This movie is based on the real event of the William Brown, an American ship that sank in 1841, taking with her 31 passengers. A further 16 passengers were forced out of an overloaded lifeboat before the survivors were rescued. The survivors were picked up by the American ship Crescent, the same name of the liner that sinks in this movie.
Hildegard Knef turned down the offer to play the female lead. The role eventually went to Mai Zetterling.
The film is loosely based on an incident at sea in 1841 when the Brown hit an iceberg and sank. The jolly boat was overloaded and leaking. The ranking crew member, First Mate Francis Rhodes, ordered the crew to jettison all male passengers, saving the women and children. Sixteen men were sacrificed. The survivors were rescued the next day and upon reaching port in Philadelphia brought charges of murder. First Mate Francis Rhodes was nowhere to be found so one of the crew, Alexander Holmes, was charged. He got six months in jail and a twenty dollar fine. No one else was tried.
The rescue ship depicted in the film is the British Petroleum tanker 'British Soldier,' built in 1954. It was sold to a Cyprus shipping company in 1972 and renamed 'Maribrina.' It was scrapped in 1976.