After finding success chronicling harrowing sea disasters in “Fatal Forecast” and “Ten Hours Until Dawn,” local author Michael Tougias is going for the trifecta with his latest book, “The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue.”

The book, which he co-wrote with Casey Sherman of Marshfield, was released May 19 and tells the dramatic tale of two oil tankers, the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer, that split in half off Cape Cod in February 1952 during a ferocious Nor’easter.

The disasters occurred 20 miles apart and men were trapped on the severed bows and sterns as all four sections sank in 60-foot seas and blinding snow. The Coast Guard managed to rescue 70 of the crew aboard, but 14 perished.

“Finest Hours” tells how four young Coast Guard men went to the Pendleton wreckage in a 36-foot lifeboat, a potential suicide mission in such a small vessel. Along with the waves and snow, they had to contend with one of the most dangerous shoals in the world, the Chatham Bar. With 36 men onboard, a smashed windshield and compass, the rescue crew managed to make it back to shore, and Coast Guard officials called it a rescue “unparalleled in the entire annals of maritime history.”

The broken halves of the Mercer were about 20 miles farther out to sea than the Pendleton. Several cutters and small boats raced to the scene and carried out valiant rescue attempts. “(With) ‘The Finest Hours,’ I like to (make readers feel) as if they were one of the people stuck on the sinking boat without hope, praying for some kind of salvation,” said Tougias, a Franklin resident and former Sun Chronicle columnist.

He and Sherman interviewed and quoted about 80 people for the book. They cite newspaper articles and the Coast Guard investigation report, and recount the stories of ship captains, wives, and survivors — including the late Frank Fauteux of Attleboro. Not only did he skirt death in this disaster, but also survived his ship being torpedoed in World War II and an explosion of another oil tanker he was on, the book notes.

Tougias said he interviewed Fauteux before his recent death. Fauteux explained how low he felt waiting to be rescued, but clearly remembered the reaction when the rescue ship approached: “It was the most glorious site,” Fauteux told Tougias, “this single light bobbing up and down in the rolling seas. No one cheered. We just watched spellbound.”

The few remaining survivors of “Finest Hours” disaster are in their early 80s, but Tougias said they remember it like it was yesterday because it was the key event in their lives.

“I like these stories about ordinary people who go through incredible ordeals,” he said. “How do they react? I’m fascinated by that. You can’t help but think, how would I react? Would I be one of the people flipping out, because some were doing foolish things; or if I was in the Coast Guard, would I volunteer to go on a suicide mission? You never know until you go through something like that.”

Bernie Webber, the coxswain of the Coast Guard lifeboat, told Tougias he believed God prepared him for the mission, although he wanted to turn back. He and Andy Fitzgerald, another rescuer, were the key people who helped the men climb aboard the lifeboat.

Interviewing and doing research for “Finest Hours” took four years, but once Tougias and Sherman joined forces, writing was completed in just one year, with both working nearly full-time.

The hard work paid off. After only being out for a couple of weeks, “Finest Hours” has already been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as a best-seller. “I’d had books do that before, but never this quick. Usually it would take me two to three months. So that’s been really exciting,” Tougias said. On Amazon, 10,000 copies have been sent to print.

The incident made headlines for three consecutive days in The Boston Globe in February 1952, but the fact that most people today don’t know about it prompted Tougias and Sherman to bring history back to life.

“What I’m hearing a lot of is, ‘I don’t read a lot, but I couldn’t put this down, because you just want to know who makes it and who doesn’t,’” Tougias said. Volunteers restored the lifeboat and it can be seen at Rock Harbor in Orleans and Chatham Coast Guard Station during the summer. To see photos taken from planes and the rescue boats, visit cg36500.org or michaeltougias.com.