Posted by The Finest Hours does a great job of telling the story of the rescue of the crew of the SS Pendleton — a T-2 tanker that split in two off Cape Cod.
The other rescue that day was nearly as spectacular. The SS Fort Mercer also split in two, with the bow and stern bobbing away from each other.
Unlike the Pendleton, the bow of the Fort Mercer remained stable enough for the officers aboard to survive the initial split-up.
But there then followed a sometimes tragic, sometimes heroic rescue where some men lived and some men died. And the eventual rescue was via a boat far smaller than that used to rescue the men in the movie.
For the full story, read Two Tankers Down.