] doing our best to, as authentically and in as much detail as possible, convey and replicate the events of the day and the evening and next day. So, it was important for us to really get it right. Authenticity, I think, is so important, because you want to be able to convey the feeling of what the experience was, and that’s part of bringing an audience into the experience in order to allow them to feel what it was as best as we possibly can – what it was that Bernie and Andy and Richard and Ervin went through that night. Then when we began making the film, it really became just about pursuing that authenticity and that detail through the production as much as possible. We just felt that it was very important.”

Before filming began, elaborate sets, including one duplicating the actual interior of the engine room of a T2 tanker, were built with painstaking detail. In addition, a huge indoor water tank was created to film scenes “at sea.”

“The executive producer, Doug Merrifield, had worked on several movies, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Castaway, and had experience working with water,” Whitaker said. “We built a tank of a size about 110 feet by about 100 feet; we dug it into the ground in a warehouse in Quincy [Massachusetts], and then Mark Clocker, our special effects person, devised a way of displacing water by creating these giant sort of … for lack of a better term, I’d call them buoys … in a way that when you pulled them down, they would displace the water and create waves within the tank, the size of which we could control. So, effectively that became the surrounding elements around the 36500 and the Pendleton at a certain point that we were able to use. In a sense, we built the world of the 36500 in the tank, and to another extent we built the world of the Pendleton through the engine room. We were able to create an engine room that is almost a perfect likeness to the engine rooms on the T2s, and were then able to put it on a giant gimbal. The gimbal would then create an opportunity for the engine room to move and sway, so it went counter to what the cameras were, so we always had the effect that you were on a ship. It was all made from steel, so again, we were looking for the authenticity,” Whitaker said.

The quest for authenticity in conveying to the audience the experiences of those involved in the rescues extends to the formats in which the film is being released, including Digital 3D™, Real ®3D, and IMAX®3D.

The ordeal of those aboard Pendleton is also an important part of the film, as the crewmembers had to fight for their own survival aboard the remaining stern half of their ship rather than passively await rescue.

“The whole goal was to put the audience in the space of what it was like that night for everyone, and for them to feel what it would be like to go through this incredible storm and be a part of this incredible rescue,” said Whitaker. “And so, we’ve created a movie I think that is immersive. It really puts you into the space. We worked very hard to do that physically, but we’re also doing that with the storm as it was, and in that sense, I think in its best form you take the audience to a place of a kind of an exhaustion, because they’ve gone through what Bernie and his crew went through. The idea is for us to be able to have an audience really be able to feel it and experience it and live it. I think the director has done a beautiful job at it and succeeded at it.”

In an age of technological wonders available to rescuers, from GPS and advanced sensors to the game-changing helicopter, the extent of the achievement of those aboard a 36-foot motor lifeboat, lacking even a compass, must be seen to be appreciated. The ordeal of those aboard Pendleton is also an important part of the film, as the crewmembers had to fight for their own survival aboard the remaining stern half of their ship rather than passively await rescue.

As much of a tribute as the movie is to the crews of the 36500 and the Pendleton, it is also a tribute to the Coast Guard itself.

Whitaker’s previous films include The Changeling, American Gangster, and Cinderella Man, each of which could be said to focus on ordinary people displaying extraordinary courage and determination. He agreed that The Finest Hours is another example of that theme, but while the film is the product of a massive effort involving many people and extensive resources, it is all in service of telling the story of everyday people.

“It is an uplifting story about people accomplishing something with great, noble intentions because it was their job,” said Whitaker. “I really believe in movies that are about hope, and that is ultimately what this film is about.”

“Bernie, Andy, Richard, and Ervin – they were ordinary guys who did a selfless, heroic thing, and they just did their job, which was to me so heroic, because they decided that someone was in need and said, ‘This is our job and we’re going to go out and do it, no matter what happens.’”

As much of a tribute as the movie is to the crews of the 36500 and the Pendleton, it is also a tribute to the Coast Guard itself, Whitaker said. “They are always on the line, every day around the world. In spirit you understand it, but now that I really know the Coast Guard, I have an incredible appreciation for the Coast Guard and what they do. And because I know better, I’m even more proud to have made this movie. I hope it really shows the Coast Guard for what they are – everyday heroes every day.”