Author Michael Tougias, co-author of the bestselling “The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue,” spoke about his book turned film and his latest publication to a packed crowed at Old Rochester Regional Junior High on Friday night.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Mattapoisett Library, Tougias shared interesting facts gathered from his years of research and interviews with the survivors. The book, written with Casey Sherman centers on the Feb. 18, 1952 rescue efforts to save the crews of two oil tankers that split in a nor’easter, the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer. Several Coast Guard crews were sent to help the distressed sailors, one lead by Coast Guard coxswain Bernard Webber with three others who volunteered.

Tougias also spoke about his newest release, “So Close to Home: A True Story of an American Family's Fight for Survival During World War II,” co-written with Alison O'Leary. The book tells the mostly unknown story of the Heredia, a ship traveling in the Gulf of Mexico that was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. The story centers on the fate of the four members of the Downs family who were on the ship and on Erich Wurdemann, the German captain who bombed the boat.

Here are a few facts about the two stories:

“The Finest Hours”

1. In the Disney version of “The Finest Hours,” the Fort Mercer is left out completely, focusing only on the Pendleton.
2. The three men on the crew with Webber volunteered, so when the Coast Guard informed him they were going to give him a gold medal and the others only a silver, he told them to keep the gold unless they all got the honor.
3. Webber and his crew sang on their way to the Pendleton to calm their nerves.
4. The compass was lost in the storm, so Webber followed the waves back to Chatham. He attributed a higher power to getting them home safely.
5. Thirty-two men were rescued from the Pendleton and packed into a space meant for 12 men.

“So Close to Home”

1. “So Close to Home” follows the events of 1942 when German U-Boats had infiltrated the Gulf of Mexico. In the first four months of the mission, they sunk 170 boats.
2. Ina Downs, the matriarch of the Downs family, felt uneasy about completing the journey to Louisiana and asked that her family be left in Corpus Christi. She was denied.
3. The Downs family was separated when the torpedo struck, and they had brushes with sharks and hypothermia as they tried to survive.
4. Tougias and O’Leary discovered the war diary of the 28-year-old Wurdemann.
5. In their research, the authors found a relative of Ina Downs who had a recording in which she described the ordeal at sea.

Read more about Tougias at www.michaeltougias.com.