Cinemagoers may thrill to the roller-coaster ride of "The Perfect Storm" but for Lieutenant Bill Muller of the United States Coast Guard, his encounter with the worst storm of the century was a truly harrowing experience. In September 1991 his rescue cutter 'Tamaroa' responded to a mayday call from a sailing yacht caught in the middle of the tempest.
He remembers the obstacles were great because they weren't just battling one storm but three converging hurricanes. As he looks back he says, "What singles this rescue out for me was the tremendous sea states, waves of 40 to 50 feet high and 100mph winds."
Although the film focuses primarily on the 'Andrea Gail', a fishing vessel that vanished in the maelstrom, the heroism of Lt Muller and the crew of the 'Tamaroa' is also dramatically retold.
Lt Muller could never have foreseen he would also be involved in saving the lives of the Coast Guard helicopter rescue team that lifted the yacht's imperiled crew to safety. The waves swallowed the helicopter just moments after four of its five crew plunged into the pitch of night.
"It was incredible we were able to rescue them at all," recounts Lt Muller, "but even more incredible was they survived in the water long enough for us to be able to reach them." Lt Muller's team pulled the four airmen on board the bow of the 'Tamaroa'. The fifth airman was never recovered.
To movie-goers "The Perfect Storm" is entertainment - and although Muller knows the movie took some dramatic licence, his experience of what happened will remain very personal.
"I think there is a delicate balance between accuracy, and actually telling a story. There's different ways to tell it, but it will always be very vivid to me."
