Real Life Heroes

Worth Watching - "The Finest Hours"

"We All Live or We All Die"

- Bernie Webber

I distinctly remember those words ----- {as uttered by Bernie Webbe, portrayed by Chris Pine} ----- from the movie "The Finest Hours ....

..... not to mention the images and emotions - the despair, the hope, the courage, determination, heroism - and eventual triumph of the human spirit exmplified by the main characters.

The WW2 era tanker SS Pendleton breaks into two 
- early morning - February 18, 1952 -

In such an extremely, horribly desperate, "almost impossible" situation where the actions of coxswain Bernie Webber and his crew would outright determine their very survival/fate, along with 33 helplessly stranded survivors aboard {beached on a shoal/sandbar} the tanker "SS Pendleton" ....  Only something truly close to a Miracle, or an actual one, was their only Hope.

  The four man crew responsible for the greatest small boat rescue in US Coast Guard history

[L-T] Bernie Webber, Andy Fitzgerald, Richard Livesly, and Ervin Maaske

The G-36500 was designed to carry twelve - 

Webber and crew somehow managed 

to rescue and transport back to shore 32 men aboard this craft

"We ALL Live or WE ALL Die" .... the steadfast young man simply said it as it was  ...... just before deciding to risk, big time, Everybody's Life, by overloading his small boat, during a critical moment in the rescue.

Yet, despite overwhelming odds, Bernie and his crew pulled the rescue off.
 

- Mission Accomplished -

Except for one [who perished in the rescue attempt] - 32 erstwhile doomed seamen 

lived to sail another day - because four brave men stared death in the face, 

braved a winter storm on the high seas amidst 40-60 feet high waves
.....  and simply never gave up

[above is an actual monochrome - taken at the Chatham Lifeboat Station ]

Great Movie

PS ....

  

[reel life]

Chris Pine and Holliday Grainger [an English actress fr Manchester]  
played the characters of Bernie Webber and Miriam Pentinen

In the movie, they were still unmarried at the time of the rescue mission - 
In True Life, though - they were already husband and wife for over a year, at the time of the mission.

                                                                     Bernie Webber                        Miriam Pentinen

[real life]